It's not a ritual it's a "celebration"!

My husband and I have been in a bit of a quandry as to what to teach the children about our path. We both come from Christian families, heck I have a relative who ranks pretty high in involvement among other things, and well, to say things could get sticky is an understatement. We believe that a person's spirituality is important just as many other facets are, so we don't want to take the road of teach them nothing and let them decide when they grow up. We firmly believe in the path we're following and really, why shouldn't we teach them the values that we believe in as well and why? We WANT them to have the same appreciation for the earth that we do, to know the value of honor, to understand why we believe what we do. Funny, if we were Christian or Jewish or Muslim this wouldn't even be in question. Why so different with being Pagan? The answer is simple and yet complicated. We hesitate to teach them our path as a way to protect them, to shield them from those who would choose to warp our spirituality into something it isn't, who would choose to use this against them, against us and against our family. Until we could figure this out, we've been sheltering them from much of it, downplaying things in their eyes.

I've been realizing this is a huge mistake. For one thing, these two are not stupid and in fact are considered gifted. They miss nothing. Ever. During the week of Christmas after the Solstice celebration, they had a lot of talk at school about different celebrations that take place in December (Solstice being noticeably absent). I asked both of them if they had told their teacher about the celebration we'd gone to; it was a fun time and a big deal for them. Neither one had said a word at school about it, and our son told me "I didn't think it was ok to tell anyone about it". Clearly he had picked up on the undercurrents between my husband and I. Tonight we had the Disting/Imbolc ritual. Unsure what to tell them about it, I've been more than a bit vague. They know *something* is going on. In talking with my mate today, we realized that by trying to shelter them all we're doing is giving them the impression that what we are doing is a secret, something to be hidden away and probably something "wrong".

Today we decided no more. We're not going to let this grow into something shameful, how ridiculous is that?? However, we also realize we have to tread carefully. Can you just see the reactions of grandparents, teachers and CPS when our 5 year old daughter announces that mommy and daddy do rituals and use a dagger and candles? Given the negative connotations with all of that, I see no good coming from that! LOL! So we have decided for our family's protection that we will not use the word "ritual" in front of the children. The word doesn't make the ceremony, and "celebration" is much safer at least until they are older than 5 and 7 and better able to understand. We also had a frank talk with them about what we believe, why others may have issues with it due to wrongly perceived notions of Paganism, and that we should respect everyone's chosen religion, etc. It was good, and they both looked visibly relieved. This shouldn't be such a tough one!

Tonight we had the ritual, um I mean celebration. A couple of friends ended up coming over for it as well. One, a fellow druid in training, was highly impressed with the written ceremony (though he pointed out I'd transposed the north and south positions - hey, I'm still learning!). It went well overall, though I need to make sure the kids are either better occupied or involved next time! But for a first try, yeah, I think it went pretty well. And as a bonus, we have moonflowers planted waiting to grow and transplant when the ground thaws!