I'm not sure why I have holidays on my mind right now. It serves for a good Friday Five though. My top five holidays:
Easter. I am not particularly religious and I don't claim affiliation with any specific denomination, group, council, sect, whathaveyou. Easter is my favorite holiday though for one specific reason. As a child, I didn't spend much time with my natural father's family (long story for another time). I missed a lot of holidays with them, but I always spent Easter with my Grandma. And Easter was almost as exciting as Christmas for me as a kid.
As an adult, I hold Easter above Christmas specifically for the memories I have of my grandmother. Easter egg hunting, the "treasure" blanket, and salami roll ups always jump at me. The "treasure" blanket is memorable because Grandma had many, many grand kids and so was not able to buy a lot of stuff for us. At Easter, she set out a number of toys and trinkets (Slinky's, water guns, play dough, etc.) and then would draw a name from a hat. Each kid was listed in the hat a certain number of times based on how many things she got for the blanket.
It was one of the most awesome experiences of my childhood... the thrill of wondering if my name was going to be called next, planning out what I would choose and alternates in case my choice was snatched up by someone else, and the general euphoria of sitting around with a dozen other children doing the exact same thing. It was awesome.
Click the jump for the other 4!
