I’ll bet you didn’t know that August is designated as National Family Reunion month.

A proclamation in 1985 to raise awareness of a growing trend of runaway children and newly formed organizations to help reunite families of runaways the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 64, designated the period between Mother’s Day, May 12, and Father’s Day, June 16, 1985, as “Family Reunion Month” and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this period

While some commercial enterprises have dubbed August as National Family Reunion Month many social groups including churches observe National Family Reunion Month in the month of July.

Wikipedia describes a family reunion as an occasion when many members of an extended family congregate. Sometimes reunions are hosted regularly, for example on the same date or day of every year.

A typical family reunion will assemble grandparents, great-grandparents and more for a meal, some recreation and discussion. The older attendees are generally grandparents, parents, siblings or first cousins while the youngest could be second, third or fourth cousins. It is also not uncommon for regular family reunions to be sponsored by family organizations or family associations centered on a more distant common, ancestor  or a commonly shared surname .

Traditional family reunion activities include an afternoon luncheon or early evening dinner and a program that may feature  music, song, poetry reading, history recitals, honorary recognition of elders, community contributions and  some include reenactments that highlight pivotal points in a family’s history.

There are  many guides, manuals and lists of how-tos for a successful reunion. Some families print T-shirts for all family members. People travel long distances to attend. Games and structured  activities are planned.

It seems to me that family reunions may be a Midwest American activity. It may be that since we have cold winters, we want to get together in the summer just to prove we made through another a cold winter.

Why am I explaining reunions this week? We just had the  87th reunion of my husband’s family. He wasn’t even born when they started. In the beginning a family name was used that included early ancestors. About 15 years ago the remaining families dropped the name of the early ancestors, the name was changed and the number of attendees was smaller.

Many of the early reunions were hosted at the Boepple farm on Redfield Road. I suspect it was the space and the sweet corn from the farm fields that kept the reunion there.

My husband’s mother would insist that  there was to be a formal meeting with an election of officers and Robert’s Rules of Order must be followed. At this week’s reunion there was no semblance of order but there was a lot of discussion and story telling about early ancestors.

The family members who do attend these functions always seem to  enjoy it, even if they were hesitant to attend.

This is one of the family traditions that seems to be disappearing but this year along with family reunions there were many class reunions in Edwardsburg. Don’t hesitate to attend. You will find that you will have a good time and you will help to continue family traditions.

 

JoAnn Boepple works with the Edwardsburg Area History Museum.