Howdy! I was born and raised in Texas and wanted to share a few of the customs and traditions that might be especially Texan and not often found in other parts of North America. Some will be family traditions while others will be traditions I observed, took part in and covered while a newspaper editor in east and west Texas.
While living just north of Houston, I found February to be a special month because that’s when the Houston Stock Show is held and horse riders from the area made an annual trail ride of over 60 miles to attend the show. Each year I would photograph the local participants--men, women and children--as they rode their horses and paraded through the town at the start of the ride.
Other nearby towns also held trail rides with everyone converging on Houston for the kick-off of the Stock Show.
Attending the stock shows in Houston or other towns in Texas is an important event for rural families because it’s the time that they show the best of their farm animals like bulls, sheep, pigs, etc., as well as attending the auctions to buy and sell. Young people in 4-H clubs show the animals that they’ve cared for all year and groomed to show off their animals and their skills at raising them.
The rodeo is also held during the time of the stock show and it’s a great time to see some of the best of Texas’s rodeo performers.
April in Texas is bluebonnet time. Bluebonnets are blue and white Wild flowers that are the state flowers. They are usually in full bloom in April, although the exact time varies. Entire fields and areas along the interstates and highways are often covered with a blanket of these beloved flowers.
It’s customary for families to load up the kids in the car, find and drive to the best spot in the area for bluebonnets. There they’ll take photographs, especially of children, sitting in the middle and entirely surrounded by bluebonnets. Some families even take picnics so they can eat lunch outdoors during their bluebonnet outing.
April is also significant in my family for attending the annual Cemetery Homecoming. My ancestors were very early settlers in Texas, coming here from Southern states when Texas was under the Spanish, then the Mexican flags and taking part in the state’s fight for independence from Mexico. Early settlers started a family cemetery, later added a small church and a one room school house. Those buildings still stand and every year our extended family gets together, attends a church service in the little white wood church followed by a meeting to discuss business matters concerning the upkeep of the cemetery and then holds a pot luck dinner in the old school house. In this custom we celebrate our heritage.
I understand that families throughout the U.S. who have old family cemeteries also form cemetery associations and meet annually to discuss maintenance of these cemeteries.
The summer months are the times for another annual tradition in our family--the family reunion. We have two--one for my grandmother’s family and another for my grandfather’s family. Several hundred people who are part of my extended family come from around the country and sometimes from other countries to attend these three day gatherings. When I was a child, they were held outdoors beside a river in the county where my ancestors first settled in Texas. During the reunions of my childhood, breakfast was cooked in cast iron skillets over open fires and in the evening card tables were set up so people could play dominoes (a traditional Texas game, especially played by those who belonged to the Southern Baptist church and believed that card playing was evil.)
My large family played dominoes but the evening entertainment included an activity frowned on by old time Baptists, dancing. Every year there were always plenty of family members who brought musical instruments so in the evenings we could all dance on the cement floor of the large open air pavilion in the park. Of course we did traditional Texas dances like the Cotton Eyed Joe and Schottish but I also remember doing the Bunny Hop, a really fun dance movement for kids.
Since I’ve been an adult, we stay in nearby motels during the reunions--more comfortable but not nearly as much fun.
These are just a few of the Texas traditions followed by my family and friends in this state. I look forward to reading about other customs of Mouthshut writers, both those in North American and those in other areas of the world, like India.