Holidays are intended to allow individuals to celebrate a tradition of a cultural significance. But when you are atheist, what is the true meaning behind a holiday? For my family, a holiday is an excuse to have another family function. Although we might not believe in celebrating the actual holidays, we take the time to come together and appreciate what our ancestors and had done for our family. My great grandparents had received a cookie jar as a gift for their anniversary when they were still in Taishan, Guangdong, and eventually moved to Queens, New York City. Eventually, it was then passed down to my grandparents who then created many happy memories of their own in the kitchen while using the cookie jar, later on, as they moved back to China, they then gave it to my aunt, but rather than cookies, we use the jar to hold sugar for cooking and baking every time our whole family comes together. Every holiday that passes by, we create our own memories while having the entire family in the kitchen all together for creating a family dinner. When my mom and aunt use the cookie jar, they look back and remember their special moments they had with their parents and grandparents, but when my brothers, cousins and I are using it, we are creating memories of our own. The cookie jar was always a resemblance of happy memories and strong relationships, which is still a important to my family. We often look back and see the great memories that our ancestors had had, but now it is our time to start to create our own memories, so later on we could look back on these memories.

– Olivia Jin

Relationship:  Grandchild of im/migrant Grandchild of im/migrant