What happens when

the younger sibling gets married before the older siblings? Well, if you look back at older Karen culture (and probably a lot of other cultures as well) it can be considered bad luck for the older sibling. Superstition has been around for a long time, and through the teaching of God's word we learn that some of the things we grew up saying are not biblical. That black cat crossing your path is really not that scary. Sometimes it's hard to continue tradition and separate them from the superstitions. I still eat my black-eyed peas on New Year's because I've done it almost my entire life, and I enjoy them. It's good ole Southern comfort food for me. I know many people eat them to bring good luck, eat the greens to get money, and a myriad of other symbols that go along with that food on the first day of the year, but I've never taken that stuff seriously.

Pawn came to us one day and told us her mom was wanting to come to town to have her brother do a ceremony for her. He would boil some water with something in it for her to use to wash her hair and would buy her a pillow. She told us the history of the ceremony but said that they now believe that it just shows that there are no hard feelings between the siblings. We agreed to have it at our house.

 We decided to eat on the back porch since we could all fit there. It was a tight squeeze, but we made it. Pawn's mom and another friend from church are in this picture. The second picture shows part of the group of people we don't really know that well including Pawn's sister-in-law.

 

 

The guy on the left works in ministry in the city, and Pawn's brother is sitting next to him. The minister spoke briefly about the meaning behind the old tradition and explained that these days people know that the younger siblings can get married first, and it doesn't mean the eldest won't get married. He also shared an encouraging scripture with us and asked Rusty if he had anything to say. Rusty spoke briefly to the married couple encouraging them to follow God as a couple and encouraged Pawn as well as she follows God in whatever direction He takes her life.

There was no hair washing at that time. I'm guessing Pawn did it some time later because the water was boiling while we were having the ceremony. We ate lunch, and then the kids enjoyed running around our yard. Our yard is quite popular with kids!