The church that I've been attending just celebrated its 52nd annual festival. This is a gathering of believers who shares the same faith from all over a certain area. This church activity almost almost always leaves a feeling of renewal of faith, at least for me.
This is the time when we get to fellowship with friends that we rarely see on another time of the year. Some of them I knew my whole life, and still a few knew my parents even before I was born. Some of this people have been my-- and my parent's lifelong friends.
Back then, we call this gathering the Feast of Tabernacles, which was derived from the Jew's practice based on the old testament times. With the changing times, we call it the annual festival, but at the back of my mind, its still the good old F.O.T.
This annual church activity has been one of my fondest childhood memory. Back then, our church, kind of required the congregation to attend the feast. Attendance is almost always possible because there is what we call the 2nd tithe, allocated specifically for this purpose. And since the it was usually held in the capital of a certain area, more often than not, we need to travel. As children, we'd really get excited for the trip, that we would be packing our bags several days before. My siblings and I wouldn't be able to sleep on the eve of the trip due to out anticipation.
Another source of our excitement is that we get to wear the new clothes, mom had our sewer neighbor made for us. So its like, every year we have new clothes, but we only get to wear it for the first time on the Festival. Also another source of excitement is that we may be able to buy a new toy from the place where we were going. Our dad encouraged us to save a portion of our daily school allowance for this occasion. We usually put it in a bamboo bank, and about two or three days prior to the trip, we get to break the bank and count the money we had saved for the past year. Among my siblings, it was always me who has the most savings.
Back then, the event was usually seven days of daily church services which were usually held in the mornings, and the afternoons and evenings were scheduled for activities like, tours, singles night, couple's night, and the like. During the event itself, the children would have a certain day when we have to participate in the children's choir. We had already practiced our songs the weeks prior to this event in our local churches. After services, our parents would always get the children and themselves to the stage for picture taking with the specially designed backdrops, or with the flower arrangements.
The annual feasts has been one of my greatest childhood memories.
But it has been a long journey...
