National Cousins Day falls on the calendar every July 24 and is the perfect day to send some love to those family members we call cousins. Whether they were our first best friend or first antagonist, cousins are the people who made family get togethers fun – or at least more tolerable and less awkward – when we were kids. Whether close cousins or distant cousins, friends or foes, those of us who are lucky enough to still have cousins around should think about celebrating them today.
Exactly when National Cousins Day made its way onto our modern-day calendar is a mystery. What we do know is that cousins have been keeping families connected for a long time.
American families have been coming together for reunions since the first settlers left the safety of the colonies and headed west to find fame, fortune, and more importantly, land. As one generation passed the baton of keeping extended family connected onto the next generation, cousins became the guardians of family ties.
Even in families who no longer gather for regular reunions, cousins tend to reach out to each other later in life and revisit the shared memories of being family. If your cousins are like brothers and sisters or you became best friends growing up, staying in touch with them may not require a special day on your calendar. If you’re from a small family or one where the wanderlust gene is dominant and you’re not quite sure where all your cousins wandered off to years ago, celebrating cousinship takes a little more effort. It may take circling National Cousins Day on your calendar every year as an excuse to say hello to the cousins of your youth.
However, revisiting a family member you haven’t seen since you both were forced to sit at the kids’ table is always an interesting and nostalgic reunion. You get to see where your lives took you, the families you’ve created, the careers you’ve gone after, and the faces you’ve aged.
