Strange dream....

I had the strangest dream, it involved my Stepfather who died last year. What made this really strange is that he burst into the house he and my Mother lived in which I was having to fix with new carpets because it had been storm damaged (we did actually have winds of 102mph here yesterday and roofs did come off buildings).

Anyway, my Stepfather burst into the house he and my mum lived in (albeit it was a mixture of a couple of houses and also very different at the same time) looking joyous and happy with a huge amount of friends/relatives of his that I didn't know, all singing and dancing with Christmas decorations and started to get the house dressed for festivities. Yes, that may seem strange in itself being that we have celebrated Christmas, but he was Ukranian, and the Ukranian's celebrate Christmas roughly 2 weeks after everyone else (Christmas Day is a public holiday on January 7 in countries such as Belarus, Egypt, Ethiopia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, Russia, and the Ukraine. Some countries, such as Armenia, observe Christmas Day on January 6. The January 7 celebration of Christmas Day is not a nationwide public holiday in countries such as Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom or the United States) because they follow a different calendar!!!

They went through the house, into the garden which was not the garden I remember as it was a huge piece of ground which was all neat and tidy with a covered over swimming pool and they set up this whole carnival of food trucks, and there was dancing and bright lights and christmas trees etc, like a coke advert! Other properties looked onto it, and the festivities were not going un-noticed and were attracting all the nearby residents (who were also strangers to me) to join in.

As as child I remember celebrating two Christmases, albeit the Ukranian was nothing like this one.  That said the Ukranian Christmas was one that my sister, Mum and I more humoured than anything else because it just felt stupid celebrating something that to everyone else was so last year (which it was and is) - but it made him happy! It was the same for New Year and Easter because it was bizarre celebrating something that nobody else was and yes my Stepdad did have peculiarities.

I have not thought about Ukranian Christmases etc for many, many years, and would not have had I not had this dream. Even my Mum eventually stopped celebrating this when she convinced him to spend winters in Florida! I am not sure if he really celebrated it that much latterly because of his dementia, I know I didn't because I am not Ukranian, and had forgotten all about it.

Anyway, he and I never spoke in the dream, I was just overwhelmed and bemused by all this Christmas preparations and celebrations which involved lots of cossack dancing and singing and general merry making by people he clearly knew and was having a good time with. I was just surprised because I thought he was dead (and of course he is). Time was all backwards and jumbled up and my Mum also was nowhere to be seen.

The dream itself however was not a horrible dream, it was just one that I really was not expecting to have as I have never dreamt of him in my life. When I realised a few hours after waking that the Ukranian Christmas celebrations start on the 2nd January with Christmas Day being either the 5th or 6th of January because I looked it up on Google, I firstly was shocked and thought "oh, my God what is that all about", and then I realised that it was actually a time when he would be happy and celebrating Christmas which I think is nice but not sure why it was chosen to be shared with me in my head!  Not sure what this dream means, if anything, but it did remind me of something I had forgotten all about which was a big part of me growing up.