Today I went to a reunion of members of a former senior dance fitness class. The instructor moved to Corpus Christi but was back in town visiting friends over the holidays. We met on the outdoor patio of a local restaurant. Some of the class members I had not seen in a couple of years because of COVID-19 and because I have not been back to any classes since I hurt my knee. It really was wonderful to see everyone again. One woman, who is 93, looked exactly the same as she has for the last several years. She has been mostly housebound except for going to the grocery store, just trying to stay safe from COVID-19. A couple of the women didn’t recognize me because I quit coloring my hair, and it is now a white-blonde. Some have been traveling. I believe I was the only one who had gotten COVID-19. It felt good to reconnect. The instructor has moved from Corpus Christi, where she and her husband own a condo, to Sun City at Georgetown, Texas, just outside of Austin. One woman was coming from her job at the travel agency she and her husband own to a gig as a singer at a local pizzeria. Everybody seemed happy and healthy. We made plans to meet again in the spring in Salado, a charming village that many artists call home, full of beautiful historic buildings, restaurants, galleries, breweries and wineries. It is only 20 minutes from Georgetown. Let’s learn more about reunions.
Friends reunions
According to Shoba Sreenivasan, Ph.D., and Linda E. Weinberger, Ph.D.’s April 13, 2018 article “The Importance of Reunions: High School, Family and Friends” in Psychology Today, one type of reunion is one where longtime friends physically get together and reconnect. Although we live in a multimode communication — e.g., emails, Facetime, telephone calls, social media, texts — era, there is no substitute for the physical presence and an extended period to spend together. The opportunity to engage in conversations that are not time-restricted encourage deeper communication. Even mundane activities, like going for a walk or taking a long drive, can stimulate the friends to reminisce or discuss their feelings and thoughts beyond a superficial level.
Reunions with old friends inevitably bring up people and issues of our past. Such friends may recall memories of us, our family members, and other people we knew, as well as events that happened to us. A reunion with friends is different than high school or family reunions. This reunion involves friends who have known us for a long time and have seen us through an entirely different lens than that used by our former classmates or relatives. The perspective of longtime friends can be very enlightening. It may not only reveal information about us and how we have changed, but also similar information about our friends. Discussing and knowing this can lead to greater intimacy and respect for one another.
Reunions of any kind are not always easy to arrange because of the cost and managing the details. In order to increase attendance:
- Keep costs low to accommodate most people’s budgets.
- Encourage people to submit ideas and preferences for activities.
- Look for convenient places and times when as many people as possible can attend.
- Devote most of the time to activities that promote connection among the attendees,
especially those that focus on sharing old and making new memories.
- Attend with the plan to not rehash unpleasant events or topics.
- Seek out people you like and care about.
Class reunions
According to Wikipedia, a class reunion is a meeting of former classmates, often organized at or near their former high school or college by one or more class members. It is scheduled near an anniversary of their graduation e.g., every 5 or 10 years. Their teachers and administrators may also be invited. Those attending reminisce about their student days and bring one another up to date on what has happened since they last met. Some class reunions also include a reunion class gift to the institution.
According to Shoba Sreenivasan, Ph.D., and Linda E. Weinberger, Ph.D.’s April 13, 2018 article “The Importance of Reunions: High School, Family and Friends” in Psychology Today,
high school reunions tend to bring up old memories, some of which may be unpleasant — like seeing the “mean girls” who used to make fun of you or the girl who turned you down when you asked her to the prom.
People may also be reluctant to go to their high school reunions because of feeling embarrassed about their physical appearance or insecurity about their lack of achievements since graduation. The idea that individuals will be compared now to their adolescent self or their grown classmates may carry the risks for regretting how their lives turned out.
On the other hand, high school reunions can be eye-opening. We usually develop wisdom and maturity as we age. Encountering our former classmates and recalling old memories, good and bad, may help us gain better insight into who we are now and how we got here.
High school reunions can also be fun. It can be a time to go down “memory lane,” to reminiscence about people we knew as well as our mutual history in such things as music and historical events. In fact, renewing old friendships and reliving the fun and feelings we had in high school are two of the most common reasons people attend their high school reunions.
Class reunions in film
According to Wikipedia, in film, television, and literature, class reunions have been a device used to show the eruption of emotions such as shame, hatred and guilt within individual characters who — suddenly faced again with their own youth — become aware that they have been unable to cope with their past.
Those who used to be mistreated by their teachers or classmates believe they can now take revenge on their former torturers. Participants often nostalgically reminisce about their old school days or fondly remember their school pranks. They can be concerned about how their lives have turned out compared with the lives of their former classmates and can feel pressured enough to fabricate stories about their careers, personal accomplishments and relationships.
Another theme of this kind of fiction is former classmates taking up with their old flames again, either because they have developed into an admirable adult or for the opposite reason — because they have not changed at all.
Films revolving around class reunions include “Falling in Love Again,” a 1980 American romantic comedy film directed by Steven Paul and starring Elliott Gould and Susannah York. The film also features Michelle Pfeiffer in an early role playing a younger version of Susannah York's character.
Harry Lewis grew up in the Bronx, New York with grand ambitions. He married the most beautiful girl in school, Sue, and planned to become an architect.
Years later, Harry and Sue — unhappy now and nostalgic for their past — are living in Los Angeles and running a garment business. An invitation to their high school reunion persuades them to return to their roots, and their lives together are recalled in flashback on the cross-country drive to New York.
“Class Reunion,” a 1982 black comedy film produced by National Lampoon as the third film from the magazine. It was the second film released; although “National Lampoon Goes To The Movies” was filmed in 1981, it was delayed and not released until 1982. Lizzie Borden High's class of 1972 is getting ready to go through the motions at their 10-year reunion when a deranged alumnus named Walter Baylor — who was driven insane by a horrible, sadistic, senior-year prank — escapes from the mental institution and decides to crash the party at his high school reunion. Guests start to disappear and are found dead; the other alumni including the high-class, snooty yacht salesman Bob Spinnaker, class tease Bunny Packard and the class zero Gary Nash spring into action as they try to uncover the culprit and put an end to the nightmare that has become their class reunion.
“The Big Chill,” a 1983 American comedy-drama film directed by Lawrence Kasdan, starring Tom Berenger, Glenn Close, Jeff Goldblum, William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Mary Kay Place, Meg Tilly and JoBeth Williams. The plot focuses on a group of baby boomers who attended the University of Michigan, reuniting after 15 years when their friend Alex dies by suicide. Kevin Costner was cast as Alex, but all scenes showing his face were cut. It was filmed in Beaufort, South Carolina.
The soundtrack features soul, R&B and pop-rock music from the 1960s and 1970s, including tracks by Creedence Clearwater Revival, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, The Temptations, the Rolling Stones and Three Dog Night.
“The Big Chill” was adapted for television as the short-lived series “Hometown.” Later, it influenced the TV series “thirtysomething” and “A Million Little Things.”
“Peggy Sue Got Married,” a 1986 American fantasy comedy-drama film directed by Francis Ford Coppola starring Kathleen Turner as a woman on the verge of a divorce, who finds herself transported back to the days of her senior year in high school in 1960. The film was written by husband-and-wife team Jerry Leichtling and Arlene Sarner.
The film was a box office success and received positive reviews from critics. It was nominated for three Academy Awards: Best Actress (Turner), Best Cinematography and Best Costume Design. In addition, Turner was nominated for Best Foreign Actress at the Sant Jordi Awards.
The title of the movie — and the name of the main character — refers to the 1959 Buddy Holly song of the same name, which is played over the film's opening credits.
Forty-three-year-old Peggy Sue Bodell (née Kelcher) is in an unsatisfying marriage to her high school sweetheart, Charlie Bodell, a marriage which includes money issues and infidelity. They got married when she got pregnant at age 18. He still dreams about the musical career he wanted that never materialized.
“Archie: To Riverdale and Back Again,” a 1990 American live-action made-for-television comedy film based on comic book characters published by Archie Comics. It was produced by DiC Entertainment and premiered on NBC Sunday Night at the Movies on May 6, 1990. It was shown in Britain as “Weekend Reunion.”
Archie Andrews, 15 years after graduating from Riverdale High, has become a successful lawyer and is preparing to marry his fiancée Pam and move to "the big city." Before doing that, however, he returns home to Riverdale for his high school reunion and to save his friend Pop Tate's diner.
Archie and company are all now in their early 30s, with the trials and tribulations one might expect to have happened to such a group over the years:
- Betty, a grade school teacher, has had problems finding permanent employment and is
constantly bossed around by a crummy boyfriend named Robert.
times to very wealthy men.
- Jughead, now a successful psychiatrist, is also divorced — although only once — and now
has sole custody of a son named Jordan. Due to the divorce and other failed relationships,
Jughead carries emotional baggage that manifests itself in a terrible fear of women. A
running gag in the movie is Jughead's desperation to avoid seeing Big Ethel during his visit
to Riverdale. This is played for laughs at the end when at the reunion it turns out that Big
Ethel is no longer the gangly, awkward teenager she once was but is now a striking beauty
and still has a crush on Jughead.
- Moose and Midge have gotten married and become chiropractors. They also have a son,
Max, who hits it off with Jordan.
- Reggie is a successful gym owner and owns a car lot.
When Archie sees Betty and Veronica for the first time in 15 years, all his old feelings for them come flooding back, threatening his engagement — and it doesn't help that the girls renew their pursuit of Archie, heedless of the fact that he has a fiancée. Meanwhile, Archie also tries to keep Reggie — helped along by an uncharacteristically menacing Mr. Lodge — from evicting Pop Tate from his soda shop, under the pretext of expanding his gym. Hiram Lodge doesn't want Archie near Veronica and still thinks Archie is wrong for Veronica. Archie ultimately saves the Chock'lit Shoppe, though he loses Pam in the bargain and decides to stay in Riverdale. Veronica and Betty and Jughead decided to move back to Riverdale. Reggie sees the errors and reconciles with his friends.
“Romy and Michele's High School Reunion,” a 1997 American comedy film directed by David Mirkin and starring Mira Sorvino, Lisa Kudrow and Janeane Garofalo. The plot revolves around two 28-year-old women who appear to have not achieved much success in life and decide to invent fake careers to impress former classmates at their 10-year high school reunion. The characters are taken from the stage play “Ladies Room,” which also featured Kudrow.
Romy White and Michele Weinberger — Mira Sorvino and Lisa Kudrow — live together in Venice, Los Angeles, California. Romy works as a cashier in the service department at a Jaguar dealership, and Michele is unemployed. They are single, unambitious and enjoy a casual lifestyle. While working, Romy encounters former high school classmate Heather Mooney —Janeane Garofalo — who informs Romy about their upcoming 10-year high school reunion in Tucson, Arizona.
As high school students in 1987, they were picked on by the "A” group, led by cheerleader Christie Masters — Julia Campbell — who humiliates them repeatedly. Finally, at the prom, Christie tricks Romy into believing that her boyfriend Billy Christianson — Vincent Ventresca — was in love with Romy and had dumped Christie to be with Romy. Romy waits all night to dance with Billy, who had already left with Christie. Michele dances with her instead.
Romy realizes that their lack of achievements will not make a good impression at the reunion. Desperate to impress their former classmates, Romy and Michele make last-ditch attempts to improve themselves, hoping to avoid being bullied again.
Having failed to secure better jobs and boyfriends, Romy and Michele decide to fake success by showing up in an expensive car and business suits. Romy borrows a Jaguar XJ-S from a co-worker, and Michele makes their outfits. En route to the reunion, they decide to claim that they invented the Post-it Note, believing that no one will know better. They argue over the details of their lie, which escalates into an argument about their friendship. They decide to go their separate ways once they reach the reunion.
At the reunion, Michele hears Romy claiming that she invented Post-its by herself. Michele convinces the “A” group she invented a special kind of glue. Sandy Frink — Alan Cumming, the nerd who had a crush on Michele in high school — has become wealthy and attractive since high school and hits on Michele after hitting her with his limo. Billy and Romy reunite and hit it off. Both Romy and Michele win awards as the "Most Changed For the Better Since High School" members of their graduating class, but still refuse to speak with each other. Seventy years later, an elderly Michele learns that Romy is on her death bed and calls her to make amends. However, they rehash the same argument and Romy dies without resolving their issues.
Michele wakes up alone in the car, realizing that she was dreaming. At the reunion, Romy starts to tell the Post-it story, but Heather blows the lie by revealing the real inventor’s name. Christie and her friends taunt Romy, and Michele ineptly defends her. Romy runs out, and Michele chases after her. They reconcile and decide to be themselves instead of trying to impress other people. They change into brightly colored homemade outfits and return to the reunion.
They confront Christie, who makes fun of their clothes. Former “A” group girl Lisa Luder — Elaine Hendrix — now a fashion editor, announces that the outfits are actually "not bad." Christie verbally attacks Lisa, who coolly dismisses her. The other “A” group girls abandon Christie, while everyone else congratulates Romy and Michele. Heather apologizes to Romy and Michele and admits she was miserable in high school because she was in love with Sandy, who was in love with Michele. Romy and Michele comfort her by reminding her that she was always successful at making classmate Toby Walters — Camryn Manheim — miserable.
Sandy — who turns out to be an actual billionaire — arrives via helicopter. He confesses that he still loves Michele and asks her to dance with him. Michele agrees, as long as Romy can dance with them. After their interpretive dance to Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" receives huge applause, Sandy escorts them to his helicopter. On their way out, they encounter Billy. Once a fit and handsome athlete, he is now an overweight alcoholic who is married to Christie, has a dead-end job working for Christie’s father and is unsure if he is the father of her latest pregnancy. He hits on Romy, who tells him to wait for her in his hotel room. She then leaves the reunion with Michele as the two women join Sandy in his helicopter. The reunion guests watch as the helicopter takes off.
Six months later, back in Los Angeles, Romy and Michele use money loaned to them by Sandy to open a successful fashion boutique.
“Grosse Pointe Blank,” a 1997 American black comedy crime film directed by George Armitage and starring John Cusack, Minnie Driver, Alan Arkin and Dan Aykroyd. Cusack plays an assassin who returns to his hometown to attend a high school reunion. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed $31 million.
As professional assassin Martin Blank prepares for a job, his assistant Marcella informs him that he has received an invitation to his 10-year high school reunion. A rival assassin, Grocer, approaches him about joining his fledgling union, which Martin refuses, preferring to work alone. Martin’s job goes badly when Martin is forced to shoot the target, even though the assignment was to make it appear the target died of natural causes. His client demands that he make amends by killing a federal witness in Detroit, Michigan, close to his hometown of Grosse Pointe, where the reunion is taking place.
In Grosse Pointe, Martin reconnects with his childhood friend Paul and high school sweetheart Debi Newberry, now a radio DJ, whom Martin had abandoned on prom night to enlist in the Army.
Martin is stalked by Felix LaPoubelle, another hitman, who attempts to kill Martin. He is also followed by two National Security Agency agents who were tipped off to Martin's contract by Grocer. Martin remains distracted by his desire to reconcile with Debi and procrastinates in opening the dossier on his target. Grocer reveals that LaPoubelle was hired by a wealthy dog owner whose prize retriever was killed on one of Martin's previous assignments. Martin reveals that he knows Grocer put the agents on his trail and again refuses to join the union.
Debi is conflicted about her feelings for Martin, but he manages to persuade her to attend the reunion with him. At the reunion, Martin and Debi rekindle their relationship as they dance together intimately and sneak off to have sex. Martin runs into LaPoubelle, whom he kills in self-defense. Debi stumbles upon the scene and flees the reunion in shock.
Debi confronts Martin in his hotel room. He reveals that when he joined the Army, his psychological profile indicated a "moral flexibility" that prompted the Central Intelligence Agency to recruit him as an assassin, after which he decided to freelance. Martin assures Debi that he only accepts contracts on corrupt individuals. His efforts to rationalize his work anger Debi, and she rejects his attempts at reconciliation.
Martin decides to retire from being a contract killer. He fires his psychiatrist, Oatman, over the phone, lays off Marcella and finally opens the dossier detailing the contract that brought him to Grosse Pointe. The target is Debi's father, Bart, who is scheduled to testify against Martin's client.
Grocer decides to kill Bart himself to impress Martin's client and eliminate Martin as a competitor.
Martin abandons the contract and takes Bart to the Newberry home. Grocer, his cohorts and
NSA agents descend upon the house. During the siege, Martin tells Debi that he left her on prom night to protect her from his homicidal urges; however, having fallen in love with Debi again, he has developed a newfound respect for life. Martin kills Grocer's henchmen, the NSA agents and Grocer himself. Martin proposes marriage to Debi, who is too stunned by the killing spree to respond, though Debi's father quips, "You have my blessing."
Debi and Martin leave Grosse Pointe together, with Martin visibly cheerful, and Debi confessing on her pre-recorded radio show that she's decided to give love another chance.
“10 Years,” a 2011 American romantic comedy written and directed by Jamie Linden in his directorial debut. It stars an ensemble cast including Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan, Justin Long, Kate Mara, Rosario Dawson, Oscar Isaac, Lynn Collins, Chris Pratt, Scott Porter, Brian Geraghty, Aubrey Plaza and Anthony Mackie. It was released September 14, 2012, in select theaters.
On the day of their 10-year high school reunion, Jake and his girlfriend Jess arrive at the home of his now-married high school friends Cully and Sam. Other friends begin to arrive including best friends Marty and AJ, famous musician Reeves and the adventurous Scott with his wife Suki. They depart for the reunion and reunite with their friend Garrity and meet his wife Olivia, and reconnect with Garrity's best friend Andre. Meanwhile, reclusive classmate Elise arrives at the reunion alone. She is ignored by the party planner, prom queen Anna.
Jake, Cully, Andre and Reeves smoke a joint in Jake's car when he reveals an envelope with an engagement ring inside, stating that he has intended to ask Jess to marry him for quite some time but hasn't found the right moment to propose. However, Jake is conflicted when he sees his high school sweetheart Mary and her new husband Paul. Jake, Jess, Mary and Paul share awkward introductions, and Jake and Mary reconnect for the first time in eight years. Reeves approaches Elise and the pair reminisce when he spots an old picture of Elise wearing bright yellow shoes.
As the night continues, Olivia unexpectedly discovers that Garrity has an affinity for hip hop, Cully drunkenly attempts and fails to appropriately apologize to some geeky classmates for being a bully in high school and Marty and AJ attempt to flirt with Anna, causing tension between the duo. Jake and Mary discuss prom, which they were unable to attend due to Mary's father having a heart attack that night. As the reunion comes to a close, the group departs for a local karaoke bar. Reeves flirts with Elise, but she turns him down.
Anna leaves the party early, resulting in Marty and AJ deciding to toilet paper her house. At the bar, Jess takes notice of Jake's behavior around Mary and decides to return to the hotel under the guise of being tired. Paul does the same. Scott and Suki sing karaoke and Olivia is impressed by Garrity's breakdancing abilities. Reeves is pressured by his friends to sing his hit song "Never Had."
Elise — never having heard the song — realizes it was inspired by her. The two share a kiss and spend the remainder of the night together. Anna catches Marty and AJ vandalizing her home and becomes upset, revealing that she is now an unhappy single mother with two children. Marty reveals that he is not a successful New Yorker, but instead lives in a small apartment and is financially unstable, and AJ reveals that he is getting a divorce. The trio bond over their shared life issues.
As the night comes to a close, Cully becomes embarrassingly drunk and upsets Sam. Scott reveals to his friends that he intends on returning to Japan with Suki to continue their adventures together. Mary asks Jake for the dance they never had at prom, finally giving them an opportunity to properly end their relationship. Mary reveals that she's pregnant, the two agree that they are happy with where their lives have taken them. Jake returns to the hotel and finds Jess still awake. She reveals that she left to allow Jake to get his closure with Mary.
Jake and Jess soon join their friends at a local diner. Jake returns to his car and obtains the engagement ring from the envelope.
Class reunions in literature
Fiction, revolving around class reunions include “American Pastoral,” a Philip Roth novel published in 1997 concerning Seymour "Swede" Levov, a successful Jewish American businessman and former high school star athlete from Newark, New Jersey. Levov's happy and conventional upper middle class life is ruined by the domestic social and political turmoil of the 1960s during the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, which in the novel is described as a manifestation of the "indigenous American berserk."
The framing device in “American Pastoral” is a 45th high school reunion attended by frequent Roth alter ego Nathan Zuckerman, who is the narrator. At the reunion, in 1995, Zuckerman meets former classmate Jerry Levov who describes to him the tragic derailment of the life of his recently deceased older brother, Seymour "Swede" Levov. After Seymour's teenage daughter Merry, in 1968, set off a bomb in protest against American involvement in the Vietnam War, killing a bystander, and subsequently went into hiding, Seymour remained traumatized for the rest of his life. The rest of the novel consists of Zuckerman's posthumous recreation of Seymour's life, based on Jerry's revelation, a few newspaper clippings, and Zuckerman's own impressions after two brief run-ins with "the Swede." In these encounters, which take place early in the novel, Zuckerman learns that Seymour has remarried and has three young sons, but Seymour's daughter Merry is never mentioned. In Zuckerman's reimagining of Seymour's life, this second marriage has no part; it ends in 1973 with Watergate unraveling on TV while the previous lives of the protagonists completely disintegrate.
“American Pastoral” won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998 and was included in Time's List of the 100 Best Novels. The film rights to it were later optioned, though a film version was not made until 2016. In 2006, it was one of the runners-up to Toni Morrison's “Beloved” in the "What is the Best Work of American Fiction of the Last 25 Years?" contest held by the New York Times Book Review.
"July, July,” published in 2002, is a novel by National Book Award Winner Tim O'Brien, about the 30th reunion of a graduating college class of 1969 that happened a year too late. It's filled with characters bent up by society's pliers, and it constantly flashes back to moments that shaped their lives. It expands on themes from his earlier novels — memory, hope, love and war.
The novel is set in 2000, and members of the Darton Hall College class of 1969 are gathered, one year behind schedule, for their 30th reunion. Focusing on a dozen characters and life's pivotal moments rather than on a linear plot, O'Brien follows the ensemble cast — which includes a Vietnam vet, a draft dodger, a minister, a bigamous housewife and a manufacturer of mops — for whom "the world had whittled itself down to now or never," as they drink, flirt and reminisce. Interspersed are tales of other moments when each character experienced something that changed him or her forever. Jumping across decades, O'Brien reveals past loves and old betrayals that still haunt:
- Dorothy failed to follow Billy to Canada.
- Spook hammered out a "double marriage."
- Ellie saw her lover drown.
- Paulette, in a moment of desperation, disgraced herself and ruined her career.
“Past Mortem” is a detective novel by Ben Elton first published in 2004. It is about a serial killer on the loose in England, mainly in the London area, and Scotland Yard's attempts at tracking him or her down. At the same time, “Past Mortem” raises a number of sociological, psychological and moral questions such as bullying, revenge, "getting a life" versus living in the past, domestic violence and the changing market value of people as they get older. Apart from its serious aspects, the book also contains a lot of humor, especially when the respective private entanglements of Detective Inspector Edward Newson, the officer in charge of the police investigation, and his assistant, Detective Sergeant Natasha Wilkie, are described. However, as one critic put it, "some of the descriptions of the sex scenes might prove a bit much for the faint-hearted."
When Adam Bishop, a middle-aged self-made man in the building trade, is cruelly murdered at his London home, Detective Inspector Ed Newson has a hunch that the crime has been committed by a psychopath who has killed before. He links up the new case with a number of older, unsolved ones, and a certain pattern emerges: It turns out that each victim was a bully many years ago when they went to school, and that they have now been killed in exactly the same way as they used to torture their peers. However, when Newson and Sergeant Natasha Wilkie talk to the former victims, they soon find out that none of them could be the serial killer.
Although successful in his job, when it comes to his private life Edward Newson is a lonely, sex-starved man secretly in love with his assistant Natasha. Now in his mid-30s, he nostalgically looks back at his school days and the two girls with whom he was romantically involved when they were all 14 — Helen Smart, the leftist intellectual, and Christine Copperfield, the "golden girl." Newson cannot resist the temptation and logs on to Friends Reunited. To his surprise, more of his former classmates than he would have thought are also online, and soon a class reunion is being organized — by Christine Copperfield, of all people.
This is the point where Newson's private life collides with his murder investigation. The serial killer uses the same web site — Friends Reunited — as the source of his knowledge about instances of bullying that happened decades ago. When Helen Smart posts a long account of how back at school she was forced by Christine Copperfield to stuff a tampon down her throat, the murderer is supplied with one more story on which he or she might act. Christine Copperfield dies with a tampon stuffed down her throat.
Family reunions
A family reunion is an occasion when many members of an extended family congregate. Sometimes reunions are held regularly, for example on the same date of every year.
A typical family reunion will assemble for a meal, some recreation and discussion. The older attendees are generally grandparents, parents, siblings or first cousins, while the youngest may be second, third or fourth cousins to each other. It is also not uncommon for regular family reunions to be sponsored by family organizations or family associations centered on a more distant common ancestor, often referred to as "ancestral family organizations" or a commonly shared surname —"single surname family organizations."
Family reunion programs
Family reunion programs are sponsored by Red Cross organizations. The International Committee of the Red Cross or ICRC leads the international movement which has special responsibilities under international humanitarian law.
Adoption reunion movements
Many adults using an adoption reunion registry are able to locate parents and siblings. Adoption reunion groups offer search and support guidance for birth parents and adoptees. Adoption reunion organizations help to uphold adoptee rights and support adoption reform. According to TRIADOPTION® Library which kept records on adoption search and reunion beginning in the 1970s, Jean Paton formed Orphan Voyage back in 1954 and is considered the grandmother of the adoption reunion movement. ALMA or Adoptees Liberty Movement Association was formed in New York City in 1972, ISRR or International Soundex Reunion Registry in 1975, CUB or Concerned United Birthparents in 1976 and dozens more sprung up around the U.S., Canada and Australia. By 1985 there were over 500 search and support organizations worldwide. The adoption reunion movement grew rapidly from grassroots local organizations coming together forming the AAC or American Adoption Congress in 1979 at a conference held in Washington, D.C. Groups from each region were instrumental in finding ways to help their members reunite with their birth families and surrendered/relinquished children.
One of the early groups was Yesterday's Children in Illinois founded by Donna Cullom. They were instrumental in filing the first-class action suit in 1974 on behalf of adoptees having access to their original records and birth certificates. In Canada, Parent Finders was formed by Joan Vanstone. Philadelphia Forum, Adoptees In Search, Search Triad, Operation Identity and so many others held meetings, gave support, assisted in search and offered education in their communities. Like them WARM or Washington Adoption Reunion Movement was a nonprofit organization providing search, reunion and educational resources and support to the adult adoption community. WARM maintains a collection of orphan memorials dedicated to adoptees and birthparents who died before being reunited.
National and international family history societies
Many reunions are made possible by family history societies. The Federation of Family History Societies or FFHS is an international organization based in the UK which represents, advises and supports over 220 family history societies. The Federation of East European Family History Societies or FEEFHS was organized in 1992 as an umbrella organization that promotes family research. The Canadian Federation of Genealogical or CanFed and family history societies work with Canadian-born families.
International family reunification
Family reunification for third-country nationals remains a politically charged issue. The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in Art. 12.4 states openly the right of each person to enter in the country of her nationality. This statement has been open to variety of interpretation. Family reunification has become a controversial humanitarian and human rights issue, as well as a much-debated immigration policy issue. In 2015, North Korea had plans of that program of family reunion with South Korea.
Genealogy societies
The purpose of genealogical societies is to form a community of researchers and help its members create a library of families history resources. Federation of Genealogical Societies was founded in 1976 and represents the members of more than 600 genealogical societies. Organizations like the African American Genealogical Society of Northern California assist family members in connecting the branches of the family tree, using genealogy and Internet resources.
Traditional family reunion activities
Traditional family reunion activities include an afternoon luncheon or early evening dinner and program featuring music, song, poetry reading, history recitals, honorary recognition of elders, community contributions and educational achievements.
Historic skits Reenactments that highlight pivotal points in a family’s history. Participants are introduced to the art of developing a timeline as well as period research with a focus on costume design, customs, dialogue and social, economic and technological developments.
Story telling A fascinating art that brings to life tales of ancestors and their accomplishments. Along with stories of legends of the past, life lessons are taught. The meaning behind family traditions are shared, while relaying important family history factoids and the ties that bind.
Genealogy tours Takes the family on an exciting tour of important genealogical hot spots including the family homestead, the towns in which the family settled, the jobs family members held, machines they worked, markets where they traded and streets they walked, as well as their social activities.
Genealogy presentations A presentation of historic documents and vintage artifacts that identify timelines, economic status, historic events and locations of ancestors.
Annual proclamations and remembrances
Family Reunion Month A proclamation in 1985 to raise awareness of a growing trend of runaway children and newly formed organizations to help reunite families of runaways, the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 64, has designated the period between Mother's Day, May 12, and Father's Day, June 16, 1985, as "Family Reunion Month" and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this period.
National Family Reunion Month While some commercial enterprises have dubbed August as National Family Reunion Month, many social groups including churches observe National Family Reunion Month in the month of July.
Annual Family Reunion Planning Month A family awareness group with a focus on genealogy and traditional family reunion planning established "Annual Family Reunion Planning Month" to be observed in the month of November. Mark A. Askew, group administrator and founder, first announced "Family Reunion Planning Month" to international reunion planners group members, family magazines, corporations and schools.
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