National Cousins Day 2022: Interesting Facts About Cousins

We have certain relationships we hold very dear to us, that are celebrated on days, meant only for reminiscing about that mutual equation of love and camaraderie. There is a "day" for every relationship that helps us celebrate the good in this relationship. A cousin is one with whom you share the same ancestor, mostly a grandparent, and he/she is usually one or two generations away from you in the ancestral relationship hierarchy. Read to know more about this day.

National Cousins Day is celebrated on Sunday, July 24 every year. Cousins' day is a day that recognizes the hard and good times that you have had with your cousins. It also indirectly reminds you of the bad and good things you have to endure together till you last.

How Indispensable Are Cousins In Our Lives?

Cousins are your classmates in life who give and take lessons from you, to turn them into a family tradition or an intellectual library, or to pass on the knowledge legacy to our successors. From being the stalwart at the one-upmanship game, or a source of constant support, a wellspring of pleasure or pressure, a knowledgeable guide or a close confidante, a cousin can be a wholesome quirky package who may fit one or all of the above descriptions.

It is a boon especially when your cousin treats you like a friend. A cousin is a part of your extended family with a friendly countenance. So he or she could be your real family friend. There are plenty of reasons why a cousin could be your best friends, as you share so many things in common, including some of your DNA and personality traits. You may bear a close physical resemblance as well. They are our secret agents who know all our secrets. They grow up with our secrets tightly sealed to probably reveal them only when it gets too uncomfortable for them to hold it within.

A bond of kinship refuses to let us go at any part of our lives as we share an unwritten unofficial blood bond with them. They are like our siblings who do not tolerate only when we trample on their egos and get on their nerves.

Fun Facts About Cousins That Will Ensure That You Have A Trip Down The Memory Lane Cousins were encouraged to stay together in a group, on a regular basis, during their younger years and hence this could have triggered a few spats as well as exciting moments with each other. Nevertheless, that is how your friendship grew meaningful day by day, with your kith and kin.

• Your cousins are your brothers or sisters that you were not born with and in the case of single children, they prove to be a comforting set of siblings that were tailored to your likes and tastes.
• Moments, whether bad or good, funny or serious, certainly stamp their unforgettable presence in our lives. These bitter-sweet memories are a part of our survival kit in our advanced years. No one remembers your younger days better than your cousins do.
• Family occasions were well spent exclusively with cousins as our parents would be neck deep busy in the nitty gritty of the celebrations. It was only after the wild playing sessions forcibly ended, that we strove to get back to the study school routine.
• Sometimes, cousins used to visit us and offer to stay overnight to extend the memorable times together. They were personified fun and revelry that brightened up our routine laden lives.
• We pick up our tastes, whether good or bad from our cousins as they are our forerunners and shining examples. Music, movies, games, clothes or makeup, we look up to them for guidance. You can learn how to play a game of scrabble or chess for hours with them or borrow their teen classics and Roald Dahl's books from them to grow into litterateurs.
• They are not judgmental or overly critical of you, like your siblings can be. Cousins allow you to relax in their company as well as encourage you to be yourself wherever you are.
• Your close group of cousins, also show their potential to be counsellors whenever you are feeling weak, and unable to gear up to the challenges that life throws. When it is time to vent, or just have a plain cry, your cousins may offer similar views on your problems that may comfort you for the time being.
• We allow adults to carry on uninterrupted conversations while we romp about in the backyard, looking for stuff to play around with. Our parents must have thanked us for being kind to them.
• The bond that develops between the cousins, is something that grows with time. And even in adulthood, we look forward to meeting them just to keep the relationship alive and inspiring. We learn how supportive the family could be, and how distressed it could feel in the absence of it. As you have kids, you will have a continuing strain on that everlasting bond.
• The most famous marriage between cousins is the one between Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. They both are the descendants of UKs Queen Victoria.
• Overall, 25 states in USA have banned first cousin marriages totally out of which, some states allow adopted cousins to marry. It is legal to marry a first cousin in 20 other states. In India, there is an age-old tradition in which cousin to cousin marriages or inbreeding happens in the families. But now with due spreading of social awareness. People have stopped looking at these inter cousin marriages as yet another possibility.
• Elsa Einstein, who was Albert Einstein's second wife, happened to be his first cousin.
• If two brothers marry two sisters, their children are treated as double cousins.