In my own family, many of the traditions we continue to celebrate and do would not have been passed on if it was not for the closeness of our family. My mother can make many native foods from growing up around her grandmother such as traditional Creek Fry bread; things that I know I will one day pass on to my children. I can still remember my great grandmother teaching my sister and I how to do traditional basket weaving, a tradition still taught in classes at the Creek Nation today. "Basket-weaving is one of the oldest known Native American crafts" and shows the diversity of tribes as the different styles of basket-weaving are still present today (Lollman). If families did not pass on our heritage, many of our native songs and dances performed at powwows would not be around to see or reenact today. Ultimately all of the traditions we have today would not be here if it was not for the families passing their knowledge and memories down.
The first time my mom went over to my dads house for dinner it showed how different their cultures are. They all sat down for dinner when my mom noticed there were no forks, confused she asked where she could get them. My dad and his family all laughed and proceeded to eat their dinner without forks and instead with tortillas. Later on, I was born into this mix of american and hispanic culture. My parents have shaped the cultural identity I have from the type of food I eat, my hobbies, and the values I have.
Many cultures have certain traditions that are very important to them. For example, the Hmong culture has a tradition about marriage. When a Hmong man wants to get married and start a family, he has to ask two specific men called “Mekoob”, to go with him to his women’s house and formally ask the parents for their daughter’s hand in marriage. They later talk about the wedding plan and the price for everything. The husband and his family have to pay for all the expenses.
In my culture traditions are very important in your life. For example, one tradition that has been in my family for many years is going to the park and celebrating Easter with the family. We barbecue, play sports, and then at the end of the day we have an Easter egg hunt for the young children. Another tradition of ours is to do a Christmas Eve dinner at my great grandma’s house. During this event you are with your relatives and close friends for dinner and for a social gathering until the early morning of Christmas day. Many of our traditions revolve around getting all of our family together and spending time with them.
I grew up in a good environment so to speak, had a mother, father, and two siblings. One older and one younger, so I was in the middle. From what I can recall I lived with my grandmother and grandfather along with my parents and siblings for a while until my parents purchased their own house around 2007 or so.
I would describe my culture as being Mexican-American. I am a seventh generation born in the U.S. on my mother’s side and the second generation born in the U.S. on my fathers. Being Catholic is an important part of my culture. We believe strongly that the matriarchs of the family have the responsibility to bring up their children in the church and make sure they have all their religious sacraments to help put them on the correct path that leads to heaven. Family is valued in my culture; especially elders. I have a second aunt who is now 103 years old. She was never married or had children of her own. Every year on mother’s day she is showered with visitors, food, and gifts. She has babysat four generations of children in our family and will
Someone culture can identify who they are as a person. not everyone have the same culture it all depends on the Family. My culture is mixed with both, Mexican and African-American. The way my family and I do things can be extremely different compared to others. For the fact that my culture is mixed with Mexican and African-American, we do things unusual compared to other families. My family eat lots of tacos and fried chicken most of the time. It all depends on who is cooking, weather is my mom or my step dad. My mother is African-American and my step-dad is Mexican American . Whenever my mom do cook we mostly eat soul food, while my step dad mostly cook Mexican food or BBQ. My family biggest tradition will be Thanksgiving because, we
I experienced many different cultures, ethnicities and traditions when my family lived in Thailand. We lived in a Refugee camp and it was not like an America society. Every month, a volunteer group from a big city would aid every family in the refugee camp with bags of rice depending on how many people are in your family. There were about ten schools in the camp which were public schools and Catholic schools. Schools and houses were built out of bamboo and trees, and the buildings don't last more than a decade. Life was not easy in Thailand. Not every parent had a job and they found other ways to make money to provide for their families. There were many cultures and different ethnicities living in the same area and our neighbors spoke different languages and they were from different ethnic groups. There are many holidays and cultural traditions that we celebrate every year by dancing, playing music, and having big festivals.
My parents are both from a small town in Costa Rica. Costa Rice is located in Central America. They both lived on a farm with their families. They both grew up in very poor homes. My mom would walk 4 miles daily to go to school. She made the effort to go to school because she wanted a better life. My father on the other hand, couldn’t go to school. He had to go out and work on his farm to make ends meet. My father was the only man of the house. He lived with his mom and 4 sisters.
Every family is different whether it’s their race or culture and every family has different celebrations and traditions this is what makes different families unique.
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One of these is that on Thanksgiving everybody comes together to my parents’ house in New Jersey for a huge feast. On Christmas only my mother and the children (me and my brother) travel to Illinois to spend a week with my grandparents. On New Years Eve we all get together at my parents’ house in New Jersey and toast to the New Year with champagne and apple cider. During Labor Day weekend all of my family travels to South Jersey to my grandfathers’ condo. We usually spend all of our time on the beach and barbequing, except on Sunday when we go to church. After all, my grandfather is a minister. One of our biggest family traditions is going back to Puerto Rico. Every year my mother and I travel back to Puerto Rico for a portion of our summer vacation. Now that I am older I travel there more often and stay there much longer. My father never joins because he doesn’t like my mothers side of the father too much and he thinks that we when we speak Spanish we are all plotting against him. Of course that’s not true though. My bother doesn’t speak Spanish so he doesn’t like to go either. I guess that tradition is one that belongs solely to my mother and I.
Most people do not think their family has a culture. They associate culture with countries and ethnic groups. But the family for most people is just a group of family people who do what they always do. Directly and subtly, children are shaped by the family culture in which they are born. At the stage of growth, their assumptions about what is right or wrong, good and bad, reflect the beliefs, values, and traditions of the family culture. Most take their family manners for granted and bring into adulthood numerous attitudes and behaviors acquired in childhood. Even those who later reject all or part of the family culture often find that they are not totally free of their early influences. 1
Since my family lived so close together, we had many family traditions that remain important. We gather for nearly every holiday for a meal and routine. For Easter every year, we have an Easter egg hunt and dinner at my grandmother’s house. For Christmas Eve, we always went to my great-grandparents house and had dinner and exchanged gifts. For Christmas, we celebrated at home, and then went to my grandmother's for breakfast with our cousins. The importance of all of the holidays we celebrated was that no matter what was going on in our lives,
My parents immigrated to this country from Mexico many years ago and they brought along their culture, which makes up a major part of my identity. I am Mexican American and the stereotype that we have a lot of members in our family is true, but it doesn’t tell the full story. I have a lot of aunts, uncles, and cousins and I am very grateful for them because each and every one of them has taught me important lessons that have shaped who I am today. When all of us are together we stand out because there are so many of us and we can also get very loud. We always know how to have a good time and we’re also the life of every party. Every Christmas eve we all get together at one of our aunt’s houses and celebrate the birth of Jesus. We set up a nacimiento, or Nativity set, made of figurines that represent the ones who were present during his birth. We cover the set with hay, surround it with little figurines of animals and drape Christmas lights all around the set. Then we do a rosary and commemorate the ones in our family who have passed or could not make it. During these celebrations we always have tamales, menudo, and hot chocolate. These foods are very important to us because most of the women in the family get together the day before the event and prepare the food. In this time we all have time to catch up on the latest gossip and drama that is going on in our lives. One thing that I have recently been interested in again is the traditional Aztec dances and rituals. When I was younger I used to participate in the dances with my mother but we had to quit due to the long and late hours of practice. I have started to go to retreats where we spend most of our nights dancing and praying to temples and different gods. Doing this makes me feel more connected to my ancestral roots and i feel a sense of pride.