For this post, you will have a choice of two different topics of which to respond.
Option #1: Many families have unique traditions like Lahiri's family tradition of carrying loads of food back from India. Think of a tradition that is unique to your family or to another group to belong to--for instance, a holiday celebration, a vacation activity, a way of resolving or avoiding disagreement. Describe that tradition, focusing on the objects used, the activities involved, and the feelings associated with it. (This is a chance for the class to get know "who" you are).
OR
Option #2: First, Do you find the Las Vegas wedding industry and its clients, as described by Didion, to be ridiculous, depressing, amusing, harmless, or something else? Explain your impression. Next, Describe another ritual or social custom (for example, a graduation, military induction, presidential inauguration, religious service). What does the conduct of this custom tell us about our attitudes toward it?
Throughout my lifetime, I have learned of many different traditions of my culture and more specifically, my family. Coming from an Indian origin, I can relate to Lahiri's food suitcase. My family used to do the very same thing until the airports started to clamp down on the items brought in and out of the United States.
ReplyDeleteWhile we don't celebrate the normal major holidays in the United States such as Christmas and Thanksgiving, we have our own holidays which we celebrate. All of the holiday celebrations in India relate to our religion of Hinduism and as my family is overall quite religious, we almost always do something for each event. There's Diwali, the festival of lights, where we have our own rituals done at home during the day and attend the function at the local Temple. At the temple, we light fireworks, eat food, and pray. Also, there's Holi, the festival of colors. Again, we have our own rituals at home and then go to the Temple. On the grounds of the Temple, there are children everywhere, shooting water guns and throwing food coloring at each other. Holi and Diwali are by far my two favorite holidays both at home and at the Temple.
However, the one tradition which impacts me the most is our use of the "birthday" knife. My parents purchased the knife twenty-five years ago in Saudi Arabia. They bought it almost right when I was born. Ever since we bought the knife, every year, for every birthday, every occasion, we have used that knife. It's become a ritual. While it may not seem like that big of a deal, just the thought of it being used for so long and the thought of it being passed down to future generations is incredible. Even when we're at other restaurant and party places, the knife is a must. My family as a whole recognizes the importance of the knife. While it's a simple inanimate object to most people. It represents all of the birthdays, all of the anniversaries, all of the celebrations we've ever had. One man's trash is another man's treasure.
Growing up in Augusta, my parents never deprived me of the Chinese traditions and culture. Although I’m not Indian, I can still somewhat relate to Lahiri’s food suitcase. Every time my family and I would go to Hong Kong, the items on my parents’ “must have” list consisted of all sorts of Chinese herbs that they would either give to other family members when we got back to the U.S. or use to make traditional Chinese remedies, which in my opinion tastes quite awful. According to my mother, as long as it’s salutary, my opinion doesn’t matter. Within the Chinese culture, there are a vast variety of festivals or holidays, such as the Moon Festival or the Mid-Autumn Festival. Behind these festivals are many legends and stories that parents tell their kids, like mine have to me. Living in Georgia, it’s quite hard to celebrate such a holiday, because in China, the whole country would come together to celebrate these festivals with special performances and gatherings in parks or on public squares. Since we can’t really do that here, the way we celebrate the Moon Festival is by having a special dinner with family, and after dinner is done, everyone is given a moon cake to consume.
ReplyDeleteThe major holiday that Chinese people celebrate is Chinese New Year’s, which is personally my favorite holiday. As this holiday nears, my family and I will thoroughly clean our house hoping to sweep away all misfortune there may have been in the family to make way for the incoming good luck. We also decorate our windows and doors with numerous red paper-cuts with different Chinese characters written on then, such as “happiness”, “wealth”, and “longevity.” Once New Year’s arrives, we aren’t allowed to take a shower the first day, because according to a superstition, if we take a shower, we’ll wash away all our luck. Another superstition states that we aren’t allowed to get our hair cut till the 10 days of New Year’s is over. Similar to regular New Year’s, we gather with family to eat and celebrate the coming of a new year. What’s different is that when kids and those who are not married greet their elders, they receive red envelopes with money inside of them. Red envelopes are also used on other special occasions, such as birthdays. There are all sorts of red envelopes with different decorations on them, almost like cards. The design on the envelope might say Happy Chinese New Year’s or Happy Birthday written in Chinese characters, or it might just plainly have the family name on it.
No matter what holiday it might be, we always gather with family to celebrate.
-Amanda Cheung
Personally I found "Absurd Wedding" to be amusing while at the same time heart-wrenching in the worst way. It was, for lack of a better word, "amusing" in a sense because of the absurdness of it. When thinking about getting married in Vegas I always think about the movie When In Vegas, which definitely skews my view on this subject to be one of a more comical persuasion. I just think that it is funny (although also sick) that people get married while there drunk or in a chapel that competes with other chapels on how fast yet "real" and efficient they can union to people to become one. I mean the word absurd truly describes it. The union of two people into one is not a business or competition and can't be done in such a nonchalant way. I think it's funny (but once again also sick) that people take these Vegas ceremonies seriously along with all its pathetic ploys to make the wedding seem as sincere as possible, such as "free transportation from the hotel to the chapel and back" and an offer of a standard honeymoon package as if its something of little importance comparable to the "buy in the next five minutes and we'll throw in not one but TWO magic bullets for no extra charge!" marketing ploys. But on a heavier, sadder note It makes my heart feel weak to think that people take something so sacred and so infused with love so lightly. Marriage isn't a spur-of-the-moment thing as it is a lot of the times in Vegas. It's not something you do because you "feel like it" or because your experiencing an adrenaline rush the size of America's debt and think it's exhilarating to. It's sad that people thing so little of such a beautiful thing. The insincerity of a wedding in Vegas is an almost sure sign of the sad state the marriage of the two people will be. It's almost like people are throwing away their lives when they could have so much better. Well I'm done venting now, It just makes me mad that people would do that to themselves. It shows how high the bar is set for the expectations they have for their lives. (Sigh) well, that's about all my heart can take tonight. Its been a rough Monday but I'm currently listening to Mumford and Sons and I know tomorrows another day, so I feel a little better. And later I will eat the rest of the cheetos in the bag and feel even better. Heck, I may even wake up in the morning and find that the school was tore down by a crazy mob of Cold War veterans (ar-gar-gar-gar) last night yet miraculously no one was hurt. But then again, I might wake up tomorrow and find that every one of my classes has been changed to weight lifting. So I guess I'll find out in the morning, but I know one thing for sure, either way and adventure is waiting for me, and it's gonna take me places I've never been before. Boom. Take that one Ghandi. Peace
ReplyDelete*"torn" replaces "tore"
ReplyDelete*"an" replaces "and"
I know that Christmas cookies is a bit of a cliche, but that's because it's something that means a lot to many people. What makes it specific to my family, though, is the cookies we make. To me, it isn't Christmas until I've had my hands in dough for Austrian Butter Cookies, Linzer Augen, or Vanille Kipfel. Though not the only cookies we make, these three are the ones with the most meaning. The first two are pulled from old recipes translated by my mother from German, both passed down from my grandmother. Butter cookies are the most "traditional" in a sense, as they are cut out with cookie cutters then iced with a sugar glaze, and eating them reminds me of the times my family spent together when I was little and my grandmother was still alive. Linzer Augen-- a delicate sandwich cookie filled with red current jelly-- can be something of an acquired taste, and there is a certain maturity about these pastries. I remember being a little kid and spilling powdered sugar everywhere as I attempted to finish them for my mother. They have always been my brother's favorites, and so it's a challenge to keep a batch in the house for more than two days.
ReplyDeleteHowever, Vanille Kipfel are by far my favorites. Like the others, it's an old Austrian recipe, but it has been perfected over the years by my great grandmother Ilse. Though they can be tedious to make, what with all the kneading and shaping into horseshores, these nutty cookies are well worth the effort. The buttery, walnuty flavor makes it impossible to eat just one, and their small size makes it so you don't realize that you've already eaten twenty-five of them. We have the recipe written down somewhere I'm sure, but my fondest memories are from this past November, with my great aunt rattling out the ingredients in German to my mother and I as I try to remember what in the world "mehl" means (it's flour, if you care) and how much 20 decagrams is. One of the most beautiful things about this particular tradition is the way that each person's cookies look different as they shape them. You can always tell mine by their tapered ends, my mother's by their squared-off bluntness, and my brother's by the way they never seem to turn out straight.
All three of these cookies represent the important things in our family: memories, laughter, individuality. The moments when we are together making these treats are really the moments that define us as a family.
-Anneliese H.
The Las Vegas Wedding Industry is very similar to the rest of the city of Las Vegas. It promotes temporary satisfaction for its clients that typically are later regretted. I find this type of buisness ridiculous and selfish on the part of these buisness owners, who think they can degrade the meaning marriage for a quick buck. Marriage should be more romantic than a quick ceremony in a place where it costs 8 dollars and they will throw in an actual witness. I understand that the owner might respond that he's giving the people want they want and that it is their decision, but doesn't this "immediate gratification" translate to more strain on the divorce courts and not to mention the parents of these radical lovers. It should also be illegal to be intoxicated or under the influence, during these "3 minute ceremonies", because if they were sober they may not make the same lasting choice.
ReplyDeleteA big social custom in America is graduation, especially for teenager's and their parents. It symbolizes a milestone in a person's life and a sense of accomplishment from hard work. Whether it is a high school graduation or a college graduation, both are similarly conducted. There are a couple speeches by the class validictorian and saludictorian and teachers, then diplomas are handed out to you a five hundred of your closest friends. This layout gives a brief highlight to each person, and an exceptional one to the smartest people in your grade. I think graduation can either be depressing or exciting or both because the popular topic of these events are the future. Overall, comparing it to a Las Vegas style wedding it does a great job for creating a transition to a crucial moment in one's life.
Option 2:
ReplyDeleteThe Las Vegas wedding industry can be looked at in many ways. One may say that it is harmless. It's just young people trying to get married quickly or without the consent of their relatives. I believe that the wedding industry is harmful overall. The fast pace of the industry promotes the spur of the moment marriages. These marriages would likely be unstable. It is not even definite that both parties give full consent for one or both may be intoxicated, it being Vegas. The industry preys on the rebellious nature of young people. It has transformed marriage from a holy sanctity to a nearly meaningless event.
Another event that has been transformed in modern society involves politics. The national conventions in which the Democratic and Republican candidates are selected now have little to do with actually politics. These conventions have become large celebrations aimed at sucking in voters by having the Black
Eyed Peas or some other superstar come and preform for a crowd. The conventions should be about the candidate explaining his goals and why he is the best person for the job. Modern society has blown this event out of proportion and made it essentially pointless.
Option 1:
ReplyDeleteDuring the Christmas season, my family upholds several traditions. We don’t really bake certain cookies or go out of town to a certain place, but rather we do the same exact thing every year.
On Christmas Eve, around 4 o’clock in the afternoon, we go over to my grandparent’s house. My grandma always has platters of different kinds of breads, meats, and cheeses so we can make our own little deli sandwiches. After we eat, we usually go home and get ready for our church’s Christmas Eve service. At 11 o’clock we go to church, and we return to our house sometime between midnight and a quarter after. My grandparents come back to our house with us and spend the night on our foldout couch. Before going to bed, we open a bottle of Welch’s sparkling grape juice, have a little toast, and take a Christmas picture by our Christmas tree. Then we all go to bed only to wake up again eight or nine hours later. When we wake up, we sit in a circle in our living room and pass out presents from underneath the Christmas tree. We then go in a clockwise fashion, opening up our stockings first, then one present at a time until everyone has opened up all his or her presents. My mother usually then makes either cinnamon rolls or a cinnamon coffee cake while we would play with toys, or nowadays, clean up all the wrapping paper. After breakfast was made and eaten, my grandparents would go back to their house and my mother, my sister, and I would begin to make Christmas Day dinner. Once again, at 4 o’clock, we would eat dinner, this time my grandparents coming to our house. We always have ham and turkey, rebaked potatoes, green beans and corn, bread, and anything else we feel like that year. For dessert, each person get’s to request something to be made so we have like five different desserts.
After everything is picked up, cleaned up, and put away, we sit down and enjoy talking and playing with toys or watching movies, just waiting until the next year. It’s always a great time of year, when everyone just seems to get along and everyone’s happy. Sure, a lot of work often goes into everything, but when all is said and done, it’s just the Christmas season.
-Rachel Luoma
Anneliese and Rachel,
ReplyDeleteYou, too, share one of my family's customs. All three of my daughters can't wait until I make Mexican Wedding cookies. I usally bake the first batch during the Thanksgiving break and give them another batch when they come to Nana's for Christmas Eve gift exchange. Thanks for sharing this tradition.
K.Field
Option Two:
ReplyDeleteOver the years, the concept of "tradition" has become more hollow and insignificant in today's growing societies. Joan Didion, the author of the essay "Marrying Absurd," portrays her negative outlook of the drunken marriages in Las Vegas by the use of details and tone. Marriage is and always should be a serious decision; it is the ritual that brings two people together. Back in the days, men would court women till marriage and wait for parental approval. In addition, marriage is a commitment, not based on feelings. People, who meet for the first time in Vegas DRUNK, except to have the "Romeo- Juliet" moment and get married. A marriage is a promise and a relationship one must commit to. However, Nevada's leniency towards marriage encourages ignorant people to abuse the essence of this vital tradition. In my opinion, the Las Vegas wedding industries are ignorant and sick; these corporations have transformed this tradition as an object of business and compete with one another for money. Instead of seeing "marriage" as a sacred and vital thing that impacts one's life greatly, the businesses treat marriage as a product and do not care for the consequences. Like Luke said, it is funny to see these pathetic people get married drunk, but then I also find the whole process insane and despicable.
Another evident ritual that is greatly mistreated within societies today is SEX. Yes, I said the word sex. From pornography to prostitutes, today, sex is viewed as an object of satisfaction and entertainment. However, I believe that sex is a holy and sacred thing that God has provided for human beings to reproduce. In addition, sex is a beautiful thing that binds two different fleshes into one flesh. Sex is a ritual for one's SPOUSE. When one has eloped with another, both are one. But, today the society has skewed the ritual of sex, for there are one- night stands, books, or even movies. Also, many teenagers think their girlfriends or boyfriends are the "one," and have sex, which is why we have stupid television shows such as "Teen Mom." The American society shows that it is okay to have sex with multiple people in order to gain experience or whatsoever. BUT IT'S NOT and many, many, MANY people have taken the significance away from this important tradition.
Btw, sorry if I made anyone uncomfortable by talking about sex, but we are all grown up, so let's be mature about this (:
ReplyDeleteAnd, no one has to agree with my views, just sharing them! Thank you:D
One tradition that my family has had for years is taking a boat ride on Thanksgiving. My uncle and his family own a beautiful lake house on Lake Oconee, and because my whole family lives in Georgia, we all enjoy the (usually) warm weather that lasts throughout November. After a long day of cooking, laughing, and stuffing ourselves with rich, delicious food, my uncle gathers a few of us to walk out to his dock and climb aboard his biggest boat. The white paint glows in the sunset, and the water glitters with the golden orange color it reflects from the sky. I always think that this sight is one of the most beautiful I've ever seen, but I then remember that I am in for a visual treat as my uncle cranks up the engine and slowly navigates the boat into the rest of the lake. His youthful but also mellow energy is well suited for the blissful exhaustion everyone else is feeling after a day of feasting and fun. The speakers he installed on his boat always resonate a peaceful strumming of an acoustic guitar and a velvety singing voice, no matter what the song is. The sun behind the trees casts shadows onto the lake, and the cool wind weaves itself into my tangling hair. There truly is no better feeling than riding on my uncle's boat on Lake Oconee, no matter what the time is, but Thanksgiving Day's boat rides hold memories for me and my family that will never fade away.
ReplyDeleteAs described by Didion, I find the Las Vegas wedding industry to be depressing and definitely absurd. The wedding industry is just that, an industry or buisness. Usually when thinking of marriage you would not think of the word buisness in the same sentence but in this case, buisness came to my mind many times while reading the description. One of my impressions of buisness came from the different chapels advertising their service. The billboards on the way to Las Vegas, advetising the chapels is just like advertising food. There is a competition between the chapels and the couples are just like tokens in the game. This is depressing because marriages should mean much more than that. The marriages are also rushed, especially during times when there are a lot of them happening at once.
ReplyDeleteA ritual that we all share as a society are funerals. The service is to remember the life of someone that has passed away and by doing so, many people are brought together in a time of sadness. The way funerals are performed vary throughtout the different types of cultures but all mainly serve the same purpose.
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ReplyDeleteI was right with the author of "Marrying Absurd" as she pointed out the inconsistencies in the pseudo-marriages that Las Vegas offers. The live-in-the-moment mentality that is so common in America continues to baffle me. Marriage is supposed to be forever, a lifetime deal. Two people become "one flesh." In today's society this holy covenant has become a deal for sex, as epitomized by Nevada's Walmart-style marriages. It was disgusting to read about how fake every aspect of the Las Vegas marriages was, from the chapel decorations to the bride and groom's clothing. The ceremonies were more like a child's game of pretend than a holy ritual.
ReplyDeleteThis reading reminded me of graduation, though in an inverse sort of way. Ever since I was a freshman I have been appalled at how the graduation ceremony is exploited by business. As a sophomore, students are petitioned to buy class rings, which are described as a stepping stone to graduation. These metal circles can cost hundreds of dollars, with the cheapest being around eighty bucks! Then comes the senior pictures, the Balfour graduation gear, and finally the all-important cap and gown. Just today on the announcements I heard that a seventy-five dollar deposit has to be made my seniors. I could buy seventeen packs of Magic: the Gathering cards with that much money! I have tried to explain to my parents that I want nothing to do with this money-grabbing game, where students who are not dressed EXACTLY the right way are not allowed to participate, but they will not listen. How ironic is it that, at this ceremony where students celebrate their new-found independence and adulthood, the have to wear matching uniforms so that one cannot be set apart from the others? I would much rather have a quiet, personal, seventy-five dollar party with a few close friends then wait in line as hundreds of maroon-clad teenagers receive a fake diploma and shake the hands of school administrators who they have never even spoken to.
Like Amanda, my parents are also engrossed in Chinese traditions and they do not let me ignore any of them. Chinese New Year is a very big holiday that my parents like to enjoy. An entire month of celebrations, food, and “family bonding time”, but since Chinese New Year is not a widely celebrated holiday in the United States most of my holiday consists of food and money. My mom cooks a giant dinner with fish, duck, and almost anything in our fridge while my dad makes dumplings. I try to help but I usually get in the way, occasionally I make a couple of dumplings or help my mother chop vegetables. After a big dinner, around eleven or so, we go outside in the dark and burn money for our ancestors. No, it is not really American dollars, but fake money that we pass on to our ancestors to ease their afterlife. We also leave out incense in a rice bowl for our ancestors as well. One time, I was able to burn money in China during the anniversary of my grandfather’s death; you basically walk into a huge burnt oven and light it. After the fire was about three feet above me, we started to throw in as much money as we could.
ReplyDeleteThere are also other traditions that my parents make, or at least try, to make me follow. I cannot cut my hair during February… at all. My mom especially goes beyond what the tradition says and emphasizes how I must follow the customs until the month is over. I also cannot clean the house during the month because it is sweeping out the luck in the house. I cannot wash my hair during the month because it is washing out my luck, though I refused to abide by that tradition. Also, if it is my year, year of the dog, I must wear a red belt until the next Chinese New Year to prevent my bad luck. There are a lot of customs we usually follow, but we also go to parties during Chinese New Year. One party we go to every year is the Chinese New Year party hosted by MCG where the Chinese gather in one building, share food, and watch performances by local Chinese.
Despite all the work and customs I have to follow during Chinese New Year, I usually enjoy the month more than I do others, especially when I get my red envelopes.
-Dorothy Li
Personally I find the whole industry to be absurd; both amusing and ridiculous. ( I, like Luke, am reminded of the movie What Happens In Vegas [at least I think that’s the movie Luke’s referring to] when I think of the Las Vegas wedding industry.) The majority of the weddings in the Vegas industry occur when the bride and groom are completely wasted. The wedding becomes a mere spur-of-the-moment thing instead of being based on what a marriage should be based on, things such as love and respect for one another etc.; and the venues only view it as is a competition so see who can wed more than the others.
ReplyDeleteAnother ritual performed within our society is that of religious services. The first of these that came into mind was confirmation. The way confirmation is conducted, with commitment and respect for the individual’s statement of faith, is significantly different than the weddings in the Vegas industry are conducted. This shows how the attitudes of today’s society differ towards each. People value one’s confirmation of faith and see it as a ‘sacred’ ritual; and though marriage used to share this value (& in most cases still does) things/places such as the Vegas wedding industry have taken away from what a marriage truly represents and have transformed it to be viewed as meaningless.
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ReplyDeleteOption 1
ReplyDeleteBeing an Indian in America gives you a lot more tradition a rituals and holidays to follow. It is a lot of fun to follow tradition and other times it is not. It has become a tradition due to religion to celebrate Holi and Diwali in conjunction to Thanksgiving, Christmas, Halloween, and Easter for Indian families in America. Diwali is the festival of lights while Holi is the festival of colors. Each year the celebrations involve lighting a bunch of fireworks or water gun clashes using colored water, respectively. To me these traditions have always felt natural because I have been involved in them since I was born. However, the traditions with my family are a mixed bag.
Ever since they moved to America my parents have always missed home. However, they moved here in the 1990's so there were a lot more Indian stores with Indian goods for my parents. We never went to such extremes as Lahiri's family, but we certainly had that one suitcase that was loaded with gifts going to India and loaded with various Indian goods while coming back to America. They liked the certain quality that could only be found in Indian markets concerning "achar" which is basically Jelly except salty, spicy, and can be made with a variety of peppers and even mango. Out suitcase was filled with not only special spices, but also clothing from India. All the clothes we would bring back were all hand made and tailored to our exact size and their quality was amazing. In fact I still have a shirt made for me back when I was in 3rd grade, which still looks brand new and has not shrunk a bit. Every summer we didn't go to India we went to, New Jersey. We would meet my Dad's old friends in Delaware and Maryland before heading to the busy, noisy, and notoriously crowded huge Indian stores of New Jersey. We would take the largest car we had (minivan and a highlander at one point) and take a couple of coolers and flatten down the extra seat to make room for all the stuff we bought. The coolers were for the fresh food they would buy there. Since they were the same, or sometimes even better quality than what they got locally, but at a cheaper price, my parents would buy a bunch of those.
The second tradition is probably the most boring tradition ever and has become an excuse to eat Indian sweets. Ever month (every two or three now) we take out our old tape player and listen to a tape of old stories that detail how these certain people found one of the Indian Gods to be their true ruler/savior/God/whatever you want to call him. We would crack a coconut open at the beginning and the listen to this tape for one hour in front of a small statues of the Indian Gods. This small ritual has the term of being a "pooja." Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the experience, but after a few years it was just EXTREMELY BORING. Every time I listen to the tape I can talk along with it perfectly, even the songs. As I have grown and my mind has veered towards a path that is filled with science and technology, I have realized religion may not be a really crazy important thing to me that explains why things happen. So it's just boring for me to hear those stories again and again. I participate in the Indian traditions and my own family’s traditions because it’s just the way I grew up. I have gotten use to being a part of it and it is fun, well, most of the time anyways.
Living as an Indian in America, I can without a doubt relate to Lahiri's description of her family's food chest and her feelings about it. However, instead of having a suitcase, we have a large metal drum containing dozens of spices and "masalas" from India. Along with this, my family follows many traditions that are derived from both Indian and American culture. My family celebrates all the major Indian holidays such as Diwali and Holi, along with some that are unique to the specific part of India my family comes from. For example we observe Lohri, a holiday during the eve of the winter solstice, and Vaisakhi, a harvest festival that involves copious cooking and feasting. During these holidays, my family either goes to the local temple or invites guests over to celebrate. My family's customs have also been heavily influenced by American traditions. We light fireworks on the 4th of July and feast during Thanksgiving. I feel like this has "fusion" of cultures has given me the best of both worlds.
ReplyDeleteOne tradition that I will never forget though is how my family always sits down for dinner on Wednesday nights. It might not seem like an important tradition but for my family it is the only time where everybody can communicate and interact at the same time. My parents both work long hours at the hospital and are rarely home for dinner. Because of this, a few years ago they made a commitment to try to make sure that they could be home for a family dinner on Wednesdays. At first I hated eating together as I couldn't do what I wanted but I soon I grew to realize that having a family dinner is a very important practice to follow. Even though my family has many other unique traditions that we follow, this is the one that most stands out to me.
Being Jewish and believing in a Christian faith, I can relate to cultural traditions. While I celebrate Christmas like many Americans, I also celebrate a common winter Jewish holiday, Hanukkah. Hanukkah is translated into English as meaning "The Festival of Lights" and it lasts eight days. The historical background of this holiday comes from a time when the Hebrews had liberated themselves from the Greeks and reconquered Jerusalem. In Jewish law the menorah, a large candelabra, was to always be lit. The menorah was always located inside the Temple, the Temple that the Greeks had desecrated. Unfortunately, the Hebrews had only enough oil for 2-3 days, and it would take about eight days to obtain more. Miraculously, the oil burned eight days and so The Festival of Lights is celebrated every year. The menorah found in Jewish homes have nine empty spaces for candles. There being eight days of Hanukkah, one candle is lit on the first night, two candles the second, and so on until the eighth night. The ninth candle slot is for the shamash. The shamash is known as the attendant candle. It is used to light the other candles.
ReplyDeleteBy Jewish law, the shamash is used because only Hanukkah candles are to be lit on Hanukkah. My family, being Christians as well as being Jewish, use the shamash as representing Jesus-Christ, being the one who lights the way to salvation while still being a servant. When I was little, I used to receive a gift for every night on Hanukkah, although they would be small gifts. Now that I have gotten older and the economy has worsened, we don't do presents anymore. We do still recite the Hanukkah story ever year though, and recite the blessings every night over the candles. One night out of the eight nights we choose a night in which we have a Hanukkah party. We play a betting game called dreidel, we bet gilt(which is gold covered chocolate in the shape of coins), and we usually eat latkas. Latkas are like fried potatoe pancakes, are are amazingly delicious. Although many people have a misconstrued view of Hanukkah, I take pride in my Jewish heritage and enjoy in teaching what Hanukkah really is.
Since I do not have a specific "culture" to which I belong, I am writing on Option 2.
ReplyDeleteConsidering the fact that my parents were married in Las Vegas, I have somewhat differing views on its marriage industry. First of all, I tend to think that most people who get married there are either intoxicated (which would be the stereotypical view towards those married in Las Vegas) or just looking for a quick strategy to get married (as in those married in courthouses). However, there are some extensive, high-end wedding services provided in Las Vegas. In a city as well thought out as Vegas, there would be no possible way that the city planners would leave out any other ways to provide revenue. However, by getting a marriage license in Vegas (usually taking about ten minutes), those marrying the couples are just preying on their source of revenue.
I shall use the example of a military induction (go figure) to provide a contrast of marriages in Vegas. Military inductions are usually conducted in a respectful manner, through which the cadet to be sworn in will recite whatever they need to for their branch of military. There is a long history and tradition behind military inductions, while marriages in Las Vegas are hodge-podge attempts of formality, branching into a disrespect for the traditions of marriage.
Being an Indian born in America, and whose parents have lived the majority of their lives in India, I can completely relate to Lahiri and the "food suitcase" her parents use. We go to India almost every other year and every time, just like Lahiri, we take a suitcase full of gifts that comes back just as full with food. Packing and making the food is an activity my grandparents enjoy doing. During the entire duration of our trip, they ask my parents if we need some of this spice, or another of this sweet. No matter how much my parents want to say yes, they are forced to decline on the grounds that there is no space and that it is all available here in the United States. However, some of the homemade spices that my grandparents specialize in are always taken home in excess. Once it's home, a little bit is used in every Indian meal we have. In fact, for major parties my mom uses some of this powder to spice a characteristic South Indian Soup that has made her famous within the Indian community. Lahiri's story about her family perfectly describes my own.
ReplyDeleteWhile we are in India, we always make it a point to visit a certain restaurant called Diana. The restaurant serves classic Indian snack foods and some of the best ice cream I've ever had. The restaurant has been around since my parent's childhood. During their school years, Diana would be their place to hang out and study after school with their friends. Diana was part of their childhood, and now they have made it part of mine. Before we leave India, both sides of my family including all my uncles, aunts, cousins, and grandparents go to Diana to have some of their famous ice cream. It is a chance for all of us to get together for one last time before we leave and reminisce in old memories. Even though its management has changed during the years between our visits and the quality of its food has drastically reduced, we still go there every time not for the food, but for the memories.
Perhaps the most enduring tradition in my family, at least in the Boudreaux males, is humor. This humor takes many, albeit simple, forms from the activity of ragging on another family member to crude toilet humor to chauvinistic jabs at the women in my family.
ReplyDeleteThe greatest and freest source from which this humor flows is my grandfather, whom we call Pa. He is of short stature and dark skinned from years of working out in his yard and has the ability to go from deadly serious to goofy in a matter of seconds. His sense of humor appealed to me from a very young age. “Boudreaux jokes,” which were stories about a very stupid Cajun named Boudreaux, were often the highlights of my visits with him as a young child. I can clearly remember sitting next to him in the car, or on the couch at his house, or out at dinner prodding and begging him for him to tell me another Boudreaux joke. When he finally conceded, he would get cloud-eyed for a second, concentrating to remember a joke that he hadn’t told me before. After a few seconds, out came the joke from his mouth as easily as if he had just read it a few minutes earlier and in a thick, authentic Cajun accent no less. He must have had hundreds of jokes memorized. We would do this for hours, smiling goofy kid smiles and laughing until we were out of breath.
His humor wasn’t all kid friendly though. I remember my mom telling me that when I was very young, and we were vacationing at the beach, he would take me out for walks calling out to my mother that he was taking me out to look at the “twats,” which is what he called women. Of course he was joking, but that didn’t make my mother’s blood boil any less. He also loved to rag on people and his bitter sarcasm often sent my mom fuming to her room to get some peace. I was not safe from being picked on. He loved to play the much-hated game of 52-card pick up. We would be sitting together talking or telling jokes, and all of the sudden he would pull a deck out from his pocket, throw it onto the floor, and yell, “GO!” laughing as I picked them up. He also loved toilet humor. The infamous beans song was among his favorites, and every time beans were on the menu, you could guarantee he would be singing it before the meal was over.
The goofiness, sarcasm, and penchant for crude humor and ragging on people has carried over to my Dad and I so well that I have often gotten severe comments from my mother along the lines of, “Stop it. You sound like your Pa.” If humor is a tradition in the men of our family, the lack thereof is a tradition in the Boudreaux women.
Here is a URL leading to an audio clip of my grandfather telling a Boudreaux joke if anyone is curious:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbVH7YMae_U
The marriage industry in Las Vegas is genius. It plays on people who get drunk and hyped up and decide to make irrational decisions. This is great at making money for those people smart enough to take advantage of the people dumb enough to decide to get married to someone they met just recently. These people I see as a mixture of different feelings. The victims to the Vegas fist of marriage I see first as depressing. These people have fallen this far and gotten this drunk. It's embarrassing for them. I also see them as amusing because they wake up the next morning to find out they're married (The Hangover). I must say though that some people go to Vegas to get sincerely married. Not all marriages in Vegas are drunken, irrational decisions. BE SURPRISED! The exploiters of the drunken, irrational people I see as genius, as previously stated. They're similar to gift shops and movie food sellers because they take advantage of you're idiotic, irrational, crippled state. Gift shops do this because "you can't get this stuff anywhere else ever again!" and movie food sellers (better name?) do this because where else would you get food at a movie theatre. Plus... people tend to become hungry at the movies. However, while I admire the genius's who exploit stupid and smart people, manipulation, for the most part, is not a very good thing. Hitler manipulated an entire country to kill 6 million Jews. Not a good thing.
ReplyDeleteSome social tradition I disagree with... Well, I disagree with marriage. Why should I bind myself to one person for the rest of my life? I'm not saying I wanna whore myself out to the world, but I don't want to bind myself down. I want to be completely free or at least have an easy option of getting out of a binding situation. Divorce is not easy. Plus, I don't really agree with how marriage is sacred. To me and most of the situations I've been in around it, it generates hate, fighting, aggression, abuse, neglect, and several other not so positive things. I do see how it can be sacred to someone who is religious, but I'm not. Maybe it's just another thing I don't get and maybe I'll understand when I'm older.
My family has almost no traditions, and at times it makes me feel sad in lack of sentimentality. However, the one thing that jumps to mind in terms of tradition is the chicken dressing my mother makes every year for Thanksgiving and Christmas. The recipe was my grandmother's; though I never knew her very well, I have heard that she was a fantastic cook - an old-fashioned southern cook, at that.
ReplyDeleteIn fact, my mom and I still live in the house my mom grew up in with my grandparents here in Augusta. Our kitchen is tiny, but my mom often tells me stories of my grandmother spending all her time in there cooking everything from scratch, including the chicken dressing. My mom told me that my grandmother said once that the dressing never tastes the same twice; though my mother could not tell at the time, she said she realizes it now.
The recipe is typed out (from a typewriter!) on a sheet of yellow notebook paper, but it's really too vague to follow, so it truly does turn out a little differently every time. My mother always commands my sister or me to "sniff it" as she's making it to decide if it has enough poultry seasoning.
It's just this one little thing that I cling to that makes me feel part of a family.
This past Christmas, my mother asked if I still wanted her to make it, considering my brother and sister could not make it home for Christmas. Shocked, I practically demanded she make it. Tradition is tradition, and I stick to what I can.
Being that my family has no real cultural ties to our heritage other than preference of food, I can't exactly relate to the traditions mentioned in Lahiri's story. But the traditions carried out by the Harrover clan aren't those that are tangible or talked about. Every holiday that we celebrate tends to be classified into two groups: holidays that we go to our church family to celebrate (such as Easter) and those that we keep to ourselves (Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc). It's the holidays that we keep private where the special traditions are kept alive. Firstly, I think our entire style of conversation and humor is a tradition all its own. We sit around my grandmother's enormous table for hours, reflecting sardonically on the world. My family is very unique in our ability to be completely harsh and dry to one another, but it's only a sign of affection. Needless to say we aren't all that welcoming to outsiders (when my cousin got married, it took years for us to get used to and actually like his new wife being around). The process of reviewing the major events in each of our lives with biting sarcasm is something that I look forward to every year and as the grandchildren (myself, my sister, and my three cousins) have grown, we have established our own place and comments in the conversation. While the actual conversation is a tradition, it is not nearly as important as the seating arrangement around the table itself. I have sat at the head of the table, my grandmother on my left, cousin on my right, grandfather straight across, ever since I can remember. No one is told where to sit, we just know. This furthers our coldness to outsiders considering one person inserted in the seating chart throws the entire thing off and chaos ensues. Every so often my grandmother tries to switch up the seating and tells us we are too stuck in our ways but we always laugh it off and tell her we sit how we do "because that's just the way we are." It is not about the seating arrangement itself or because we particularly like the people to our right or left over everyone else. It is the memories that you make while you are in that particular seat, with that particular view, next to those particular people. When I remember Thanksgivings and Christmases, they all seem to blend because the scenery is all the same. So instead of remembering Christmas 2010, I just stock pile into all the memories I have made while sitting in that chair, next to Mimi and Anne Randall, across from Pop. While my family doesn't have any special traditions stemming from culture or religious holidays, we have something much deeper and intangible. We have a common bond of unforgiving humor and cynical ways. We have our seats at the dining room table. We have my grandmother trying to change traditions and ever failing. Those are our traditions. That's just the way we are.
ReplyDelete"Marrying Absurd" did shed some of a bit of comical relief on a situation that I am actually very upset by. Truly, binding two people for life is sacred and should not be made into a business. The sincerity of marriage as a whole is exploited in Las Vegas and it aggravates me because to me marriage is one of the most important and (should be) permanent customs that America has yet again, corrupted. I actually just recently watched one of these quick and pathetic weddings take place on the show "American Idol" and the whole thing just seemed like such a joke. It was a disaster of a wedding(if you could even call it that).It made me feel like they were mocking marriage because it wasn't really that important. Then again, my parents were married in Vegas, so I seem like a bit of a hypocrite. Yeah, they were married in Vegas, but they have a marriage that I look up to and they take the sincerity of marriage seriously. They have been married a measly 17 years, but they are the exception in which the bad connotation associated with "Las Vegas wedding" can be overlooked.
ReplyDeleteA custom that I was once use to, as well as many other families, is simply sitting and eating dinner altogether as a family. I know it sounds kind of cheesy, but it is a custom just like many others that overtime has been deemed as not important enough to fit into the busy and exciting lives of many Americans today. But to make a more specific point not just dinner, but also Sunday dinners. A custom where every Sunday, after church everyone would go to usually Grandma's house or another home similar and eat an array of good food. Maybe its a black custom, I'm not sure, but the big Sunday Dinner use to be seen as necessary and valuable custom in many people's lives.
Of course, my family has traditions such as decorating Christmas cookies or Easter eggs or other events of that sort. But that's not what I wanted to blog about. My real reason is much deeper than something my family does together. Being an old-fashioned, thoroughbred Mormon, my family originates from no other place than good ole Utah. There are many things that I wish my family could bring back in suitcases: people, grandmother's cooking, good laughs, and much more. One of the inevitable things that always makes it back to my house is fry sauce. I know, many people wonder what in the world this 'fry sauce' is. To all of those deprived people out there, it's better than ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard combined. We take numerous fry sauce bottles with us home, and then often times take individual bottles to fast food restaurants when we go. It's incredible to see how this happens every year even when we say it won't. WHile these bottles are in use, we usually reminisce about the good times we had while visiting in Utah. This fry sauce association makes my family personally grow closer and more sentimental in a way. At times, it seems to be that we go into fry sauce withdrawal because my family in Utah puts so much emphasis on the uses of fry sauce and how amazingly delicious it is. This is my family tradition in all the weirdness that it may seem to portray to others who do not understand where I'm coming from. Now summer needs to hurry up and arrive so my family can carry on the tradition that has lasted for years now.
ReplyDeleteAlthough my family does not have any specific cultural traditions like Lahiri, we do have some, especially during the Christmas holidays. Our first major tradition that my family has practiced for YEARS is gathering in the living room Christmas Eve to watch the Jim Carrey version of The Grinch. We have done this for so long that we can all quote the movie verbatim. Even though we know the movie so well, we continue to watch it because it's a tradition that brings us together for a few hours of amusement. With two teenagers and both parents working it's hard to all come together for a few hours and just enjoy each other's company, which is what makes this tradition so special. Another tradition at Christmas is decorating the tree. We have gone to the same tree farm since we moved here twelve years ago. We decorate it together and then on Christmas eve we put two special ornaments on: the nail and the candy cane. My dad reads the story of the nail that pinned Jesus to the cross and I read the story of the candy cane that represents Jesus' blood shed (red) and forgiveness (white). Even though these are simple and quick traditions, they mean a lot to my family. The hours we spend together decorating or watching a movie are memories that we will continue to treasure, especially my brother and I as we get older.
ReplyDeleteMy family has no truly special traditions that we all partake in. However, my daddy and I have one that is our glue. My daddy and I make an absolutely amazing sauce that can pretty much go with whatever it lands on. Yes, I know.. what is so special about a stinking barbecue sauce? It isn't so much the sauce that is special but the trust and the time it requires. My father started his recipe with my great-grandmother before she passed, and he had two daughter he could share it with. Instead my daddy simply chose me, and my mom and sister aren't even allowed in the kitchen or able to look at the receipt while it is being made. My dad trusts me with a product he has thought about selling after he retires, and he also trusts me with his brain child. My daddy and I work so harmoniously in the creation process that we don't even have to talk. However, we do talk about life and problems and we grow closer. There is no specific time that we make our sauce merely when it is required, for instance: graduation, back to college with bad food, Christmas, birthdays, etc. I think that the tradition is not so much about what is made, produced, or spent as much as who it is spent with. Like Mrs. Field's case with her daughters, if she is the only one who still makes the cookies the tradition is meaningless because I think that it is about the bonding of people. (If you want to try some of the sauce just ask and I will try to bring some)
ReplyDeleteEvery year my family has many different traditions pertaining to Christmas. We start our Christmas season by buying our tree the day after Thanksgiving. My mother has always been the one fill the tree with multicolored lights and once that is done our whole family shares in the huge task of filling the tree with the ornaments we wish to display that year (since we have SO many and not all of them will fit). But every year, without fail, there has always been one ornament that our family consistently places on our tree, a glass pickle. It's a German tradition that the parents decorate the tree on Christmas Eve and the pickle ornament is hung last within the trees boughs. The next morning when children see the decorated tree for the first time, they hunt for the pickle ornament because the one who finds it gets an extra gift from St. Nicholas. Sometime before Christmas, my family also watches one of our favorite movies, A Muppet Christmas Carol, which we then proceed to quote for the duration of the Christmas season. I know it seems silly, but it is our favorite movie about Charles Dickens story and sticks to the storyline pretty well, if you don't include the talking puppets. To round out our Christmas season, we all gather around the table on Christmas day and delve into a succulent dinner of standing rib roast, mashed potatoes, and corn casserole.
ReplyDeleteChristmas is the time of year that brings of family together the most. It is our "tradition season" and reminds us of our past years and good times together. Our Christmas traditions are not something that we slave to do every year, but are looked forward to during the other 11 months because of the new memories made each time we come together to share that special season with each other.
-Rebecca Pakradooni
(I had this whole post written and when I went to submit, there was an error and the entire thing was deleted. Won't make the mistake of trying to submit without having a copy again.)
ReplyDeleteWhile reading Didion's article, I felt a strong connection to the point she was trying to express about marriage now a days. While she specifically spoke of marriages in Las Vegas, the same could also be said of marriages as a whole in out country. While not all are taken to the extreme that they are in Las Vegas, the social necessity of marriage has become much less than it used to be, causing most wedding ceremonies to be cheapened and stripped of all significance. A wedding ceremony is meant as a public declaration of love to family and friends of the couple; a marriage however, simply means that in the eyes of the law, the two are connected to one another and allowed special economical and medical benefits because of this. Now, unless two people are marrying only because of these legal benefits, the wedding ceremony should be a crucial part of getting married. Unfortunately, the people getting married today, according to Didion, don't understand what a wedding should be like. Children today are raised in a world where they need to know what they want to do with their lives before they even know enough about themselves to understand what this may mean. Teenagers especially are pressured to make career choices early on as well as to get into steady, long term relationships, to avoid being called promiscuous or shallow. This environment leads young adults to believe that it's alright to jump into a marriage early on without realizing the commitment they are making. While Didion doesn't ever mention divorce, it's obvious that the ease and frequency by which a divorce can take place has had a significant effect on these types of marriages. Because divorce offers an easy out, indecisive young people feel safe marrying someone they may not be right for, knowing that they can back out whenever they please. Didion does an effective job of portraying this immature and impulsive behavior through her descriptions of Las Vegas weddings.
The high school prom is another social event that has always puzzled me. In every form of media available, we have seen plots involving proms, whether it be something to do with the prom committee, a cancellation of a prom, or, most commonly, struggling to find a date for prom. The thing that confuses me the most is the importance of having a date for prom. My middle school had a dance every month, and there was never any pressure to have a date to any of those. However, the moment we stepped into high school, prom became a frequently occurring topic - girls fantasizing about who might ask them years later or guys feeling pressured to ask a girl in a unique and extravagant way, thanks to the media playing up these fantastical events. Going to prom without a date is more of a statement against something instead of someone simply not having a date. Why do we make this one night so important? Most of us will go out on more than one date at some point in our life, usually with more than one person, so why do we make this specific date so significant? Even more confusing is the fact that a high school, an institution that discourages and sometimes even punishes for romantic relationships or encounters, would hold an event specifically designated for teenagers to bring a romantic partner to. While I'm not say that I disagree with any of these conventions associated with prom, I do find them all puzzling and intriguing, and I have to wonder how this tradition came about in the first place.
Traditions are really big in my family. However, the biggest and most exciting is the annual Christmas trip to North Carolina. Only my mom and dad and grandparents live in Georgia, but the rest of my family lives in Salsbury, North Carolina. Every year my family travels there for a small family reunion and it is always really exciting to see everyone again. Me and my cousins are really close so for us it is a really good time to act beneath our ages. Also, the adults always play a game where they buy the youngest child in the family the most obnoxious gift. It's their own little competition and it's exciting to see the expression of the mother's faces. This year is the year I am really excited about because we have had some new additions to the family and therefore me and my cousins are now no longer the oldest and we get to participate in the obnoxious gift giving.
ReplyDeleteIn reading all the things written here, I've noticed a couple of things.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, tradition is not something that can be easily defined. Those like the ones mentioned by Brandt, Erin and Jennifer show a completely different side of "tradition" than the ancient religious/cultural ones people like our Indian and Chinese friends celebrate. We're faced by two very different impressions of what a tradition can be, legacies formed by hundreds of years versus childhood or familial memories, but both types are just as meaningful to those who celebrate them.
My other point is to address the absurdity of tradition. Yes, some of them don't make sense; Yet we celebrate them anyway. Why is this? It again comes down to the personal meaning of these things. There's something comforting about seeing your brother out in that sea of maroon and knowing he's not going to be alone when he graduates high school, it's touching to see two people promise the rest of their lives to one another, and there's a certain heartwarming quality to standing in the kitchen with your mother or father or grandparents to do what you've always done. Maybe it's just me, but I feel like there are certain things that we will always do, because they make us feel safe with our place in the world.
-Anneliese H.
I strongly agree with Sharon's comment on drunk marriages in Las Vegas & sex. Marriages are supposed to be between two very close individuals who love each other sincerely, not between two complete strangers. The Las Vegas wedding businesses are aiding in ruining stubborn people’s futures. All people care about these days is money. They don’t think about how their businesses might impact one person’s future, such as these Las Vegas businesses. Like Sharon said, these industries only care about the money and not the real meaning of marriage. Sex, also, is being greatly abused. Like marriage, sex is meant for couples, usually married couples, who love each other. However, in society today, you see a bunch of teenage girls becoming pregnant or hear about so and so “doing it” at a party. People today don’t understand the real meaning behind sex, and this, too, is leading to higher divorce rates. Many individuals look towards sex to satisfy their needs. Once they feel tired of it, they leave their spouse. Drunk marriages and abused sex just sickens me. Some people just need a good slap in the face or a spanking to snap them out of whatever trance they might be in so that they can grow up and take some responsibility.
ReplyDeleteDorothy’s comment also appealed to me greatly because I can relate. Since we’re both Chinese, we share a lot of the same traditions. Once I read her comment, I immediately said to myself, “Dang it! I forgot to mention that… That too!” Like Dorothy’s fake money burning, when someone dies, my family will fold joss paper, also known as gold paper or ghost money, into a shape that looks like pieces of Chinese gold. Afterwards, we burn them to insure that the deceased is wealthy in the afterlife. Some of the things Dorothy mentioned in her comment were things I heard for the first time, like wearing a red belt and not being able to wash your hair for the whole month. I know I wouldn’t follow that tradition. I couldn’t even stand not washing my hair for 48 hours when I got a straight perm. It just felt nasty. :P Lastly, like Dorothy, I also enjoy Chinese New Year very much and receiving red envelopes.
-Amanda Cheung
I have really found it amusing reading everyone's traditions and certain things they like to do during the holidays. It all just shows that we are all different and there are always different events that bring certain families together. I like the traditions Abby, Alex, and Jennifer mentioned. It's funny how those similar things can be carried out in my own home and have absolutely no significance. It makes me appreciate and have a better acceptance of other people's families and opens my eyes a little bit more to how truly the simple things in life make us the happiest.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, with the option of "Marrying Absurd" Sharon and Heather made really strong connections to events or customs also taking place outside of the Las Vegas wedding business. I agree with Sharon 100% on everything she mentions about sex and how it has deteriorated to almost nothing. It's like it has no importance or value anymore and I hate it. It is such a shame to see how bad it has gotten and to see many, many young girls deal with troubles that they shouldn't even have to think about (Though it is there own dumb faults). Anyways, I also agree with Heather's bewilderment on the prom tradition. Though it is exciting, the pressures that come along with it are quite unnecessary and annoying and it confuses me why it is all so important. I am guilty because just the other day I was freaking out about if someone might have the same dress and me and after reading Heather's comment, I kind of want to slap myself for being so caught up on the whole thing and probably looking quite dumb to the people around me. These are just more backwards traditions associated with America that I don't understand and that actually anger me the more I think about them.
It was very nice reading through several people's posts about their traditions and their outlook of certain rituals. Not only was I able to learn more about my classmates, the blogs also brought upon many different memories of my family's traditions. Numerous posts made me chuckle, but the most memorable posts that I was easily able to relate to were Erin's family recipe, Abby's traditional talks, and Dorothy's eventful feasts. It is cool to see how all of our classmates have these traditions that brings everyone together. Like Amanda said about her family, regardless of culture, all traditions are sacred and vital to a being. However, due to our rapidly changing technological world, traditions are becoming torn apart. Like how Brianna brought up, traditions that brought busy family members together are losing its significance as microwavable food and televisions appear. Although with all these distractions, families like Tecie's are still able to maintain their traditions. In addition, these annual/monthly events contribute to our identities today; therefore, we should try to value traditions more. (:
ReplyDeleteAlex: You caught my attention when you recalled how every year you would watch the Grinch on Christmas Eve. Every year, on New Year's Eve, my family gathers at our grandparents house to watch movies all night long until we watch the ball drop at midnight. I agree with you-with working parents and two teenage girls-especially now that my sister is in Atlanta going to college and working-it is very difficult to find time to spend together. However, every year we seem to manage to meet for those five hours or so just to watch movies that all of us enjoy like Up, Despicable Me, and Peter Pan. Even though you watch the same movie every year and we watch different ones, it's a tradition that we continue to carry on-gathering in each other's company and just enjoying ourselves.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was trying to decide between the two topics that were available to write on, I decided that I should not write about traditions because my family does not have anything quite so unique as getting Indian spices every year. However, I should not have felt this way, judging by the kinds of traditions everyone else wrote about. Christmas cookies, special dinners and vacations are all legitimate traditions; being American does not really make them any less special. In fact, the number of Indian-Americans in our class made it seem like food suitcases were more normal than Christmas movies!
ReplyDeleteI also want to point out Heather's post about prom, which I definitely agree with. My dad always talks about the girls he use to date in high school/ college... there were a lot of them! He was just playing the field, seeing what kind of girls he liked and was compatible with. These days, there is lots of pressure on teenagers to have "serious" relationships and just stick with one girl/guy for months on end, like that is the person that they will end up marrying. That is no way to find out what kind of person you want to marry. Prom continues this tradition by only occurring once a year and forcing the kids attending to wear formal clothing (including EXTREMELY expensive dresses for the girls). As Heather said, in middle school you just came as you were and had fun. I think that an environment more like this would encourage teenagers to meet new people and gradually develop an image of the kind of person they would like to marry.
(Disclaimer: I never actually went to a middle school dance. :D)
Of course, I will be obvious and comment to Amanda's post. :) I couldn’t help but laugh when Amanda mentioned the awful food. I have been in her place when I stare at the food my parents get at Asian markets; it looks fine, but it‘s a whole another story when you actually taste the food (Sometimes it doesn't even look good). I will go off tangent for a second and give an example: pork’s blood… something my parents love to eat… I, on the other hand, refuse to even touch it with my spoon. It’s not even blood; at least I hope it’s not, but a lump of cold, red mountain of… something. I am also very glad to hear that I am not the only one who deals with all the traditions my parents make me do. Sometimes I doubt what my parents tell me and I wondered if they just told me that to laugh at me for being so naïve or if it’s actually a real tradition people in China followed. So it’s nice to know my parents haven’t been lying to me for the past sixteen years. X)
ReplyDelete-Dorothy Li
Again, as I’ve read through these posts, I have found the many different similarities and differences we each have. For those who answered the first prompt, we each have our own rituals and traditions which have been used for years. Some people, such as Rachel, Anneliese, and Mrs. Field actually share the traditions on Christmas cookies. With a lot of the people in our class, the tradition is not always something big or crazy. It could simply be listening to each other talk and discussing recent events, such as Abby. Like Anneliese said, we are learning many different versions of the word tradition and it’s interesting to see which traditions people mention. I feel as though what they chose reflects a significant part of their life. In Jennifer’s case, she states how it’s not really the sauce which defined the tradition, it was spending the time with her father.
ReplyDeleteA few of the posts really intrigued me and required me to think further about what each person said.
Schafer brought up politics and how politicians have just aggrandized their conventions. Whenever I think of politics in the past, I think of the sincerity and pure determination of Presidents such as FDR. However, with all the flashing lights, it seems hard to determine what a politician really stands for. They use such dastardly techniques to draw in most of the public. The sad part is though, that most of the citizens are clueless and still vote blindly. To them, the best candidate is the one who spends the most money on his campaign.
One thing I noticed in two of the posts, namely Suraj’s and Brianna’s, was that a tradition can be as simple as just having dinner with the family. In this day and age, people are busy all the time. Parents must work late and have barely any time to talk with their children. Kids, on the other hand, are overwhelmed with homework, extra-curricular activities, and everything in general. Essentially, having a time where both schedules are free is difficult.
Sam compared graduation to the weddings in Las Vegas. I have to completely agree with him. While we spend four years, slaving away over books (or for some, only the nights before the test), it all comes down to that one final moment, graduation. Like Sam said, it’s as if everything in your high school career is summed up in those three hours. People are finally recognized for their hard work. Graduation literally is the crossroads for life. After that one day, most of the decisions you make affect the future of your life. It’s a day of independence. It’s a day of freedom. It’s a day that’s one year, two months and twenty something days away, not that I’m counting.
Anneliese, I'm so jealous of your cookie tradition. It sounds like so much fun. It really makes me want to start a tradition like that one day when I have a family. I am especially intrigued by the "linzer augen" - are they just linzer cookies in another language?
ReplyDeleteAnd I also wanted to comment on what Heather said about prom. It really is quite ridiculous when you think about it. When I went my freshman year, I guess I was honestly expecting it to be something really cool, but at the end of it, it really was just like another night hanging out with friends. So many things these days are overrated, probably mostly in order to make money. I liked how Anna mentioned class rings. It does seem a little silly; the Balfour people practically forced them down our throats talking about how they would make high school "memorable." If your high school experience isn't memorable as it is, a $350 ring isn't going to make it better.
After reflecting through the post I really liked Heather's statement about prom, however, I do not agree with the part of the importance of having a date for prom. I think that pressure of having a date is more personal than social. Many people are happy just going with friends and never feel the pressure of having a date. I also remember the dances in middle school, but I think prom is a sort of a right of passage.
ReplyDeleteI also like how Suraj says his family tradition is sitting down to eat together once a week. My family does not usually eat together, we all eat in different parts of the house and come at different times. It might be nice to eat together other than big events, like Christmas or Thanksgiving.
-Erin Payne
The majority of people who wrote about "Marrying Absurd" came to the same conclusion: that the Las Vegas wedding industry is completely degrading to the sincerity that a wedding is supposed to be. Like these people, I believe that marriage should be something that is taken seriously and last for the rest of the husband and wife's lives. Marrying somebody that a person has barely known while intoxicated will rarely end in a strong, loving relationship that lasts for the rest of their lives as it should be. Furthermore, the easy requirements for getting married in Las Vegas provides very little opportunity for the family to be involved and witness the ritual that parents usually dream to see. Although I understand the instances where a couple who sincerely love each other choose to go to Las Vegas for economical reasons, they are only a small percentage compared to those people marrying as a rash decision. As Marley said, The Las Vegas Wedding Industry caters to those dumb people who decide to not think these things through. I think what Anna's comment about Las Vegas weddings being like a "child's game of pretend" perfectly sums up what marriage has become in Nevada. It has completely lost its sincerity.
ReplyDeleteBrandt- I think its awesome that you have your Boudreaux jokes amongst your men, but I don't like that you guys make fun of women. Having a lot of friends who are guys, I completely understand what your mother has to deal with. It's not cool. :P
I thought it was really interesting to read through the posts and learn about everyone’s traditions/view of different practices within our society. Once again, it shows that though we’re all different and have various ways in which we bring our family together, we’re alike in that we have these traditions.
ReplyDeleteIn response to the different attitudes among certain practices within our society, I completely agree with Sharon. It’s just sad that something that’s meant to represent love and the union of two people has become something meaningless. It is now nonchalantly mentioned in almost every aspect of our world whether it me music, television, internet, or school. However, something that puzzles me about the topic of sex is the different ways its viewed gender wise. (I don’t think I worded that right so let me rephrase) Obviously, it’s commonly known that the majority of girls see it as a more emotional act than guys do. On the other hand, it also gives them a different reputation. It’s funny to me that if a guy has sex with multiple girls, he’s considered ‘cool’ or ‘the man’. Yet if a girl has sex with multiple guys, they’re a ‘whore’ or ‘slut’. I don’t really know where I’m going with this, but just a thought. Overall, it’s terrible the way our world has diminished the meaning/value of it.
Most of the ones who mentioned Las Vegas agreed on the absurdity of the speed and lack of seriousness towards marriage that "Marrying Absurd" represents. It is completely absurd to imagine that something as serious as marriage could be desecrated at such a level as "Marrying Absurd" describes. Although "Marrying Absurd" points out ironic and ridiculous situations in which we imagine could only be exaggerations, the skewed view of marriage is seen every where today. Marriage is supposed to be a partnership of two in holy matrimony, "Until death do us part." Although there are cases where divorce is the best solutions, most divorces result from the lack of seriousness that the two bring to the marriage, an immature handling of emotions, or two marry merely for the sake of convenience.
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note, Anneliese's mention of holiday cookies being a tradition enlightened on the symbolism of tradition. Although some traditions may seem silly or pointless, as when Amanda mentioned sweeping out the bad luck, traditions are reflections of societies. Even in the way Anneliese, her mother, and her brother made their cookies differently showed a connect relation to how each cookie reflects the individual. Traditions keep not only memories alive, but also culture. Culture helps to shape who we are. Each of us are unique, and adding Culture into that mix makes us even more unique. That's why Tradition is so important. There's actually an interesting song on tradition if any one is interested in hearing it. It's called "Tradition" and it's from Fiddler on the Roof.
My post tonight is directly mainly towards the few people who have commented on prom (I can't really remember everyone). I do agree that its ridiculous how much is spent on one night of hanging with friends and going to eat dinner. I am currently searching for a dress that I love and is not overpriced and I must say its hard. I am also on Prom Committee and the money spent just to decorate and make invitations is insane. However, I agree with Erin Payne. Prom is like a right of passage. It has been a tradition in schools since...a long time haha. How many times a year do you get to dress up and go out to dances? I know I don't do that a lot. Even though I enjoy jeans and t-shirts, I like dressing up and doing my hair and the other girly activities every now and then. Regarding the date situation, I am going with someone who is just a very good friend of mine. You do not necessarily have to go with a legit "date". To me, prom is just a fun way to do something different and special with your friends.
ReplyDeleteNow about traditions, I agree with how Chewy stated that all of our family traditions are not big celebrations or anything. They are more of personal experiences with our families. Many people have commented on how it is not about the actual tradition, but about the quality time spent with our families.
While reading through all the posts I noticed a few common themes among the traditions that each person has. For one, I saw that almost everyone's traditions are not based on money and rather, on sentimental objects or memories. Josh's account of how his family adapted their traditions after the economic downturn and Chewy's "birthday knife" are examples of this. I also noticed that despite a few similarities such as the Christmas cookies, most everybody's traditions are very distinct from one another. I believe that family traditions are not just something you can adopt from someone else or actively focus on forming, but develop incidentally and draw from one's own culture and personality. Another thing I found interesting was how many people's traditions are very trivial, but still carry a huge importance to the people who carry them out. How Alex G. watches The Grinch every Christmas Eve and how Abby's family is humorously obsessive over their seating arrangements are examples of this. A small tradition that my family practices is that every New Year's Eve we get Chinese takeout right before the year ends. We have been doing this for over 5 years now, and even though it is a minor thing, it still means a lot to me. However, the overarching similarity that I saw while reading through all the posts is how everybody's traditions are based on spending time with family and loved ones. I feel that this is the underlying basis behind family traditions.
ReplyDeleteThrough these postings I enjoyed seeing everyone's different ways of life. I really liked Joshua's post because Hanukkah had always been a mystery to me. I never really understood that holiday nor had I taken the time to learn about it. But now that I know about it, it sounds pretty cool even though I don't really like holidays. I really liked the setting he described. I could feel the family togetherness of the home and the fun amongst them, betting gilt and eating latkas. It's pretty sweet.
ReplyDelete-Marley D. Griggs
I was reading Anneliese's first post and it really struck me. Personally I'm kind of a sap for love stories and stuff like that, so this post was right up my ally. First of all I want to praise Anneliese on her exquisite writing skills which were very prevalent in her post. Secondly I wanted to comment on how beautiful and touching yet simple and to-the-point her blog was. She talked about baking cookies, these cookies being extra special because they are the essence of her heritage and its culture. I thought it was especially awesome that they use the original recipes written in German and also speak in German when making these cookies. What's so cool about that is that, from what I know, this recreates what it was originally like to bake these cookies in Germany. Me loving different cultures as much as I do I think it's such a beautiful, special, and other-worldly thing that the Holland family does. It's like they're going back in time (history being another thing I love) and recreating it all. So that's all I have tonight, I just felt really connected to what Anneliese wrote so I wanted to comment on it. Chili, that's the Reeve family thing. Gutenachtkuss ;)
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Heather's post about prom, I am also intrigued by the significance of prom. However, I think that most human traditions, if looked at objectively, would seem kind of strange. Take the value we put on sporting events like the Super Bowl kind of example or how we associate certain foods, such as pumpkins, with certain seasons even though we have reached the point agriculturally where you could get virtually any type of food you wanted year round. I guess it simply comes down to the fact that we are creatures of habit and that our overdeveloped brains tend to ascribe certain emotions and feelings to almost any object or activity.
ReplyDeleteBy reading about many family traditions to the absurdity of Vegas weddings, I feel as though I have once again connected with other 28 people in our monsterous class. Traditions are large in my family especially on Christmas. Even though it is only once a year, that time together really makes a difference. The entire family jokes and laughs and it is just a wonderful feeling to know you have all these people around you that care and love you even though you don't see them everyday. I know Anneliese specifically connected her family tradition as making holiday cookies. While this is a little different from mine, I feel like I relate to her because I understand that, even though holiday traditions are very cliche, they still mean the world to us. Moving on to Marrying Absurd. I personally loved this story. I think it expresses the truth behind young love, or dumb love. I really like Sharon's mentioning of teenagers blindness to how big of a deal sex. They treat it as if it means nothing when in fact it is a huge deal, in which you are basically giving yourself to the other person. I don't understand how any teenager could emotionally take that on. I think this goes back to the Vegas weddings because society today is truly all about that one night stand and Vegas gets you there and in a hurry. Sharon I don't think you should worry about bringing up sex. We are all adults and if the people in our school are brave enough to do it, then why can't we talk about it?
ReplyDeleteWhen reading through the posts tonight, the entire subject of prom seemed really ironic to me. While some use the idea to relate it to the ridiculousness of Marrying Absurd, others still attribute the practice to tradition and more closely relate it to Indian Takeout. Like Alex said, Prom is a longstanding event that I am going to, my sister went to, my parents went to, and so on. To me, it is just about celebrating your achievements thus far (end of junior year, holla) and having fun with your friends. If I wanted to dress up in an expensive dress and spend forever on hair and makeup, I would do beauty pageants (no offense to those who do them, they just aren't for me). It isn't about the dress or makeup because that doesn't really matter. The whole point is to do something memorable with those close to you and look nice for all the pictures. While I am looking forward to prom, I totally understand why to some it has a ridiculous and superficial connotation. As Heather said, the pressure to have a date is slowly getting out of control and starting to deteriorate relationships. We are in the midst of high school, having a date to the prom should not and is not the most important thing in our lives. If someone doesn't have a date, go alone. There shouldn't be any shame in that. In marrying absurd, the craziness of Las Vegas weddings is exposed through the high drama of an event that is down played (a wedding is a huge deal, but a drunken midnight elopement or a shotgun wedding, not so much). The same thing could be said for prom, it is up to the beholder. When looked at as a designated night to dress up and remember friends and goodtimes, prom is a fantastic tradition to be cherished. However, when one looks at the monster that eats four hundred dollar dresses, ashamed single girls, and pressured boys, prom looks pretty, well, absurd.
ReplyDeleteMarley, your take on "Marrying Absurd" and your take on marriage was both hilarious and refreshing. I agree with you that marriage isn't really sacred anymore, and that's how I felt upon reading the narrative. It's hard to bind yourself to someone, especially with the both pressure of older generations saying you should stay with your significant other until death do you part and the difficulty and emotional impact of divorce. Also, like you, the marriages I've seen have caused so much hatred and aggression and pain not only for the couple, but for their families as well.
ReplyDeleteErin, I can relate to your feeling as though you don't have a specific tradition that your family adheres to. However, I found your "tradition" very touching and sweet because it is the same thing my family does. Your details and memories made for a nice read. Also, my grandmother was an old-fashioned southern cook as well, so it's great to see someone else who appreciates that.
After reading over everyone’s posts, I noticed a trend for most of the responses to Didion’s article to blame the marriages on people being drunk. However, there was only ever one mention of the couple being drunk. When I read “Marrying Absurd”, I didn’t get the implication that she thought these people were being taken advantage of by the companies. As I said in my previous post, I think the changes in social conventions are what have caused marriage to be lessened in value, not the wedding chapels. It’s not just Vega weddings that end in divorce, and couples are getting married from a “Romeo-Juliet” moment, as Sharon put it, all over the world, not just in Vegas. Erin Payne mentioned the wedding industry in Vegas being depressing because of its transformation into a business. However, there isn’t much left in this country that we haven’t made into a business. As Anna pointed out, even graduating from high school has become a way for companies to profit off of us. What makes weddings exempt from the capitalistic takeover our country has made of these traditions? I just think that a lot of you need to rethink what Didion was trying to say, and maybe consider that it’s not the fault of the “evil” chapels making a business out of marriage, but instead that the blame lies upon the people who created the need for a more industrial system of marrying couples.
ReplyDeleteI can see form the posts that all the Indian kids can definitely relate one certain level. and the thought of getting money in the Chinese culture makes we want to be Chinese at certain times. However I like some of the other posts specifically, Anneliese and Erin’s posts.
ReplyDeleteErin- In a way, I kind of feel what you feel. Sure my family has those traditions that I’ve listed in my previous post, but they do not feel like traditions. They are not that special or creative or even something that requires us to spend time interacting. Trips to India and New Jersey and doing a “pooja” every month are nothing special as a lot of Indian families do this. As small as they are, they are traditions though. My parents are the constantly working type, as many Indian parents are. They never really spent a whole lot of time with me when I was a kid. Their philosophy is “I want you to have everything I did not.” They spent a lot of time working to get better jobs and a better house that we never spent any time to create any traditions.
Anneliese- I’m actually quite jealous of the cookie making tradition for a couple of reasons actually. The first being that that is actually a tradition you can actually talk and have fun with your family. A “pooja” means no talking out of respect for religion. Second, is the fact that, I eat A LOT of Indian food. My mom makes Indian food everyday without fail for at least 1-2 meals. In fact I think more than 75% of food in my life has been Indian food. Yes it is “my” food and it tastes great and my mom makes it really well. However, after all these years, I’m bored of eating the same things over and over again and there is no “new” dish I can try. She has made everything so many times I know all the different variations of the dishes from different parts of India. I am forced to resort to other recipes from Italy, France, and other Asian countries. Want to send some foreign cookies?
- Pratik Gangwani
Some things I noticed that I thought were really cool were all the family traditions, like baking, watching movies, or just enjoying family conversations. I feel I can relate to just about all of these traditions during Christmas and New Years. My family chooses New Years as an opportunity to reflect upon the last year and also to bless the upcoming one. We all go in one room and each one of us prays starting from youngest and advancing to the oldest. Every year we miss the countdown because we time the praying down where we start before 12 o'clock and finish about thirty minutes afterwards. It seems kind of bizarre (vocab word) that we don't countdown, but I wouldn't have it any other way than to start my year praying. And to James I think it's cool how your family has a famed "fry" sauce and I would like to try it sometime, but I noticed when you said its better than ketchup, mayonaise,and mustard combined you did not include hot sauce, just saying.
ReplyDeleteSharon: I enoyed reading your comments on the "tradition" of sex. Yes, it is highly popularized in America, and yes, there are issues with this. Most people seem to act like just having a slight attraction to someone is enough of a prerequisite to engage in sexual intercourse. The attitudes most people have toward casual sex is just irritating.
ReplyDeleteI did not expect anyone to bring that up, nor did I think of bringing that up at all. So good job.
I also enjoyed what Josh had to say on the subject of marriage. Today, it is viewed as something required by society in order to be happy, but a person can be happy without a "significant other" in their life. I agreed with what Marley said about the aspects of marriage today; I do not want to be married either, and agree with what most of what he said on that topic. However, when one does take the time to marry someone, I believe that he/she should at least show some respect to the committment that is being made. Going to a courthouse to get a legal document is not enough respect for the institution of marriage.
I also want to apologize for posting late. I thought today was the second and was going to post tonight, but just found out that today is the third. Sorry.
A Little Extra Post To Erin: Linzer Augen tranzlates to something along the lines of "Eyes of Linz," (Linz being a city). They're basically two plain, shortbread like cookies with red current jelly sandwiched between them. What makes them "eyes" is the fact that we use a thimble to cut out three wholes in the top cookie. So if that's what your cookies are like, then yes, it's the same. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd to Luke: Actually, my family is Austrian; I just wanted to clarify. But I also really like what you said about making history come alive. That's not really something I'd thought of before, and it's a cool and interesting idea. Thanks!
Sharon-
ReplyDeleteI think you're aboaolutrly right. People have become less conserned with the sanctity of marriage and more conserned with the instant gratification that they get when they get married or have sex. Vegas provides both and plays on people's want for instant gratification by providing everything within the city. Thr fact that people have become so relaxed about marriage and sex has led to the decline of the meanings of both. They are both meant to be special events that you share with the person that you wiah to spend the rest of your life with, not just something to make you feel good at the moment.
Niyathi-
I particularly liked hearing about your personal " food suitcase" and i think it's pretty cool that in " indian takeout'" nothing was exaggerated. As someone who originates from the US, i couldn't really relate to the story, but seeing that others can and participate in the same thing was interesting to read about.
-Rebecca Pakradooni
Erin P: I like how you made an emphasis on the fact that the Las Vegas wedding industry is nothing more than a game. I agree and I feel confused as to why people would want to make the bond of marriage so unimportant. I also liked how you said that marriage was just a game to the chapels (or as you called them "businesses) and the ones getting married are only small game tokens. Like all of us when we play a board game, we don't usually care too much about the tokens themselves but the actual game winning. This industry really goes to show the greed of man and everybody's hope to being superior when compared to their competitors.
ReplyDeleteJosh: First off, I've never known anyone to be a Jew and then believe in Christianity, or at least no body has been open about it. I find it rather interesting. I would also like to thank you for the in detail description of Hanukkah and all that this holiday entails. It's quite enlightening to see how your family does the holiday but puts your own personal Christian twist on it so your culture may fit your religion. Dreidel is fun; lent is awesome. I just thought I'd throw that out there.
This is rather controversial and sorry if this rubs anyone the wrong way. However, I do not think that sex and marriage go hand in hand. I think the covenant that God is talking about is one to another, the law has no real say in it and marriage might not either. I mean think of all the "domestic partnerships." I am actually not sure why the court has to issue a marriage license with the separation of church and state. However, the fleeting relationships have no merit and should not involve sex. If someone is "going steady" with another person and have been for a while, by all means go right on ahead.
ReplyDeleteTo all the Indians: As I have heard about a lot of Niyathi's trips it is really funny to see how all of them can be simplified down to one thing. Going home (culturally, physically, however you wish to take that)
Since I won't be home until Sunday, I am going to go ahead and reflect on everyone's posts now.
ReplyDeleteIt's amazing to look and see how many people have different traditions that tie into their cultures and ways of life. Some of us even share similar traditions that we may not have even known we shared. It was interesting looking back through everyone's posts and seeing their different opinions on the Las Vegas wedding industry and their perceptions of marriage and how society has taken advantage of it in some ways. I guess I just can't say enough how eye-opening it is to just see everyone's opinions. And I don't mean eye-opening in a bad sort of "How could you think that way?" but rather it's just so interesting to see everyone's different point of view on topics like traditions and marriage, both of which vary so much. As I believe Sharon said earlier in the narrative post blogs, "Wow!" It truly is amazing that we can be part of a widely diverse, yet understanding, class.
I have begun to notice a theme in our blog posts. First, everyone shares a personal or cultural belief that they have. Then, in the response, everyone is astonished at how different everyone is, but also finds similarities that they can identify with. We are all humans (like it or not) and thus have the same basic needs. We all need someone to care about us, we all need a place or state of mind to call home. We all have traditions and rituals, whether we do them by ourselves or with a group. It is easy to be "understanding" of other beliefs and cultures as long as we remember that we are all humans.
ReplyDeleteFor anyone who does not know what to write a description about: detail a place that means a lot to you, whether it has personal significance, historical background, or you just think it looks cool.
Like Anna & Rachel have already said, everyone has different traditions, and like our last post, everyone is different and unique in their own little way. It's quite interesting reading through everyone's post & getting to know everyone better through their cultural or personal beliefs. These posts allow us to share our different stories and opinions we all have on certain topics. Every post allows everyone to learn something new about each person in our class. No one really had the same story to tell but some were quite similar. This comes to show how diverse our world is and how there are so many things we don't know about people around us. We just have to open up to each other and share our thoughts, stories, and ideas.
ReplyDelete-Amanda Cheung
I enjoyed once again observing the vast range of cultures and traditions and the amount of diversity in our class. From Niyathi's Indian traditions to the humor shared in Brandt's family to Anneliese's cookie tradition, there is always something special that we hold dear to us year after year. Traditions are made to be practiced and kept around, and from reading everyone's posts, this is reinforced.
ReplyDeleteThere was definitely variety in the opinions on "Marrying Absurd" as well. Sharon bringing up sex seemed to create a spark in the conversation that showed everyone's different opinions. I tend to agree with Jennifer's view of sex, as she believes that if two people have made a serious commitment to one another, then I believe it is perfectly okay for them to explore their relationship by sharing themselves. However, both people in the relationship must develop emotional maturity before engaging in sexual relations. I also agree with Victoria, as she believes that casual sex with no real emotional meaning is irritating, and I hate seeing young teenagers engage in casual sex.
Reflective Post
ReplyDeleteAs we have already discovered our class is very diverse and quite open to any type of discussion.
In our "speed fights" on Friday I found that the mature side in each story have more lines that are effective and usable in an argument. I think that just shows how we grow as people as we get older. We are able to understand who our parents really were. We can finally understand why they did what they did. As we grow older we learn to fully accept over types of people, and in turn we learn to accept our parents for who they are.
When we are younger our emotions are simple and can easily be influenced. A writer can sum up how a five year old feels in a single word; where as an older person might have mixed feelings where it could take a paragraph to describe his feelings. It's true that some parents are weird and some are just horrible but you know that they do love you (at least a little bit).
Being teenagers, many of us rebel against our parents in any way we can. We tend to think we are always right and they think they are always right. The case is quite the opposite of both these situations. Both parents and kids are sometimes right and sometimes wrong. The only difference is that while kids can accept this fact, not all parents can. If they cannot admit they are wrong they tend to come up with more reasons about why they are right. Eventually the parent will reach a point where they get irritated and end up ignoring or punishing their children. Sometimes they cannot bring themselves to say, "We do not want you to go here or do this because we fear for your safety, and that is what parents do."
~ Pratik Gangwani
As usual, our class is very diverse. No two traditions are exactly the same even between traditions that are technically the same, for example, my Chinese New Year is somewhat different from Amanda’s Chinese New Year. It is nice to know that everyone is so accepting of each other’s traditions and that everyone can relate to another tradition in some way or another.
ReplyDeleteOn the topic of marriage, it seems that the majority of the class believes that the narrative “Marrying Absurd” shows the idiotic idea that people who marry on a whim expect the meaning to be as special as people who took time and effort to make the moment special. The time also allows the two parties to decide if the other was the perfect one that he or she will spend the rest of his or her life with. However, I cannot say that the idea is one hundred percent true; there are always cases that do not fit under the norm and should not be treated as such.
-Dorothy Li
By reading everybody's blogs, I have really gotten to know everybody in our class. Traditions with families and views on aspects of our society mentioned in the blogs allowed us to see the hidden side of people, which is what really lets a person know who you are as a person and how you became that way. With that knowledge, we can all become closer and form better relationships based on commonality. I'm glad to see that a lot of us have traditions that all originate for the same purpose: to come closer with family. Also, we are all willing to share our opinions and when they differ, we accept it and move on. We don't try and force our opinions onto anyone else. Because of this, our class can easily discuss without worrying about starting fights.
ReplyDelete~Niyathi Prasad
Through reading everybody's blogs, I've learned alot about people in our class. Sharing and learning about different family traditions and vviews on various customs of our society has made our class closer; In turn I feel like we are more comfortable with eachother and know that we can share personal view points without be criticized. I also really enjoyed it Friday when we "shot" with words. I feel like I got alot of it in analyzing language/diction and different connotations phrases and words can give.
ReplyDeleteAs already observed, our class is very different and unique in many ways. We are open- minded to various subject and willingly to share our opinions without any demeaning comments or remarks.
ReplyDeleteUnlike our first narrative discussion activity, we discussed this particular mode "physically." ( which I very much enjoyed) From our arm- wrestling matches, I am able to realize the huge transformations each author experienced throughout his or her life. At a young age, we are all immature and blinded by our simple desires. As time progresses, perspectives begin to change along with our bodies. The small things that once had no significance later come to attention, for they become valuable. For instance, Manning and Vowell both came into realization of the love they had towards their parents. Thus, they try hard to work on their relationships with their parents. We, also, should have similar experiences, for we all undergo this phase.
In addition, I have really gotten to know a lot of people in our class, especially those who are very quiet in class. (; We all have various traditions that define who we are. From cookie- making to food- shipping, each tradition is memorable and distinct. Regardless of last names or similar characteristics, we are related by bonds and experiences. Traditions give each being a sense of belonging, and I am able to clearly see that in the blogs. Therefore, traditions are vital, for they reveal the true us. Like Niyathi said, the sharing of personal traditions allows others to see the true, hidden person's side and thoughts.
I really feel comfortable sharing my opinions and thoughts with our class for we are so accepting and try to understand the other's point of views. Although all of our experiences differ, it is amazing to see how we are still brought together as one AP Language class, for we are all able to see the bigger picture. Regardless of how we are shaped, we are all one and I love it. (:
Alright, I don't know how much power I have so I'm going to keep this pretty brief. This time around, I found the blog posts particularly fascinating. Many of us have known each other for years, and yet were entirely clueless to the inner workings of our family and our "traditions." Through sharing these things, I feel like I have really gotten to know everyone a little better.
ReplyDeleteI must admit that I was disappointed by not being able to discuss the stories as one big class, but the more personalized arguments were fun too. I believe that the way we argued, with the mature side often being stronger, shows that we ourselves have become more mature over the years.
-Anneliese H.
I definitely agree with what Anna said in her reflection. By now, the posts are just predictable. I will admit that each of us are different, but it's really not surprising that we all are similar. As humans, we are all basically the same.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really find this post conducive to writing the descriptive essay; however, the activities we did in class Thursday and Friday helped quite a bit.
For anyone who still has no figured out what to write about yet: write about something that has significant intrinsic value to you, or use something to describe someone symbolically.
I really enjoyed this assignment a lot. I was really curious about what people thought about the different topics we read about and enjoyed getting to discuss them together with everyone. It was cool to be able to compare all of our thoughts and ideas, and I'm glad I got to learn so much about everyone from this assignment and the discussions.
ReplyDeleteReflecting upon all this is like watching a romantic comedy: it's all predictable. However, I don't mean this in a negative way. Predictability can be and is a luxury sometimes and I really like reading the same things from everyone because I like to be reassured that I know people they way I know them to be. I do like the occasional tidbit of randomness that some people come out with to add a little zing to the whole experience, but all the reflection posts are practically "Found" posts. And if you don't know what to write about, do what the TV show Seinfeld does on the screen, write about nothing.
ReplyDeleteReflecting back on this assignment, it made me think of what a tradition really is. Most traditions reach back hundreds to thousands of years. But traditions can be made everyday, any day. So what makes a tradition traditional, rather than doing it on a certain day every year? My conclusion was that a tradition is like a time capsule. A time capsule contains things that you enjoyed or things that bring back memories, things that represent something about you as a person. Traditions work in the same way. They reflect on memories, culture, and things that have shaped people throughout generations, decades, or even throughout one year. Tradition is a reflection of how we have been shaped and that self-reflection is important.
ReplyDeleteI really like this assignment more than last week's. While last week's post was a good way for everyone to realize we all face problems and to see that everyone in the class is willing to listen to anyone who needs, this week's post really made me think. It made me think about what a real tradition is and opened my eyes to the fact that while we are all trying to "individuals", we are, in actuality, the same. Everyone has something they do with their family and to some extent we all believe in the same things. Morals are high in our class and that is evident through these posts. I think this also ties in the marriage beliefs. We all try to what is right and when times are hazy and we can not see what is right, there are people around to help see us straight. Like i said, this week's topic really got me thinking and understanding. I think last week understood people's struggles, but this week I feel like I know the people in my class.
ReplyDeleteConcerning the descriptive mode, I think it is my favorite mode that we have done so far. The ability to put emotion and meaning into something that is seemingly mundane is an invaluable in writing. It allows you to show the reader something about yourself or something in way that they can understand without getting overly personal or sappy. That's all I got for tonight.
ReplyDeleteThis assignment really opened my eyes on the different traditions that people carry out with a passion and consistency. Throughout both topics-the one this week and the one last week-I have learned quite a bit about my classmates, but I would have to say that I think I learned how my peers act because of this topic. It is probably because this is the description mode and people feel comfortable to go into detail about topics that otherwise wouldn't. In reference to Marrying Absurd, it was interesting to hear different people's views on the topic. It was somewhat of a shock to hear Jennifer's opinion and reasoning behind it to how sex and marriage shouldn't be bound together. Her post didn't change my opinion, but, once again, this topic opened my eyes.
ReplyDeleteThe "wrestling with words" activity this week was intriguing to say the least. It was interesting to see how many subtle examples authors imbed in their texts to make a point about their characters. Like Annaliese said, I am also somewhat disappointed that we did not do a class wide discussion, but wrestling was just as interesting. I enjoyed reading all the blog posts this time. Because one of the options focused on traditions, I felt like I really got to know my classmates and that they are some of the most diverse people I have ever met. This is a good thing, for they are also accepting, which lets us get into wide reaching discussions without having to worry about offending anyone. Reading the responses about the other option, "Marrying Absurd," was very humorous and insightful. The story itself is crazy and absurd, but the responses it prompted about taboo topics such as sex and getting married were an eye-opener for me.
ReplyDeleteThis week in the descriptive mode I felt we got another chance to open up, and tell the class who we are and where we came from. For the half of the class that posted about "Marrying Absurd" they were all pretty much were in agreement that vegas style weddings are not a good thing. All four stories in general helped me learn about different things; for example, "Arm Wrestling with My Father" taught me about speaking through your actions and expressing your emotions, and I plan on working on putting those feelings on paper for my Description paper next week. The class discussions and exercises we did this week also benefitted me by making me think about a given topic, and react in a timely manner.
ReplyDeleteI think our entire class has voiced the "it is amazing how different yet how accepting our class is" idea so I don't need to. The craziest thing about our class in my opinion, is how we all view situations so differently. I am pretty sure it was Brianna who said it but forgive me if I'm wrong, but our various families can make a "tradition" out of something daily for another family. I like how Shelby also brought to light the double standard between men and women. This standard isn't just present in sex but also in the daily work place, existing in forms like the glass ceiling. On Friday I truly liked having our "fights." While the whole class didn't speak in the discussion to each other, this rarely happens during a seminar anyways. By breaking down into little groups and then re-grouping for the Jello-pit everyone had to voice something. What shocks me though is how on the blog everyone is dandy and gets along, however in the classroom things get much more vicious after a discussion is over. Names get slung around, grouching, and complaining happens or a "I cannot believe she/he really said that! How rude!" I know it happens because I am guilty of it too. I think the cyberspace walls gives us a chance to fully describe what is on our minds without actually facing each other to say it. I believe that that same wall allows us time to think and fully absorb other people's ideas and view points.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I am really sorry for having a late post and forgetting to do one on the second day I think. Maybe next time I can get it right! :)
One thing I really got from all our discussions was that in descriptions and customs, we often focus on the little things rather than the big picture. Instead of just marriage, we think of rings and true love and children. Instead of just holidays, we think of family time and traditions. We all have certain feelings, emotions, and experiences that we associate with certain topics and events.
ReplyDeleteIn our "wresting match" on Friday, I really liked how we picked out certain words and phrases that we felt epitomized what we were trying to show. It really was interesting how all the bits and pieces came together to paint the picture of each story as a whole, and really gave me a better understanding of the power of descriptions.
And in the end, I think I really enjoyed observing how, even through all the choreographed and planned aspects of life, it's always the little things that flesh out the experiences.
First off I would like to say, like many other people, even though we all see things differently and have different opinions, we have amazing respect for each other and get along great. It's interesting how so many of us have family traditions and such that are really only silly activities or events, yet they mean so much to us. Like Brandt said, it's amazing how we can take something so normal to daily life and make it have so much meaning. If anything, I've learned through the decriptive mode how everything have a meaning. I've also enjoyed getting to know my classmates better and learning things about their family traditions.
ReplyDeleteLike Erin said, in reflecting on the posts and discussions over these stories, it is interesting how each family has small things (such as things past down or intricate traditions) that they revolve around. Instead of looking at the big picture, like a holiday or entire culture, we center around a small part of if to represent our families. I also would like to applaud our class on our acceptance of each other and I think it is really interesting how we all are not only accepting but genuinely interested in one another's culture and traditions. In regards to the "wrestling matches" on Friday, I couldn't help but notice a prevalent theme of the changing of views as a person matures. This got me thinking about my own outlooks and ideas of people and how they have evolved and developed over the span of a year, high school, and my entire life. Not anything too deep but just something I had thought of. I've really loved learning about the different customs of my classmates and I feel like I know everyone that much better because of it. Our class is pretty awesome. Props to fifth period.
ReplyDeleteWow. Past = passed. Oops.
ReplyDeleteI fully agree with Sharon with regards to "Marrying Absurd." Marriage has been transformed from a religious sanctity to a careless, drunken act. The exploitation of people's "love" for business is very wrong. This exploitation has taken away taken away from the idea that marriage is a commitment and has made it into something that is simply done for the fun. Marriage should be viewed as something permanent. The fact that intoxicated individuals can be wed is completely absurd. This just sets up for disasters since the two would likely not commit to such a relationship if they were sober. These types of spur of the moment decisions can be contributors the the excessive divorce rate in our country.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading everyone's posts, I find it interesting how similar everyone really is. While one person's traditions may differ from those of another person, it is likely that the differences are not very extreme. It seems as if many people who have addressed family traditions have described events that are not entirely different from ones of which I am familiar. I can even relate to some of the traditions that are completely foreign to me. An example comes from Pratik's original post. Even though I do not celebrate any Indian holidays, the use of fireworks and other such things in celebrations is very familiar.
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