Petrina
3. Name some rituals, activities, traditions and material artifacts that define your own culture.
Well with Euro 2012 starting this past week (Friday)I have a chance to catch up with some of my English roots. Being born in London, I have this need to to watch football. I will wear my England jersey and purchase the 2012 cap. I will watch the England matches with friends and family. I will drink a few pints. Having married a women with Dutch heritage, I will also cheer for the "Oranje" (who lost yesterday :( ). I will also eat bangers and mash.
For myself the World Cup or Euro Championship is a way that I can touch base with the English culture which I was born into and lived in until I was seven. The current Euro will be exciting, as I can use technology (Skype, Facebook, etc) to connect real-time with my family and friends in the UK while the match is being played. This ability to share, communicate, and revisit the culture I was born into is something I look forward to over the next month.
Hello Dominic,
I love your comments,thanks for sharing your English heritage rituals with us:) I've never heard of Bangers and Mash. Sound like you might have to chase them down with a pint!
Cheers
Donna
Hi Donna,
I wish I could say Bangers and Mash was a special dish, but alas it does not. It translates into sausages and mashed potatoes.
I will have to look up why sausages are called bangers, I have just always known them as such. Goes to show you how we really are not truly aware or our own cultures. Hmmmmmmmmmm, food for thought :).
Hi Dominic,
I completely understand where you are coming from interms of the "need" to get into football when the EuroCup is on. I felt this same football fever when I was working in Berlin during the last FIFA cup and Germany was in the running to make it to the finals. Even though I had always felt like an outsider to the German culture, because I had very limited language use and I also wasn't very "German" in terms of my attitude - when FIFA came to town, as long as you were dressed in the team colours and tooting a vuvuzela you were part of the game, part of the team and part of the football culture! It was great and I was so glad to have been a part of it while I was there. It was a culturally-defining moment for Germans as well, because one of my colleagues said that it was after a long time that Germans had stood up with pride and sang along to their national anthem.
As a Canadian, our culture (at least one aspect of it) can be paraphrased by saying: Double Double... It is such a common saying in Canada, that the term is now in the Canadian Dictionary.
Good evening Tom,
Now are you saying that the Canadian Dictionary has really accepted "Double Double into its pages? Hopefully Tim Hortons will get credit for that one and not a non Canadian company like Starbucks."
Donna:)
Tom, That is an excellent point. On one of my first trips to the United States I proceeded to order a Double Double to some very confused looks. The server had no idea what I was saying, and I had no idea why they were confused. Rose