Family Tradition Essay

Family Food Traditions

Family Food Traditions Eating brings people closer together everyday, and for everyone, there are important memories that have been created because of food. Whether it's a formal dinner, or an informal picnic, there will always be special bonds between people because food was involved. We need to have traditions with food because they form and strengthen the bonds between us. There are holidays in every culture where the food is the focal point. For example, the most important tradition involving food in the U.S. is Thanksgiving. According to a 2015 poll, 95% of people in the U.S. spend Thanksgiving with their families."Thanksgiving by the Numbers." Fox Business, Fox Business, 23 Nov. 2016. This is because people in the U.S. grew up making memories with their families, and they want to make more memories with their children. These traditions are important to people because they make them nostalgic, so it's necessary for people to take a break and spend time with their families. To relate the topic of nostalgia with food to my life, I recall a cherished memory I have about making enchiladas with my grandma when I was nine. My mom's father is hispanic, but her mother is not, so she learned how to make hispanic food just for him. I have always admired this, because she learned how to do this just to make my grandpa happy. She made us many hispanic dishes, but my favorite is still her enchiladas. I still remember the smell of the chicken and beef that my grandma had prepared

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My Favorite Family Tradition

What is your favorite family tradition? Maybe it's family Christmas, or family Thanksgiving. For me it is deer hunting. My family has been deer hunting in the same place for the last 25 years. It all started with my grandpa going hunting with his friends. Then when my uncle got old enough to deer hunt he starting going too. Once my dad started dating my mom he started going out hunting with my grandpa too. Deer camp slowly grew until they had eight guys out there all hunting everyday. Then my grandpa died and a lot of the people stopped coming out. This was before I ever hunted, but when I did I could tell that there were lots of good memories, and history in that place. Even now when we drive down the road my dad or my uncle will say,...show more content...

*** I had taken the day off of school, and my uncle took the day off of work so that we could go hunting a day earlier. We woke up at 5 a.m. to get into the stand by sunrise. Anybody that has been deer hunting since they were a kid knows how difficult it is to sit in a stand for hours when you are ten years old. I had managed to sit in the stand next to my uncle for two hours before we decided to go get breakfast. Two hours might sound like a long time to some people, but my uncle can sit in the woods for 11 hours straight and have the time of his life. However, that was not the case for me. We crawled out of the woods and got in the truck to go back to camp. The road that we hunt on is a single lane road that is about four miles long with a deep ditch on the north side, and a very shallow ditch on the south side. The woods is at most 20 feet from either side of the road, so you are pretty immersed in wilderness. As we were driving back to camp my uncle was scanning the woods as we drove and he saw a deer in the woods. He drove by and stopped so we didn't spook the deer. Something I didn't know that you were supposed to do until that point. We quietly get out of the vehicle out and I grabbed my gun. I couldn't freehand shoot because I wasn't strong enough to hold the shoot the Get more content

My Family Heritage

Family Defined

The word family has changed so much in the past century. A family back in the 1950's was probably considered a husband, wife, and one or more children. Times have changed and families have become much different. The Interpersonal Communication: Relating to Others book defines family as a, "Unit made up of any number of persons who live in relationship with one another over time in a common living space who are usually, but not always, united by marriage and kinship" (Beebe, Beebe & Redmond, 243). Families can be broken up into five different types. The first is the traditional family, which includes a mother, father, and their biological children. Next, is the blended family which includes...show more content...

William, known as Bill, was born on July 20, 1921 in Minneapolis, MN. He worked in the plaster/stucco business for over 25 years before working at Northwest Airlines. His wife's maiden name was Lorraine Mulcahy. Lorraine was born on August 13, 1922 in St. Paul, MN. Lorraine went to college at the University of Minnesota where she got her Bachelor of Science degree and became a dental hygienist. My grandma "Lo" is the genealogy nut in our family. She has searched for birthdates, marriage licenses, and other documents of her grandparents. I called grandma Lo to get some information on my great–grandparents and family stories. I found out I was part Norwegian and I never even knew it! Grandma Lo's parents were Edward Mulcahy and Olga Shermoen. Her father Ed was born on April 15, 1880 in Minneapolis, MN. Ed worked as a claim agent for the Great Northern Railroad in the twin cities. Olga was born on March 15, 1888 in Hawley, MN. She also worked for the Great Northern Railroad as a matron. Edward was 100% Irish while Olga was 100% Norwegian. This makes my grandma Lorraine 50% Irish & 50% Norwegian. My grandpa Bill was adopted in Minneapolis so his genealogy is unknown. He was told by his adopted parents that he was mostly Irish. If we pretended Bill was 100% Irish, this would make my mom 75% Irish and 25% Norwegian.

Father's side

My father's name is Gerald Otto Utz. He was born on January 23, 1950 in Springfield, MN. He is

Ethiopian Family Traditions

Growing up Ethiopian, food has always been a focal point in my life, the dinner table being the heart of the home. For me, food is a magnet that brings together friends and family from around the world: it has been an element of my life that has motivated me to spread my values of generosity and compassion.

Three years ago, I was lucky enough to travel to Ethiopia. There, I participated in what is now my most treasured family tradition. As a way to celebrate the upcoming Ethiopian Christmas, my family and I prepared meals to donate to those without sources of food or shelter. As I returned to the U.S., I knew that I wanted not only to share the entertaining elements of Ethiopian cuisine, but its culture of hospitality as well. Since returning,

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My family has a lot of different traditions, but one stands out more than the others. The holiday I am talking about is Christmas. My family has always celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve. We start the celebration by going to our church's Christmas Eve service. During this service, we sing Christmas songs and watch a video of the first Christmas. After the service, all myfamily goes to my grandparents' house to open presents and have supper. The meal is different than most Christmas meals. All of my family members bring an appetizer instead of bringing a main dish. One of my cousins is Haitian and one of uncles is Italian, so we have a lot of different cultures represented. My favorite is my uncle's meatballs. Once we eat we have two different places to sit. One is called the kids' room and the other is the adult room. You are supposed to sit at the kids' table if you are not married. Once we have finished eating we all head to the living room to open presents. Before we open presents, one of my younger cousins reads a Christmas poem. A different cousin reads the story every year. When it is finally time to open presents, we always open them one person at a time and always go from youngest to oldest. We go one at a time because my grandma likes to see what everyone got. Once everyone has opened their presents, my grandma tries to recruit some people to play bingo. She likes being the person who calls out the numbers because that's what her mom always did. We have been doing all of these things for as long as I can remember. My dad says they have been doing things this way for the last 40 years. My grandma is the main person that has been carrying on these traditions.

I would say my grandmother is the glue to our family so everyone follows her lead. I think that my other family members are so used to doing these things that they will continue to do them in the future. I would say I am a participant in this tradition. I am one of the younger grandchildren, so I do not say much or try to change anything. If I did offer a new idea, I do think my grandma would consider it. My whole family takes part in this tradition. I have six aunts and uncles and twelve cousins, so my family is pretty big. Everyone

My Family Tradition

While preparing for this paper, I thought very hard about any specific traditions that my family has or has had in the past. Although thinking and brainstorming for a long time I could not come up with one tradition that my family has. I think that the main reason for that is because, almost everyone in my family has gone through a divorce. Ending a marriage seems to be very popular in our society today, one statistic states that, "50% of first marriages end in divorce." However common divorce may be the pain and heartbreak seems meaningless, until it happens to you. The reason why I can't think of any family traditions is because all of my family traditions have been ripped apart because of two people's ill...show more content...

Fortunately for my grandparents, each one of their children grew up without hesitating to love another person.

The eldest of the three children is my Aunt Sue. She and my Uncle were married in 1969 and had two daughters, Marci and Mica. My Aunt and Uncle are the only fortunate ones to still be in their first marriage. However, their daughter Marci did not follow in her parents' footsteps. She thought she found her soul mate and was married in 1999. Less than a year later, they were divorced. Luckily for her, she remarried in 2001 and is still happily married. My Uncle Les, the youngest child, and his wife, Lisa, were married for four years when they decided to call it quits. They also had two children, Kelan and Ashton. However, unimaginable they remarried 8 years later and surprisingly, everything seemed to be perfect. Some said that they were an example of true love. However, they were wrong a little over a year later, they filed for divorce, again.

My dysfunctional family never really seemed to bother me until it hit home, very close to home. Lets start with where it all began. My mother and father met in 1975 and were married in 1977. Like most, the two were madly in love and wanted to start a family. Five years later, in 1982, they had their first child, me and my sister Katie was born three years later, in 1985. When I first started to think about family traditions, I talked to my mother who I

Family traditions and cultural legacies contribute to an individual's self–identity because it is the fabric of where he or she derived from, who they are, and where they're journeying. Cultivating Culture states: "Culture can give people a connection to a certain social values, beliefs, religions and customs. It allows them to identify with other of similar mindsets and backgrounds. Cultural heritage can provide an automatic sense of unity and belonging within a group and allows us to better understand previous generations and the history of where we come from." In contrast, traditions and cultural legacies can also inhibit an individual's self–identity because some families believe in total loyalty to the constructs of the family system....show more content...

Because of Dee or Wangero disdaining of herculture, she will wander aimlessly in where she fits in this world, not knowing if she is Dee Johnson a woman of a strong descent or Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo a woman of a style popular for the moment. "Culture the entire way of life of a group of people (including both material and symbolic elements) that acts as a lens through which one views the world and is passed from one generation to the next." "Although culture may seem to be "second nature" it is something learned, rather than innate. Because we learn it so slowly and incrementally, we are often unaware of the process. For instance, few of us would be conscious of having learned all the slang words we currently use or the distance we typically maintain from someone while talking with him /her. We may not remember exactly when we first felt patriotic or how we formed our opinions about people from the upper class. We all carry culture inside ourselves; it becomes ingrained and internalized into our way of thinking and acting. Culture guides the way we make sense of the world around us and the way we make decisions about what to do and how to do it." However those guidelines are not always embraced my every family member, so then the family traditions and cultural behaviors can become a burden to the family member who wants to branch out and lead a Get more content

We all have family traditions, some of which we take pride in, some of which we dread and despise but, whether you know it or not they are what make us who we are. One of my favorite traditions that I can truly say I'm passionate for would have to be Thanksgiving dinner. The dinner for the holiday goes by in a blink of an eye because of all the enjoyment. However, the preparations that lead up to the day are long and prestigious even though they are what make the dinner so great. Since the holiday comes up before we know it, we get started as soon as the year hits mid fall.

The first thing my family and I think about is who we are going to invite. We consider if thanksgiving this year will be a simple close family get together or loud aunts and uncles kind of gathering. We acknowledge what we did last year and choose the opposite to switch it up. The messages and emails are sent as soon as the invite list has been created. Replies from our family must be given as soon as possible only to make the preparations a little easier even though, we all know it will be hard anyway. Once we get all our responses in we can now move on to our next step.

Decorations are not that important for any family who celebrates thanksgiving but, in our family it is one of the main tasks. If my mom makes a scene if we wearing something that resembles even the slightest bit of a hobo. You know she will make a scene if the table is not at it's best. We spend hours upon hours in the home decor stores, slowly making our way to stores like Hallmark for the small details. "The little things count" is a phrase we hear over and over again. So, "The little things count" is what we remind ourselves over and over again. Even a sprinkle or confetti or a small flower arrangement can make a huge difference.

Days pass until it is a about a day before thanksgiving. It is time to gather the food. We get what we get every year, the traditional mashed potatoes and turkey meal. We head to the grocery store as soon as we have generated a list. My mom leads the way, pushing the cart in front of my siblings and I through each aisle telling us what to get, as she stares into the list as if it is her mission to get everything on that list.

It was going to be a bad Christmas. Nothing could be done to salvage it. The little tree (the only one we could afford) was bare, surrounded by its fallen needles. The Christmas presents were not much; Santa did not have the means to give the children what they had on their Christmas lists. It was going to be awful, the season of joy and giving was corrupted, nothing in the tiny apartment even resembled Christmas. The little, dead, bare Christmas tree was prophesying what the season would really bring that year to the family, almost nothing. How could they save the holiday? It seemed almost hopeless, but it turned into my family's most loved and fun family ritual.

To this day, I cannot remember a...show more content...

The experience listed above has touched my life deeply, but it never struck me as a way to help my family grow.

Elder Bruce R. McConkie said, "We know that the Lord operates through families. He himself lives in the family unit; it is his eternal system of government in heaven and on earth, and he always offers as much of his own system to men as they are willing to receive" (McConkie, p.35). What a wonderful thought! Families are so amazing, they are pieces of heaven and visions of eternity that we can experience here on earth, given to us from our Heavenly Father. Since families are such an important asset in this life it is vital for us that we learn to appreciate them and to utilize the time we have together. Adler said that "the most fundamental human need is to belong" (Albert and Popkin, p.18). We can show our families how much they mean to us and how much we need them in our life by spending time with them, getting to know each individual and compromising for each other.

According to Wolin and Bennett family rituals are "vital to the life of the healthy family" (Wolin and Bennett, p. 407). When we take the time to plan and accomplish family recreation, we make that experience more special and meaningful because we, as a family, chose to

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