Today’s topic was about family and cultural traditions. We share about our culture and family background and what we holidays we usually celebrate. We even prepared printout pictures to show them our families.  ECU students explained to us the significance of Thanksgiving celebration which I thought to be very informative. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas parties are huge celebrations in America since a large population of Americans are Christian.

Our discussion today was much better structured compared to the 1^st link. We managed to discuss about more subtopics such as taboos and superstitions since we are much more prepared. After today’s discussion I felt motivated to learn and appreciate other cultural diversity even more. 

 

From there, we moved on to the matter of family traditions. We discussed on what is considered norm in the family constitution of both cultures. This discussion includes number of family members, marital statuses, and family gatherings. Eventhough it was different from our standard family traditions, but I could conclude that both cultures celebrate family values greatly. We also exchanged family pictures, picture of our domesticated pets, and stories of family backgrounds. As conclusion, I think that it was a very informative video session and I look forward to the next one.

This tradition is compulsory to be celebrated and my family will gather together during this time. There’s so much do’s and don’ts during Gawai but I’m gonna mention one. Watch out before you speak or talk because every word may influence everything happens around you. I remembered being scolded by my grandma just because I said the penganan jala (cakes or biscuits, I guess, made from rice flour and palm sugar) looked delicious. It turned out we can’t compliment or say a thing about food or drink before it was fully done. It’s weird and I still remember it till now because my grandma almost threw the coconut shell at me. So, that’s all about this topic. 

Indian community likes to use herbs and spices in their daily cooking. For example, my mom always cook delicious food with many kinds of spices and it’s just tasty to eat. When it comes to clothing, Indian woman usually wear saree and men goes for dhoti. Besides, we do practice some customs such as not wear footwear inside the holy places and pierce the ears when we are baby. Apart from that, we celebrate our traditional festival called Diwali. Diwali is basically symbol of joy and my family never forget to celebrate it. We believe that, this festival bring prosperity to each and every Hindus family. Overall, I love my family and I respect cultural traditions of my religion.
-The beauty of the world lies in the diversity of its people-

Although we are also consider as Indians, we really don’t follow all the traditions and customs expect for some for example we will perform the rituals and customs of puberty ceremony. Puberty ceremony is done when a girl hits her puberty. Usually girls will be prohibited to meet boys during this time expect for their family members. It mostly held within a week where for a few days the girl must eat foods made of URAD dhal and to drink raw eggs daily. During the final day menstruation, the girl will bath in flower water, apply sandalwood on her body and that is the starter pack of Indians girls to wear Sari (Indian traditional attire) we were taught to pass down this traditions to future generations as well

On Chinese New Year’s Eve, we will have reunion dinner. This is where all the family members eat and chat together. We also clean the house at this time because it is a tradition for Chinese people to not clean the house on the first day of Chinese New Year. Besides that, on the ninth day of Chinese New Year, especially Hokkiens and Taoist, we offer prayers to the Jade Emperor and celebrate His birthday. We call this celebration is Pai Ti Kong. We offer many food and gold for the Jade Emperor as thank you and protection. 

I have a small family with 6 family members which included parents, 3 younger sisters and grandmother. We live in Penang, Georgetown. We do like Sunday because we have the time to spend together for movie. Most of the time we do use Hainan to communicate, next is Hokkien or Chinese too. Our tradition clothes are cheongsam. But nowadays, most of the people will only wear cheongsam during Chinese New Year or certain festival only. 

During Chinese New Year Eve, we will have family reunion dinner. My grandmother and my mother will be busy with cooking. Besides, we will offer prayers to our ancestors during Chinese New Year Eve. We like calling the all the ancestors come back home and have their reunion dinner together for a new year. We will wake up early in the morning and prepare for the offer prayers. After this, we only have our reunion lunch and dinner with family members. I will not miss every reunion dinner with my family.