A Ritual That I See Is in Danger of Being Forgotten, Essay Example

I have once read that culture is a memory.  I recollect this statement now, when thinking about the large number of family traditions now forgotten and neglected. Just as culture is partially made up of customs preserved since older days, each family’s culture is represented by the rites and ceremonies carried out in a family circle among the people united by blood relation. There is something undeniably special and valuable in each little custom kept safe in each family member’s memory. However, contemporary perception of life as it is often denies the significance of family culture. Family evenings, sharing a meal with ones’ relatives, personal contacts among all family members, differences in age and personalities being smoothed by the inborn respect and honor, are all phenomena becoming the thing of the past. And that is exactly what I think we should prevent from happening. The tradition of family unity and mutual support is now in danger of being forgotten, as well as each family is in danger of losing its most precious qualities, which we should not allow to happen. Since what is a person without knowing one’s roots, realizing one’s origin, and bearing connections that cannot be broken by anything in the whole world?

Every Sunday evening my family gathers around the mahogany dining table to pray and to share a meal that my aunt prepares. Eating Sunday dinner together has become a nice tradition of ours that I believe to be conductive to the good relationships in the family. This ritual was given start to by my grandmother, who carried it out regularly all her life. It was eventually taken up by my aunt. Grandmother’s original goal was to bring us together in order to bring religious inspiration into our lives. She believed that love begins with give and take, and everyone can become involved in this loving transaction by praying, offering and accepting food. I recollect each such meeting with joy and sweet melancholy. I never feel as happy as when being surrounded by my loved ones. We usually talk a lot, yet not about general facts or current events. We communicate our deepest thoughts and feelings to each other, sharing our emotional experiences, talking about our inner conflicts and anxieties. When the dinner is over we usually have a rest, reading or watching TV all together.

My favorite part of the evening is when we all pray. Uttering the words of faith, hope and gratitude that we address to the Lord, each one asking to never abandon us and to help us move in the right directions, – the whole process is something truly amazing. There is something mysteriously powerful in how we all stop and pray, all overfilled with the common sense of reverence and peace. These are the moments when we share our love not only with each other, but with the whole universe. The common upsurge of emotions that we go through unites us in an exceptionally wonderful way. When the whole family is praying in the common religious inspiration, I start to realize that our unity is something not solely about the blood relation; it is also about spiritual harmony that we revive each Sunday while saying the words of prayer.

Sunday meetings are the happiest moments of my life, that I wait for impatiently through the whole of the week. I regard myself as a modern and advanced person, but I believe our family traditions to be an inalienable part of my life, that have always had a great deal of influence on the formation of my personality. I do not understand why some people regard contemporaneity and adherence to traditions as two absolutely incompatible phenomena. I believe that ignorance of the traditions and neglectful attitude to the cultural values result in overall lack of culture in the modern society. If culture is a memory indeed, than how can there be any culture at all if we intentionally strive to forget the history of our origins? Traditions were not created for nothing, they were worked out to bring particular benefit to the society. I believe that our family tradition of having common Sunday dinners has strengthened our family ties and has become fundamental to our emotional and spiritual health. Due to the following of family traditions I was taught to realize the importance of warm and trusting relationship between people. I believe our gatherings to help me realize the true values and to teach me to follow my true believes.

Somehow many people maintain that spending time with one’s family is a waste of time. They argue that sharing a meal doesn’t cause any other consequences except that it makes you eat more. I believe this position to be shallow and dull.  According to psychologists, eating together helps people to get over fights and mental problems. Anthropologists in their turn state that family rituals, such as eating together, carry religious and cultural meaning. Common meals are also conductive to cultivating table manners and some general rules of etiquette. I strongly disagree with people who argue that following rules of etiquette result into cultivation of snobbery. I prefer my grandmother’s position. She used to state that as far as we regard ourselves as human beings, we bear the responsibility of knowing how humans behave and act. In my opinion people deprived of possibility to communicate with own family, either intentionally or not, lack some crucial factor in their life, and I feel truly sorry for them.

Unfortunately, my position of valuing family traditions is shared by few. I start to observe that some of my younger relatives feel perfectly fine missing our family meetings, and even if coming do not show too much enthusiasm for the whole event. I feel horribly sorry observing their indifference and shallowness. I regard their ignorance of the importance of preserving the family traditions as an annoying misunderstanding and unwise behavior. In the dangerous, chaotic, fast-flowing world of ours, things like family meetings appear to be peaceful islands in the storming see of never-ending human activities. How can we consciously deprive ourselves of the possibility of physical, mental and spiritual rest that we might obtain in the company of our family? What can we possibly replace the old nice touching traditions with? Communication with family is a part of my life that I value too much to give it away. The warmth and tenderness I feel when observing my loved ones sitting by the dinner table, talking and smiling gently to each other, laughing at each other’s jokes and showing consideration for each other’s worries, – these are the feelings that are precious to me and that I will not exchange for anything in the whole world.