Taditions are suppose to be passed down. History is too. But that doesn't always mean that it is. It takes time to learn it all. It takes time to know you don't know everything about your own family. People have different ways of passing down their traditions. Some pass it down in stories; some pass them down through rituals, and others pass them down in the kitchen. My family passes them down through some stories, but mainly in the kitchen. Both my grandpa and grandma on my family's side came from China and know the Chinese traditions.
From the information I have gathered over the years, both sides of my family have come from farming villages in mostlikely southern China. Yesterday, we were celebrating Chinese New Year, and they decided to teach us one of the traditional Chinese foods.
If you have ever been to a Chinese restaurant, you have probably heard of Sesemi (sp?) balls. The round fried dough with usually red bean paste inside. Well, my grandparents were teaching my sisters and me last night. It takes a really long time to prepare, but in China they make them every full moon. Only on special occassions since food was scarce. There is a way to make the balls come out perfectly round. One thing I will always remember is that they taste best warm. When they are cooled, they lose their flavor slightly and it is less enjoyable. Instead of red bean paste we were putting peanuts, sugar and a paste that I forget what it is called.
From my experience yesterday, I know that there are many things I can still learn from my dad. But there is even more I can learn from my grandparents. Dad will teach me things I will need to know to survive: taxes, tools, problem solving and such, but my grand parents will teach me what really interests me. They can teach me the arts, something that runs wild in our family: drawing, painting, fighting, cooking and oh so much more.
Traditions, whether they are passed down from parent to child or grandparent to grandchild, let them continue on. Let us remember our past and anscestors, and let us keep our family pride strong. We have so much yet to learn and so little time. With each passing second, we are all dying. At different paces and of different causes, but let us stay strong to pass down our knowledge.
 midnight-mystic-dragon · Sun Feb 18, 2007 @ 08:14pm · 0 Comments |
