My Family Traditions

Having moved to the United States in the beginning, I didn’t realize how different my life would be. I had been living in Russia for twenty years before I decided to change my life completely. For me moving to the United States was equal to moving to a new planet. I had to go through a lot of adjustments in cultural differences. I have made new friends, changed jobs and schools and found new stores to shop in. However, there is one thing, which I will never find a replacement. It is my family. Both of my parents and my elder brother are living in Russia. Though we constantly communicate with each other, there is something we are unable to carry through phone or Internet, something valuable and irreplaceable - our family traditions. There are a few of these traditions and habits that I have lost or changed since I came to United States.

The first thing that I started to miss was the food. When I was little my parents used to take my brother and me to our summerhouse where we had a big garden. We went there almost every other day. At the time when we didn’t have a car, we had to take a bus there, which was crowded, loud and hot. By the time we got to the summerhouse, everyone was already tired, but there was the garden where there was always a lot of work to do. Our garden always provided us with fresh organic fruit and vegetables. That was the only type of food I was used to eating. When I came to the United States I had a lot of problems with grocery shopping. In the beginning I could hardly buy any fruit and vegetables because they seemed fake and tasteless for me. It took me a year to find stores and food that I like. Then I realized that nothing tastes like the food at home.

Another of our family traditions that I miss is the celebration of holidays when the whole family gathers together. One of the most remarkable is Easter. Normally it is in the end of April when the weather is warm enough to go for a picnic. According to Orthodox religion we color eggs, bake a special kind of bread and cook a sweet dish made from curd. And with these items and some other food we would go out of town for a picnic. On our way we always stopped by the monastery, where we prayed and swam in a saint stream with the extreme cold water. Then we went to a forest to have the first picnic of the year. There was something unique on Easter day. It was all about what we did and with whom. Now being away from my family and friends I realized that there was something spiritual about those days, something that I cannot find living in this country.

The most significant family custom was when we had a meal together. At the table no one could start eating his or her meal before our father sat down. If he was busy, we waited for him and he was always the one to have the first bite. It is a tradition that has lasted for generations in our family. And now living away from it, I still share the idea that everybody should start meal all together. I tried to bring in this tradition when I ate with my roommates or friends. However, I was never insistent. Unfortunately, it did not work out because as I have noticed, a lot of people become more self-concerned in the United States and they do not always care about waiting for everybody else.

These are a few of my family traditions that are very precious and impossible to replace. I am very proud of them because they help us to appreciate and respect each other and to be more united as a family. I am glad that I had those traditions because they made me the way I am right now. I am planning following our customs in the future as much as I can. Though I understand that it is impossible to maintain them a hundred percent, there are some that I won’t be able to forget. They are my connection with my family. And these days being away from home I miss my family and those things we used to do. But I truly believe that we will get together soon again. I am also looking forward to the time when I will have my own family so that we will cherish our own traditions no matter on which side of the world we live.