Jessica Shemereko 11.20.13 Period 6 Culture essay My Culture
My culture helped shape me in various ways. My family plays a big part in my life, teaching me lots of life lessons. Growing up with the community that I live in, my church and my traditions have influenced me to be the person I am today. My religion, the food I eat, weird remedies that cure sickness and traditions are all parts of my life I couldn’t live without. Being raised in a big family I was taught to share my things and not be greedy. Now that I have only a couple people left living in the house I have privacy and quietness, being able to do things I wasn’t before. Being raised in the Russian community we have lots of traditions. Though out my life weddings have been an important event that I have always attended. Weddings in the Russian community are different from American weddings. First the couples start out taking pictures in the morning, already seeing each other before the ceremony, after the ceremony takes place everyone goes into the church’s dining area, eats Russian traditional foods, and tells the bride and groom their wish’s or sings them songs. Weddings are huge and usually all the relatives and close friends are invited. Other traditions we have is on holidays such as Christmas and Easter the whole family gets together and celebrates. Most families in the American culture open presents on Christmas morning, but in our family we wait until after Christmas church service we come home, have lunch, and then open presents together. Believing in God is a must in my culture. You will be looked down upon if you don’t believe in God and will be shunned from the church. The religion that my family believes in is Baptist, even though I don’t believe in some of the aspects. You are able to get baptized at the age of 16 or 17, any age before then is not allowed. The pastors and elders are looked up to and are often come up to for advice and comfort. Therapy is believed to not work and the kind of help you would seek is from a pastor. Divorce isn’t taken lightly, if you do happen to get a divorce you are looked down upon and cannot be a member of the church. My parents keep my