Cultures and traditions in a Family

There are many different cultural beliefs among families. There are families that pass down heirlooms from their ancestors, which is really cool because that is something from along time ago and if its still in good condition can be worth a lot of money. Other families have family traditions that they do every year. For my family, I have many different traditions. For example, every year, me and my mom make the Christmas cookies for our household. On Good Friday, i make Easter pies all day long with my mom-mom, three aunts and my cousin. A lot of traditions can be fun for the whole family or just for one family member. My favorite part about family traditions is that you can always continue them when you get married and have your own family. Like when I have kids, I will still make Christmas cookies with my mom, but I will also be including my kids so that there are more hands. My mom's favorite tradition is when we go to pick out our Christmas tree. Personal, this is not my favorite time because my mom takes forever to pick out the perfect tree, but she has her reasons for this. She wants a tree that is strong, does not shed much, full, not dead in any spots, and is the perfect height so that it not only fits in our house, but also able to have the angel on top. Then there is the tree decorating, which is my favorite part because we always listen to Christmas music and if there is a Christmas movie on, then we will listen to that instead. One book that kind of shows different cultures is the book Slaughterhouse 5 because in some cultures, the age of becoming a man is different than others. When there are 14 year old boys fighting in a war, it is most likely do to their culture and the traditions within that culture. So culture and traditions can go a long way, depending on the person.

Names Can Give Someone Power

Last week in English, we read this play called The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. This play was hilarious because to me, it was about being someone else. This also relates to what a lot of people do in society today, minus the double life part. For example, in the play your name can mean a lot of things. It could mean power, wealth, and describes the kind of person you are. In today's society, we have the first two, power and wealth. Now people don't have to be famous to have a powerful name. Let's take my hometown for example. We have the Hostetter's, the Chamber's, the Canaday's, etc. On a completely different scale, we have the Kardashian's, the Jenner's, Miley Cyrus, Prince William, Duchess Kate, etc. and these people have power from name and wealth. Personally, I find people who lie about who they are to be terrible people because then you can never trust them. But if you read this play already, then you know what's ironic about this play! If you haven't read this play, then I don't want to spoil anything for you because this is a really good play! But what I can tell you about the play is that there is this thing called Bunburying, which is when you have another life outside your own. Two of the main characters, Jack and Algernon, do this. Jack does this once, and the name is Ernest Worthing. Algernon does this twice, one with a name of Bunbury and the second name is also Ernest Worthing. They both change their name to be someone that they are not because they want to get away from where they live and be someone they are not and not have to worry about it. People today do this too, even I did once. I remember moving to where I live now and having to make new friends. I was a t a young age so it was okay, but I still wanted to be someone different. When I got to high school, that when I started to act different and called myself Rebecca, which was my alter ego. She didn’t last long because I realized that it made my life complicated. Anyway, in today’s society and in the play The Importance of Being Earnest, you can see exactly what I mean by name equals power and/or wealth.