Family Holiday Celebrations

Tradition

My informant invited me to join in a ceremonies for a Jewish Holiday, and immediately followed up saying it wasn’t a big deal because he has had non-jewish friends join him before. He explained it was part of a family tradition. The following is a transcript from out interview:

“Informant: I’m Jewish duh, but since I live in an area with few Jews where almost all of our family friends are not Jewish, we embrace a culture where whenever there is a major Jewish holiday like Hannakuah and Passover, our family invites the “pagans” over to experience our holiday with them. Rather than be with all Jews(though I go to temple once or twice during each holiday period), we isntead enjoy sharing our culture with our friends and in return we get invited to X-Mas/Winter Solstice/ other parties

The informant claimed, “It represents the American Melting Pot. I think it shows my parents are trying to be tolerant of other people and their religions and really just want to get together and have fun.”

The informants family is trying to create a larger community by inviting more people rather than being restrictive. By sharing their culture and getting involved with other people’s culture, they create better relationships with those around them.