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Okay, i'm a bit of a dweeb.

But i really am interested in traditions and cultures of other nationalities.

So what do you do in the spirit of your ancestors?

Do you drink mate, do you have certain symbolic foods or religious ceremonies that are particular to where you live, certain things you wear or something you inherited?

And what the fuck do Finns eat, anyway?

I'm Sicilian, and for as long as i can remember when anyone gets together we sit around a table and drink espresso, often with sambuca and lemon peel, and have a small pastry or something with it. There's at least three ways that i know of to make espresso; in an espresso machine, as demitasse (drip), or in a m....mag.....i don't know how to spell it. Maganette? The reverse stovetop coffeemaker thing. A lot of cultures have a tradition similar to this.

There's also a form of witchcraft passed down through the Italians called Stregheria.

Okay, so, um, talk about your culture here. I suck at starting a spam topic.

Im 1/2 swedish and the other half is mainly scott but there is really too many things mixed in. SO i say im Swedish.

Every Christmas we all gather at my grandparents house. Sit at a big table, drink a LOT of coffee and then conveniently find ourselfs busy once my grandpa gets out a jar of Ludefisk(?) basicly is dried fish that you could kill with the smell alone.
Other than that there isnt much culture in my family

Well......(intresting topic Witch.....)..........eh.........we don't have any special tardition or whatever...well, once a year there is a celebration in every state of Domonican R. but each one its separte from the other state..........I explain:

Dominican R. have 32 or 31 states whatever! and every state have this celebration once a year...but not at the same time..u know what i mean?....
it is supposed to be a religius celeb. but......the new wave dont give a shit about religium!
We just party, get drunk, rape girls, dance, and party for a whole day! ..........

And.....there is another celb called CARNAVAL....if u know this big party that the brazilians have, its just like that, we......they dress with weird cstumes, and a lot of color...and they walk for one of the main avenues of the capital.....its a national celeb.

And........i can't think of more.........................................if something come up....i''l post it.

Nothing exceptional. Of course, bot sides of the family have their own Reunion but nothing important of note diffeing from other reunins.
We celebrate all Holidays traditionally.

My Dad's ancestors were Roman Catholic up until my Grandad&they celebrated some Catholic traditions, but that was long before I was born.
My ancestry is so blended I don't have a specific "culture" anyway...Prussian/German/Russian/Irish/English.....whats that? Mongrel, I guess I am.

Oh yeah, one thing that usually happens is that when everyone gets together, my dad and his brother play music (dad on the accordion, my uncle on the guitar). they usually play a bunch of tarantellas and everyone who's drunk enough dances.

As a Finnswede I like the traditional crab feast which includes: Sitting around the table, singing drink songs, drinking, eating seafood and raising toasts to whatever comes to mind. After every song you have to drink and finnswedes like to sing a lot, so we tend to get extremely drunk very quickly.

ahem *BUMP*

Eh, if ever i thought there was a forum in which a thread of this nature would be feeding frenzy material, this would have been it. But perhaps i should have titled it something like "Discuss Something Completely Useless Here". Probably would have gotten more participants that way.

We also have this sauna kompetition called "putkinotko". You throw water constantly on the stones in order to get the sauna real hot, the last person to leave the sauna is the winner. A tie is also possible if the bucket gets empty.

That's hilarious, Tomi! Saunas seem to be a big part of Finn life....

We italians have a game called "bocci". It's played on a rectangular area that's boxed in. A small ball, called a pallino, is thrown first, and each person/team tries to get their subsequent throws of larger balls (called bocci) as close to the pallino as possible. In a scoring round, a point is gained by a team for each bocce that is closer to the pallino than any of the other teams' bocci.

In tournaments, the first player/team to get nine points wins the round.

Unfortunately, there's no bocci here. In fact, there's really no italians here. In fact, there's really nothing here.

Hey! My grandfather has won a senior tournament in Bocci.

Holy cow, really?

Your grandfather is....finnish, no? Is the game played in finland also?

He is a Finnswede and yes bocci is played in Finland by certain small groups of people.

That kicks so much ass!!!

Okay, how about this one. My relatives, the ones who actually live in Sicily, put sugar on EVERYTHING. it's really kind of gross. My favorite incident was when Fifo took a melon, cut it up onto a tray, poured honey all over it, then poured a CRAPLOAD of sugar all over the whole thing. Then refrigerated it and served it to us. I just stared. Christ, i don't even drink soda.

And speaking of honey, here's another one. This comes from my godfather's family. Roast almonds and spread them in a tray. Cover in honey and maple syrup, then bake. Supposedly it's really good. To me it just tastes like way more fructose than i should ever ingest in my entire life.

And then there's that whole hereditary witchcraft thing. From what i hear, there's a line of paganism in Scandinavia as well?

Well, my grandparents are pretty devote Lutherians and so is most of Sweden (or so they say, I really have no source outside of them). Im sure there still is a heavy pagan influence there though.

I once read that one of the reasons that swedes and finns are at odds with each other (or at least, i'm told that they are) is that sweden allegedly "Christianized" Finland. Or something. I don't really remember. But hey, i tried.

Now that would be one helluva grudge, given that the region has been Christian for a millennium or so.
No, I think a more likely reason is that Sweden happens to be our neighbours. Finns can be quite xenophobic when they feel like it.

NordicStorm wrote:No, I think a more likely reason is that Sweden happens to be our neighbours. Finns can be quite xenophobic when they feel like it.

Now wait a minute, that's lousy rationalizing! Mexico and Canada are both our neighbours and we don't hate them or make jokes about th.....

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heh heh...uh, what i mean is......um.....yeah..........*slinks away*