Culture and the wheel of change

Frog on a spinning wheel, Royal BC Museum, Victoria BC

I have always been fascinated by culture. One of my good friends is Indian but I realized that over the years I didn't know that much about Indian culture (mind you, there are a plethora of Indian cultures). Most of what I knew revolved around food. I learned about saag, paneer, and alu gobi, how to say water in Punjabi because I often needed it. Then I learned about the mundir, temple, where they have a food kitchen every Sunday.

Just to be clear, we are not talking about a bacterial culture. This is not the kind of culture you find in yoghurt. Instead, we are talking about:

• something profound,
• a universal human capacity,
• an inevitable human expression,
• something that connects us to our past.

Here are some interesting facts I compiled:

• In some parts of Europe, they celebrate birthdays to ward off evil spirits.
• In the Yugar (a Chinese minority) weddings, the groom shoots his bride with a blunt bow and arrow three times. He then breaks the arrows to signify that their love will be forever.
• (Ireland) On a child's birthday, they pick up the child, turn him upside down and bump his head on the ground "x" times (where "x" = age).
• (Gypsy) Girls get pulled out of school at age 12 and marry.
• Clapping is as old as humanity itself, dating back to the Romans who clapped to show approval when gladiators fought to the death.
• (China) Wearing a green hat shows that your wife cheated on you.

Culture is an amazing thing. It may help us to define our goals and values, to foster a sense of belonging. In many ways it is like a bacterial culture. It can grow and spread, and be passed down from generation to generation. It is cultured. Like the appearance of new strains of bacteria, culture changes and fuses. The wheel of change must keep spinning.  So maybe our roots may be worth exploring. After all, they may remind us to celebrate our identities, to be part of something grand, to see how far we have come.