Nozzferrahhtoo
13 Sep 2011
Life / Attending my first Polish Wedding and Celebrations [18]
Thanks for all the replies guys, it is helpful, and interesting, especially the full explanation of the Watermelon tradition from “boletus” though I find myself wondering how "Young" he means when he calls me "young" as it is somewhat presumptious :-p
I appreciate the foreigner coming to an Irish wedding comment too. It is just a habit of mine to research these things, even if I do not do them, just in case. Also I simply find it personally interesting. Often I end up doing nothing, but there have been a couple of weddings that were going awfully that I stepped up with my knowledge of their traditions and turned it around. Also I was only this weekend at a Jewish wedding where I was meeting the Brides parents also for the first time and I learned off a semi-short formal greeting in Hebrew along with a gift from their more ancient customs and the parents were overjoyed and happy with it, and me. It also felt good to know all the customs, such as breaking bread that no one else knew so at my table at dinner the bride and groom did not have to explain to us what to do and how and were able to move on to the next table quickly. So every little helps.
And at the end of the day such knowledge aids ones feelings of being out of place. Would that more people had more than a cursory, if even that, knowledge of the customs of other cultures huh?
And finally, I simply feel that sometimes a well places cultural joke is just funny, and makes people happy, and I do like to make people happy :)
Thanks for all the replies guys, it is helpful, and interesting, especially the full explanation of the Watermelon tradition from “boletus” though I find myself wondering how "Young" he means when he calls me "young" as it is somewhat presumptious :-p
I appreciate the foreigner coming to an Irish wedding comment too. It is just a habit of mine to research these things, even if I do not do them, just in case. Also I simply find it personally interesting. Often I end up doing nothing, but there have been a couple of weddings that were going awfully that I stepped up with my knowledge of their traditions and turned it around. Also I was only this weekend at a Jewish wedding where I was meeting the Brides parents also for the first time and I learned off a semi-short formal greeting in Hebrew along with a gift from their more ancient customs and the parents were overjoyed and happy with it, and me. It also felt good to know all the customs, such as breaking bread that no one else knew so at my table at dinner the bride and groom did not have to explain to us what to do and how and were able to move on to the next table quickly. So every little helps.
And at the end of the day such knowledge aids ones feelings of being out of place. Would that more people had more than a cursory, if even that, knowledge of the customs of other cultures huh?
And finally, I simply feel that sometimes a well places cultural joke is just funny, and makes people happy, and I do like to make people happy :)