Monday, April 28, 2008

Greek Easter

Yesterday was Greek Easter. Yes, it's a about a month after the traditional Catholic Easter. My cousin G invited us to her house to celebrate even though we are catholic. We all had a great time and it was fun to see my cousins and watch my mom enjoying her family so much. We had lots of great food to choose from. Just to name a few we had Spanakopita, Greek Green Beans, Pastitiso,and Greek Easter Bread. They also had an Easter egg hunt for the little ones. Our daughter had a blast finding all the eggs. Even though I had such a great time I often feel out of place. Maybe it's just me and my sensitive self. Though my aunt and my sister have mentioned that they also feel as I do. My sister decided not to come yesterday because she feels so out of place. My grandmother married my grandfather who was not Greek and also a Catholic. So after she was married she converted to roman Catholic. She was very proud of her religion. So of course her children and her grandchildren are not 100 percent Greek and not Greek Orthodox. As I think back and remember all the years with my grandma in my life I remember her distancing herself from her Greek relatives. She would never speak Greek unless she was fighting with her brothers and didn't want us to hear what she was saying. It was like pulling teeth to get her to teach us. She would always say that she couldn't remember, but she sure could shout it out when she was made at a sibling. It always shocked me as a kid when I heard this strange language coming out of her mouth. Of course my grandma was still close to her siblings and their children. I've asked my mom about this and she agrees. I'm sure my grandmother did this because she was cut off from the family when she married an American. I was told her parents never came to her wedding and some of the sibling never showed up either. They were very against my grandparents getting married all due to cultural differences. How stupid is that? My grandmother must of been crushed. I often receive snide remarks from my cousins that are around my age that we are not Greek Orthodox and I'm sure some of those remarks are because we are not 100 percent Greek. I'm not saying all my Greek cousins treat us this way, just a few that I never grew up spending time with. I would like to get to know these cousins but they seem to have no interest. If my grandma was alive today she would be hurt to see this. It blows me away that people let cultural differences shape who they are as people. To me that's just small mined.

Me and my grams at my wedding. May 29, 1999

2 comments:

  1. Just remember these thing's and don't pass them on to your daughter. I think everyone should get along. It sure is a lot more fun.

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  2. I would think they would want to share their heritage with you. Some people are just so stuck and it's a weight that they get to carry around. Don't you carry it too - just let it roll off. Their loss.

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