Your Think Write Thursday topic for March 16, 2017 is to write about your heritage. Are you Irish and ready to celebrate St. Patrick's Day tomorrow? Are you Italian or Greek or English? Tell us about your ethnic background and culture and how the traditions of your heritage fit into your lifestyle.
I am Canadian. If one wants to get technical, you could say I am Dutch-Canadian, but my father came to Canada when he was eight, and the only Dutch things we really paid attention to were sweets. Gestampte muisjes, chocolate, speculaas. Oh, and my surname is obviously Dutch!
On my mom's side, we are a Canadian mish-mash for generations. A bit of French-Canadian, a bit of British Isles. So, the dominant culture, really.
I pay no attention to St. Patrick's Day. It, like Valentine's Day and many other days, has become a commercial thing, though it is sponsored not by Hallmark or chocolate makers, but by the Guinness brewery. It is, here, only an occasion for drinking lots of beer. I wonder if McDonalds still even makes green shakes, like they did in the 70s. Now that was a tradition. (Holy crap, lookit this. A quarter of a cup of sugar in one small drink!)
Like a good Canadian, I celebrate Victoria Day, Canada Day, and the weird August holiday that is called Civic Holiday some places and Simcoe Day here in Toronto. Or you could call it Emancipation Day. And this is the heritage I will pass on to my children: holidays which move around, don't move around, have different names, celebrate queens no-one else bothers with, and more.
Very Canadian indeed. <3
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