Cultural identity

What do you consider your cultural or ethnic identity? What traits or practices do you associate with that identity? Are there things you would like to do to enhance that part of who you are?

It isn’t easy for me to trace my ethnic identity and find any cultural practices in my daily life, or really even in the way I spend my holidays.

There’s a Norweigian prayer - the one my dad taught us as kids, the one his Norweigian Grandmother Cora Christensen taught him as a kid. I bought a plate with that prayer and it hangs on my stairwell, a reminder of our Norweigian heritage.

I Jesu navn
gar vi til bords
a spise og drinkke
pa ditt ord
Deg gud til aer, oss til gavn
sa far vi mat
I Jesu navn

When my Grandpa David Christensen was alive, my dad would venture up to Day each Christmas and buy him pickled herring. Occassionally lefse appears on our holiday table when someone is feeling adventurous - but it’s been many years since it did. We do inhale pickles and olives, however, at Christensen family gatherings.

I feel that void that comes from not having a solid heritage, so the past few years I’ve been working to gather family history. I want to know the details of my ancestors. I’d like to know the work they did, the food they cooked, and why they picked the names of their children. I started a blog to collect and share that information.

When Axel was born, I scoured through lists of names that I had gathered (which was pretty incomplete), and we settled on using the middle name of my husband’s great-grandfather on his mother’s side. To give my children a sense of continuity, I’ve given them each a middle name that was passed on from us. Christopher is my husband’s middle name, and Mae is mine. Mine was also my grandmother’s on my mother’s side, and recently I discovered it was also the middle name of my Great-Grandmother on my father’s father’s side. I love discovering those connections. Because then I feel connected to those who have gone before me.

I was thrilled to learn last summer at a family reunion that 2 or more folks on the Folger side were newspaper people. I am not the first writer in my family.

This past summer, I enrolled my daughter in a Swedish Culture Camp at West Riverside School in Cambridge. I’m not Swedish, but she is on her father’s side. I hope to make that a tradition. She was introduced to fun Swedish games, to Swedish culture (think Midsommer pole), Swedish songs and Swedish games. This year I want to visit the Swedish Institute near our home in South Minneapolis, and perhaps the Danish museum, as well.

I want to give my kids a sense of their heritage, while also broadening their views of the world by introducing them to other cultures. It’s not only important to connect them to those who came before they, but it’s also just plain fun!

I also hope to create my own family traditions at holidays so that my kids have something to hold onto and remember as they get older and have their own families. Thank goodness for Pinterest and idea boards!