Italian-American Family Tradition Analysis

Growing up in an Italian-American family, I have participated in a great amount of cultural traditions over the years. Some of these traditions include watching soccer games with my family, attending an annual festival known as “Italian Fest” and cooking meals in the kitchen together as a family. Although my favorite tradition by far is sitting down as a family on a Sunday afternoon and eating the meals we prepared together as I feel it brings us all closer together.
Eating dinner as a family on Sundays is one of the most popular traditions for Italian families. Pasta is always a staple at these dinners, with my family mainly eating either spaghetti or cavatelli. Throughout the week everyone has their preoccupations, although my family always …show more content…
When dinner ends, my father will usually say in a somewhat stern manner, “time to clean the dishes”. My siblings and I have developed a system over the years for doing the dishes that involves my brother handing the dirty dishes to my sister who will then scrub and rinse them while I will dry them with a towel afterward. We usually will tell jokes to one another while this “system” is enacted. I will generally start out with a couple puns with “a backwards poet writes inverse” being the most recent pun I stated at a family dinner. My siblings will usually just simply remark “really?” or sigh, although they will usually end up telling a few puns or two. While my siblings and I wash the dishes, my mother will always wash the table. Using the soaking yellow washcloth she always does, she wipes up various crumbs and spilled sauce from off the table’s glossy surface. My father always parts ways with us after dinner as he has to work the night shift, as he has for the past several years. He always remarks how great the meal was before telling everyone goodbye. As he leaves for work, my mother, siblings and I finish up cleaning the kitchen. As the kitchen is finished being cleaned, we sometimes will all part our ways to either go do schoolwork, talk on the phone or even just simply watch television. Even though we may participate in separate activities following the dinner, the bond …show more content…
Hearing stories about my family member’s days, even if they were insignificant or mundane, really helped me to understand them better thus creating a stronger bond that my family holds. Sometimes my family members or I may have conflicting schedules, although we always find a way to have dinner together as a family on Sunday. This commitment assists in emphasizing the importance of closeness when it comes to