As someone who comes from a family with two very different cultures, I have been able to experience a lot of different rituals from those cultures. My mom's side of my family is from Cuba and my dad's side of my family is from Greece. I have been to weddings, funerals, church services, and just casual gatherings from both sides, and sometimes a blending of the two.
Greek music has this very specific... taste I guess you could say. There are also cultural dances that we do at gatherings like parties or weddings that are actually really fun. It's hard to explain so I added a video of some music and people dancing that you would typically hear and see at a wedding. I wasn't able to find the best video but this one works! In the video you can see people in a circle holding hands and dancing. This gets really exciting at big events like weddings when everyone joins in and there is a huge chain of people weaving in and out of the line under people's arms (like figure eights through the line if that makes sense).
When my grandfather passed a few years ago, I was able to see what a traditional Greek funeral and mourning process was like. It was very different from any funeral I had experienced before. It was also my first time going to a Greek Orthodox church; at the service there was a priest and one singer, I think they called it a cantor, and she sang for a LONG time. This next video is very similar to the songs she was singing as well as songs you would traditionally hear in a regular church service. The mourning process was also something new for me; we had a service when he first passed away and then another one 20 days after. Although I personally didn't fast, I believe that traditionally people will fast during that 20 day time as well.
Additionally to Greek culture, I have been exposed to my Cuban culture just as much, if not even more. The song I added is Guantanamera. This is a song I can pretty much find playing at any function: a wedding, a party, a quinceanera, or just chilling at my grandparents house. It is just a feel good, fun song that is like a classic, at least to me it is.
When I was younger, I did not appreciate it as much, but the more I grow and mature the more I learn to appreciate the cultural rituals of my family. They are both so different, and I have enjoyed learning about each throughout my life. Music is such a big part of every culture, and what I have shown is just a sliver of it.
Hey Olivia! I love your description of the Greek dances. I'm a dancer, and so I always love to see how different cultures present their cultural dances. I especially love how this dance seems to build community and fellowship. One of my friends is from Cuba, and so I loved listening to Guantanamera. I enjoy the subtle guitar and beat that this song presents, and I like the more chill tone of the song.
Hey Olivia! I loved how unique your experiences sound. I found it very interesting about the one singer in a Greek funeral. I never knew that was even a thing. I also feel like it would be incredibly difficult for that one singer to have to perform every song by themselves.
Hi Olivia, it seems so very unique and fun to come from multiple backgrounds. It was interesting to learn about the dances at a Greek wedding, because whenever I think of a Greek wedding, rice throwing, and plate breaking always come to mind but never dancing. I also think it is very unique they way your family fast after a death, I'm interested in learning more about what you all do duringy our fast, is it from food? activity?
I don’t know that much about Greek culture so It was fun to have the opportunity to learn a little bit about their music. The dance looks fun and I like how people interact while they are dancing, you can tell it’s a dance they enjoy doing. On the other hand, I really enjoyed listening to the Cuban song you shared. I’m Colombian and I love to learn about other Hispanic cultures and I love to listen to music in Spanish.
Salsa is best described as a Latin American dance music genre. While it is described vaguely as Latin American music, its roots are believed to come from several places. Most heavily influenced by Cuban music culture, when inspecting the music you can see pieces of Cuban, Peurto Rican, and African styles. Most salsa songs are a combination of different elements of things like guaracha, a Cuban music genre with rapid temp, or bomba and plena, Puerto Rican dance music. Salsa is very heavily influenced by Cuban culture and music. The first “self-identified” salsa bands were predominantly Cuban and Puerto Rican. For the most part the bands started to arise in New York in the 1970’s. The origin of the name salsa is frequently argued over as it is not certain where it came from. There are many theories and ideas but no one is for sure, and everyone thinks they are right. One theory of the origin of the name was from Ignacio Piñeiro’s song Échale salsita in 1...
In music, along with nearly everything else, there are these gender roles that say what women and men tend to lean towards more regarding style or taste. I cannot tell if my own opinion on what gender roles in music is accurate all the time or just what has been true for my own experiences. Generally I think of when we were younger, it was always the girls that wanted to sing; very rarely did the boys want to sing like at church or at school for a play or something like that. Also in high school, while I was never in band or theatre, I did go to concerts or musicals to support my friends, and what I noticed then was that theatre was very heavy in girls whereas band had more boys. Maybe that was just my school though. Whe n I think of a band, I always think about all men. Very rarely can I think of seeing a woman playing on a band, and I could not think of one single all girl band so I googled it and only recognized The Go-Go's... which makes me really upset actually that there are...
Hey Olivia! I love your description of the Greek dances. I'm a dancer, and so I always love to see how different cultures present their cultural dances. I especially love how this dance seems to build community and fellowship. One of my friends is from Cuba, and so I loved listening to Guantanamera. I enjoy the subtle guitar and beat that this song presents, and I like the more chill tone of the song.
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ReplyDeleteHey Olivia! I loved how unique your experiences sound. I found it very interesting about the one singer in a Greek funeral. I never knew that was even a thing. I also feel like it would be incredibly difficult for that one singer to have to perform every song by themselves.
ReplyDeleteHi Olivia, it seems so very unique and fun to come from multiple backgrounds. It was interesting to learn about the dances at a Greek wedding, because whenever I think of a Greek wedding, rice throwing, and plate breaking always come to mind but never dancing. I also think it is very unique they way your family fast after a death, I'm interested in learning more about what you all do duringy our fast, is it from food? activity?
ReplyDeleteI don’t know that much about Greek culture so It was fun to have the opportunity to learn a little bit about their music. The dance looks fun and I like how people interact while they are dancing, you can tell it’s a dance they enjoy doing. On the other hand, I really enjoyed listening to the Cuban song you shared. I’m Colombian and I love to learn about other Hispanic cultures and I love to listen to music in Spanish.
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