Multicultural society

Multicultural society
Many people are proud of saying that they are not racist but in the reality they have never lived with people of a different colour next door. In world history there are many examples of excellent cooperation of people of different nationalities, different races or religious beliefs. People are naturally divided according to the colour of their skin, the type of hair, the shape of their faces. But we can not judge people by these features and we have to try to bring people of different races together so that they live and work peacefully together. Many governments have passed a law to promote racial integration in schools or at work and they support the integration of other ethnic groups into society.

People come from one country to another and they create this multicultural society. They leave their own country because they want to study, live and work somewhere else. They leave the country because of disasters, social problems or political problems (they are not satisfied with government), because of religion (people kill each others). Usually move from poor countries to more developed country. People migrate from Afrika, South Asia (India, Afganistan, Iraq, Iran, China, Turkey) to central or west Europe and from central Amerika to USA, Canada, to Australia from Asia. In 16th –17th century they started to bring slaves from Africa, because there was nobody to work, they settled there and now they are part of society.

In Slovakia we don`t have so many refugees. Since 1989 Slovakia has become a country open to people from other countries. Here are: half a million Hungarians in the south of Slovakia, smaller groups like the Ruthenians (Rusíni) in the east. One minority without a territory are the Gypsies. Here is minority of Russian, Polish, Jewish, Gypsies, Austrians, Chinese, Vietnamese too. Vietnamese, Chinese people bring cheap clothes, goods, smugled cigarretees. They have a lot of place, a lot of shop are based on their goods. Difference between Vietnamese and Gypsies: Vietnamese are clean people, they keep their flats clean, and they have 1-2-3 children. Gypsies used to have 4-5 children, they steal, rob, kill, destroy. Other refugees are more acceptable than Gypsies. They do not rob the state.

There are many big cities which are cosmopolitan such as London or New York. But New York is not as mixed as London. Nationalities stay in their own areas, like the Russians in the Russian section, the Germans in the German section. Polish people settled down in a cosmopolitan district of Chicago. The area of a city where many Chinese people live and where you can find many Chinese shops and restaurants is called Chinatown.Living in multicultural towns is various. It is exciting to explore this new cultures or nations. You can make there new friends. But there nobody cares about you. People of the same nationality care more about each other. You have there neighbour with different habits. It can be good but it can not be okey.

People of different nationalities have different cultures. More and more women get married to men of different religion, colour and nationality. There is still a certain amount of prejudice (predsudok), but most young people are tolerant without any prejudice. Mixed marriages are becoming more and more common in many countries. This marriages have pros but also cons. Pros are: They speak more languages. Visit relatives in differenrt countries and get to know culture. Children are more tolerant, because they live in small multicultular society. They can  try new kinds of food. Cons are: They are people of  2 religions and it can bring problems. Problems how to bring up children. Children can suffer because of this family or when they are different among others, they can be bullied, laughed at, divorces are often dificult.

Slovak traditions:
We can talk in 1, cuisine 2, holidays 3, folk art  4, way of life. Cuisine: pirohy + halušky (pozri prípravu a prečo sú našimi národnými jedlami – cause of climate, past, they are cheap, simple). - Food

Tradition of holiday are connected with religion. Christmas: Every year we look forward to Christmas. Christmas is celebrated in other countries as well, with each nation keeping its own customs and folk traditions. About a month before the Christmas holidays Christmas decorations start appearing in the stores. Cristmas is a holiday of calm and peace. All the shops an department stores are overfilled with people. Four weeks before Christmas Eve (December 24th)begins advent. People make or buy an Advent wreath (veniec) with four candles. On each of the four Sundays during Advent, a new candle is lit. Children have a special calendar. It is usually made of paper and it has twenty four windows. Every day, the children opens a window to find a picture or piece of chocolate. Traditionally, during the time of  Advent,women are very  busy cleaning the house, cooking and baking. On December 6th we celebrate St. Nicholas Day. In some families, the children polish their shoes and leave them behind the window for St. Nicholas to fill it with candy and small present. In some villages, angels and devils walk from house to house on the evening befor St Nicholas Day and give presents to the children who have behaved well. Parents warn their children throughout the year that if they misbehave, they will be taken away by the devil on St. Nicholas day. In most families, it has become a tradition to have a Christmas tree. The whole families, decorates the tree with chocolate candies, gingerbread, candles and Christmas ornaments. Christmas dinner starts around 6:00 pm. We usually have fish soup or soup with sauerkraut, sausages, deep fried carp with potato salat and for desert.

We have apples as symbol of health, wafles with honey, nuts. After dinner comes the best part of the day: opening the presents. Our whole family comes together by the Christmas tree where we give each other presents while listening to Christmas carolls, singing and talking. The most popular Christmas carol is „Silent Night“. Some people have a tradition of going to church later in the evening for a midnight mass. Christmas is connected with birth of Jesus.

The second most celebrated religious holiday is Easter which we celebrate in early spring. On Easter Monday, all men and boys go from house to house and playfully whip the women with a stick made of woven willows. The men also pour cold water on the women so that they will stay young and beautiful throughout the following year. The women, in return, give the men decorated eggs or money. The eggs are symbols of new life and spring. Easter is connected with resouraction of Jesus. Meals: hart boiled egg, smoked ham special bread, cakes. There are 40 days of lent.

In the Slovak Republic, we celebrate many public holidays, e.g. New Years Eve. We call it „Silvester“ and we usually celebrate the begining of the new year with our families or friends. Everyones dances, sings, and enjoys the last hours of the year. At midnight, everyone drinks champagne and toasts (pripíjať si) for happiness and prosperity in the new year, hoping that it will be better than the previous year. We continue celebrating until early in the morning and we come home tired. Many people make New Years resolutions promising themselves to give up bad habits in the following year.

Other public holidays?: 1st May – holiday of working, 8th May – the day of the liberation and the end of WWII, 5th July – the day of St. Cyril nad St. Metod.

Family celebrations: Some of the most festive Family celebrations are birthdays, name days, baptisms, weddings, anniversaries. These are events which we often celebrated with our whole family. We also have more unfortunate reasons for coming together, for example at funerals.

Folk art: It survives in villages and folk groups or quiers. It is connected with clothes – in Lendak they still wear this traditional costumes. Lúčnica, Čačina, Sľuk, they perform folk dances and songs. They play on fujara, dulcimer (cimbal). Typical decoration like crochery (čipky) embroidery (výšivka) wood craft (drevorezba).

Way of life: Typical for us is family – quite common 2-3.There live 2 generations (ch + p). Both parents work – women want to make a career. Evenings people spend together.