Browsed by
Category: Traditions

Remembering the Dead: Four Traditions, One Human Heart

Remembering the Dead: Four Traditions, One Human Heart

When we honor the dead, we celebrate life itself. It all began when my son came home with a Día de los Muertos project – one of those beautiful perks of studying at a trilingual immersion school. As I helped him research, my curiosity expanded. I started wondering: do other cultures have their own ways of remembering those who’ve passed, honoring their ancestors? I thought about China, since it’s part of his school program, and Ukraine – my own roots. Then India…

Read More Read More

My Neighbor Totoro, Pom Poko, and the Timeless Magic of Studio Ghibli

My Neighbor Totoro, Pom Poko, and the Timeless Magic of Studio Ghibli

Falling Into the World of Studio Ghibli Films One of the first Studio Ghibli films I ever watched was Spirited Away. It was like falling through a rabbit hole into a world so beautifully strange, magically familiar, and dreamlike that I couldn’t stop. I practically swallowed everything I could find by Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata, including three documentaries (my Max subscription paid for itself instantly!). But the true magic began when I shared this world with someone else. A…

Read More Read More

Embracing the Year of the Dragon: A Time of Strength, Prosperity, and Transformation

Embracing the Year of the Dragon: A Time of Strength, Prosperity, and Transformation

In my culture, when we celebrated our New Year on December 31st, we always made a big deal about one of the animals in Chinese culture. It depended on whose turn it was to represent the coming year. I’d be all into it! I would dress up in the colors symbolic of the coming year, and whipping up a dish that the animal of the year was into. We’d set up a symbol of the animal on our dinner table…

Read More Read More