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A Toddler's Heritage
Introducing Children to Their Culture
By Shannon McKelden
Food is a great way to pass along your family culture. "Teaching traditional dishes to children or handing down recipes was once an important tradition all over the world, and unfortunately people are not continuing this and it is becoming a dying art," says Maria Liberati, whose parents and grandparents began teaching her Italian dishes at a very young age. She continued to study about her culture through the knowledge she got from the dishes they taught her.
"What better way to keep a child's undivided attention than a delicious treat!" says Liberati, author of The Basic Art of Italian Cooking (PrimaMedia, 2005). "In most cultures food is closely associated to important events, ingredients specific to their culture and usually in some way may be related to their own family history." She adds that there are many simple dishes that can be used to teach children at a very young age – 3 or 4 years old (of course with adult supervision).
Don't worry about whether your kids will like cultural foods. Let them try everything. You might be surprised what they will enjoy. "On New Years, we have a special meal with my dad – my mother always made sushi and sashimi – so that's usually what we have, too," Dilloway says. "My son is so proud that he loves octopus sashimi, when he won't even eat fruit."
Above all, though, children learn by example. "If parents exude joy and happiness in their heritage and observance, that penetrates long before any verbal message can be conveyed," Rabbi Fried says.
"If you incorporate [heritage] into your lives, it won't be like a song-and-dance history lesson," Dilloway says. "It'll just be part of who they are."