Ever since I was a child, my family would get together to spend the Sundays at our farm. This tradition was there even before I was born and was created by my grandfather as a way not only to unite the family, but having us on one of his favorite places in the world. I grew up learning how to love that place and spending all my week looking foward to the Sunday we would pack the car and leave the apartment to spend the day at the farm. This place is definetly my sacred place.
My family is spread throughout Brazil but a large part of it live in the city I grew up at and every Sunday we would wake up early, stop by a local business to get food and drive about 25 minutes to the farm. It is a beautiful place and we have a house in the middle of the property where my father, uncle and grandfather would cook the barbecue while me my siblings and cousins would play by the pool being watched by my mother, aunt and grandmother. In the afternoon we would go by the lake and tell stories, go see the animals and, my favorite part of the day, would be late afternoon when we would take the horses for a ride.
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| My cousin and I playing at the farm's pool |
Because of the opportunity I had of having that place as a sacred place I understand the Native American relatuionship with their land and how important it is for them. In God is Red, page 274 Vine Deloria Jr wrote "When informed of the meaning of this decision. most people have shown great sympathy for the traditional religous people. At the same time, they have had a great difficulty understanding why it is so important that these ceremonies be held, that they be conducted only at certain locations, and that they be held i secrecy and privacy." This passage made me think about my situation with my family as well. Since we grew up it has been about six or seven years that we moved from having our Sundays not at the farm but at my aunts house and today it has lost all the magic of it. We go to her house on Sundays, eat and right after we leave. The moment together, all the things I looked foward as a child are not there anymore and that makes me think about how the land does matter when it comes to activities like this, and how it is not different for the Native Americans and their sacred land.
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| Native American Cerimony on a sacred land |
I thought that your post was very interesting. You go to school in the US but you can tell that you still have a very deep connection to Brazil. That is obviously your true home and you probably miss your friends and family from home a great amount. The fact that you looked forward to going to the farm every single Sunday really shows how special it was to you. There were numerous activities you said that you loved to do and it sounds like you knew every inch of that farm. In my opinion it sounds like the farm was not only beautiful, but it brought your family together. Your family was able to use the farm to spend time together and get closer as a family.
ReplyDeleteThat's a lovely story about your family's Sundays on the farm. It sounds like it was a meaningful tradition.
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