Culture isn’t an easy subject to tackle for me; I have a British background and I can’t think of anything that defines the British culture that my family still embraces. We’re more of a Canadian family now, and with that comes a whole new set of traditions and taboos and such.

  “Patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activity significance,” -Wikipedia

   Problem is, I can’t think of any parts of Canadian culture that is exclusively Canadian. As a whole, we seem open to new ideas and embrace other cultures from all over the world (like the Ancient Greeks, sort of) and because of this the Canadian culture is like a mixing pot for every other culture on Earth.

  But what makes a culture? Food, language, beliefs, religion, and literature seem the most prominent to me.

  Food is my personal favourite. The food of a culture shows what cooking materials were available and cooking traditions. Social gatherings like harvests and Thanksgiving are often based around food. In fact, humanity as a whole depends on it. We worship it, rely on it for survival, and our economy is mostly driven by it- it’s the largest market on Earth because it’s obviously in demand. As Canadians, we share a lot of our culture specific foods with America and our respective countries of origins.  A Ukrainian food, for example, such as perogies is shared with family friends, who in turn pick up the dish and further spread it throughout our country until it becomes a common meal in the Canadian household.

  As the cultural mixing pot, Canada again is very diverse. Languages from the First Nations, Europe, Asia, and all other continents are present (albeit uncommon) but our more popular languages have a prominent historical background in the development of our country. The French and the English fought over this area for ages until the land became known as it’s own country, Canada. Because most of the early settlers were French or English, they’ve become the most prominent languages. Other languages such as Chinese are less common, but they’re still here and spoken by immigrants who embrace the culture of their homeland.

  The most obvious Canadian belief, to me, is choice. We can choose where we live, what jobs we have, where to go, who to rule, and who to worship. We don’t force our beliefs on others. Everyone is equal and everyone gets their say.

  Religion is more personal than the others. Religions don’t really mix too much, but we generally think that everyone can choose their religion for themselves. We don’t force our religions on each other much. We can worship what we choose.

  No one seems to mention literature. Literature is very important to culture: it shows the midset of the people, what they strive for, what they believe in, and where they stand in the particular era in which it was written.

   If I could box up 3 parts of our culture, I would box up our freedom of choice, freedom of speech, and our foods. I need my fries, the right to choose said fries, and the right to talk about how great they are. :]