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The number of people who identified as multicultural increased by 276% from the 2010 census to 24.8 million in the 2020 U.S. Census. Integrating diverse family traditions that fairly represent all cultures is significantly more crucial in a world where mixed families are the norm.
Combining the customs of your mixed family can help you navigate. We’ll talk about the value of creating bonds and customs, investigating your ethnic origins, and determining which traditions are appropriate for your family. We’ll also talk about how crucial it is for each member of a multicultural family to have their own sense of identity, to record their practices, and to maintain open channels of communication.
The Value of Community ties and Customs in Multicultural Families
Many factors, not the least of which are cultural standards, education, family history, and ethnic origin, mold each individual. These end up serving as the cornerstones that characterize an individual and provide the rules by which they live.
Setting up customs for your mixed family will enable you to create priceless memories that will assist to identify its distinct history.
In order to strengthen your bonds and create or uphold family traditions, it is imperative that you represent each culture within your family. For multicultural families, bonding and customs are crucial for a number of reasons, including:
Respect the history of your family as a whole.
Create an identity that is a reflection of all the cultures in your family.
Establish a welcoming family environment that draws attention to the traditions’ distinctions as well as their shared interests.
Create a feeling of belonging to a community that extends beyond your personal family.
Share your cultural knowledge with your family members to make their life better.
Promote dialogue between family members with different upbringings and worldviews.
According to the article “5 Ways to Create Family Traditions” on Psychology Today, creating family traditions “allows us to explore the similarities, the things that resonate within each of us individually, with our ancestors” and gives a sense of continuity and cultural identity. Your family dynamic will feel more inclusive the more your customs and bonds reflect the various cultures that make up your family.
Examining Your Ethnic Origins
It’s critical to understand the nature of each of your family’s many cultures if you want to successfully incorporate them into your traditions.
Determine Every Culture Included in Your Family
The following are some broad categories for multicultural families:
Two (or more) different racial or ethnic backgrounds come together to establish an interracial marriage or adoption.
partners who come from diverse cultural backgrounds, such as those who live in different cities and have unique cultural identities, are said to be intercultural couples.
third-culture children. This is a term used to describe people who were raised in a culture that was distinct from their parents’, even though it usually refers to an individual.
In order to accurately reflect the various cultural backgrounds in your traditions, you will want to identify them and educate yourself about them. This will enable you to successfully include the customs that exemplify each of those civilizations. Or you could decide to throw them all away and invent some new ones.