A Wonderful Weekend....Food and Heritage....The Heritage Festival!!

Coffee ceremony in the Ethiopian Pavilion

Folk music singers in the Chilean Pavilion

This weekend has been very busy. I came to visit one of the festivals that I like the most in Canada, which is the Heritage Festival in Edmonton. Even though there are many Heritage Festival in North America during the summer, this is the one that I like the most.

Dances from Venezuela (for you Hilmar!)

The Edmonton Heritage Festival is special to me. During these years living away from my culture and country, I have recognized the challenges that we immigrants face. I have known people that came from invaded countries, arrived with emotional and physical wounds from the war,  escaped from discrimination and religious intolerance, and many others more with sad stories that have deeply impacted myself. However, what is special about this festival is that for three days we show to the world not only how grateful we are for living in this country, but also how proud we are of our roots, culture, heritage and cuisine. These are three days where each community gets organized to showcase its country by preparing traditional food (no restaurants are allowed), singing traditional songs, dancing folk music, and showing handicrafts and traditional  food utensils. Its wonderful and very emotional to see how the grandchildren of the immigrants dance with traditional costumes typical dances from their country of origin, even though some of these children doesn't know their country of origin, but their families keep traditions alive.

Irish dances

These are days where people forget about differences in languages and religion, stop thinking about intolerance and discrimination, put out of their mind race, color, and the place we were born......It is festival time!!!....It is a time to share, embrace, respect, honor, and be full of pride of both the country we have chosen, and the country where we come from.....it is time to share in peace, to eat our food, and to enjoy our heritage.........

Korean costume

This post is dedicated to our heritage, the heritage we took from our homes, country and ancestors. The heritage that follows us no matter where we go or what we do, the heritage that we use in our daily life and our cooking, the heritage that we pass into our future generations......the heritage we accept, adopt and share in these food postings.....

I will be posting pictures of the food and dances of this Heritage Festival during this week for you to enjoy our heritage!!!

Cooking in the Laos Pavilion

Afghan kebabs