Culture is quite a broad term and encompasses a lot of different things. The oldest way of describing a culture is basically talking about the different aspects linked to it. This means that the oldest way includes the mention of the music, sculpture, literature and paintings of that certain kind of culture. It has been noted that a culture of a region becomes more prominent and profound if it is carried out and exhibited by the intellectual and the upper class. (Skelton & Allen, 1999) Another way of looking at culture is by considering what the majority of people are doing or how they are carrying out their own life.
This brings us to talking about the second aspect of culture. This is merely the way of life of the people living in a certain area. This sort of culture can even be used to describe animals if one thinks about it. Therefore in this context, we can go on to talk about the culture of any tribe, community or even a continent. William Graham Sumner (1906) basically stated that culture results from the repetition of small acts. Many a times, these acts don't really make sense but they are somehow incorporated into the culture of that certain region. Mead (1955) stated that culture is basically a group of behavior that a certain number of people share amongst each other. Since these people share these acts and behaviors, these acts are then carried on generations through generations. Thus, children, immigrant and a larger group of the society go on to take up these acts and make them an integral part of the culture of the society.
This was basically an overview to talk about how culture is looked upon differently by experts and scholars. Today, there are a variety of different cultures all the around the world. Even around me, I am exposed to cultures such as the Southeast Asia culture, Japanese, South American and so on and so forth. The culture that I had the privilege of experiencing was Indian culture. I experienced Indian culture by attending a spring event and religious service that is known as Holi. Before I get into more details...
Seeing how there are many different cultures in the country itself, they tend to change the names at times but the main purpose stays the same. Holi is celebrated on the full moon day in the Phaulgun month which is almost equivalent o March. This is an important festival and something to look forward to because it goes on to welcome spring. The people get very excited about throwing colors on each other and playing around. Apart from throwing the colors on each other, a most important tradition of this festival is breaking the pot. This tradition is celebrated in all of the towns and villages. A major purpose of this festival is to allow the persons to get loose and enjoy each other. There is a pot of buttermilk that is hung very high on the streets. Over there, the men of the town or the area have to make this huge man pyramid. After doing so, they have to make that pyramids quite stable and then go on to hit the pot.
Holi is a significant part of the Indian culture because it allows the people to get close to their religion. It enables the Hindus to get close to religion because they basically go on to celebrate many prominent legends of their religion. The legend of Prahlad and Hiranyakshyap is celebrating din this festival Furthermore, the legend of the famous Radha and Krishna is also celebrated through Holi as well.
I was fortunate enough to experience this religious service because it is not that difficult to carry out regardless of where the person is. Anyone is able to attain food colorings or powdered color to throw at each other. The traditional puria and the bhang can also be made at home as well. This holi was basically carried out a community mandir which is equivalent to Church.
The Indian people had a lot of respect for their place of worship as it was evident when people were taking their shoes off. That was…
