Rice Cakes, a Tradition

Every first week of the month, our Sunday school children at my church eats rice cakes to celebrate their birthdays. It has become a tradition that, many children wait anxiously as the days go by and the first week of the next month to arrive. They even memorized all the types of cakes that we bought for them: rainbow rice cake, cocoa rice cake, and sweet rice cake. Since the cakes are not too sweet and very soft to eat, the children at our church love to indulge on these sweets. Some kids even skip breakfast so that they can take more than one slice of rice cake. At times, they make bets on which cake will be for their monthly birthdays. Even the Sunday school teachers, including me, smile when our students gleefully eat their rice cakes as they run around our church parking lot to play with their fellow church members. Quite often, our adult members of our church come into our room to take some of our cakes. As an apology, they usually compliment us on our looks as they step out of the room. Because of their excitements for the cakes, I even started to eat those “100% carb” food even though it degrades my diet plan. However, since it is our church culture, I become accustomed to this new tradition. To be honest, it’s not the taste of the rice cake that we are craving for. It’s the fellowship and the bonding time we have with others is that drives us to look forward to the next month. Even though the rice cakes are presented to our children so that they can celebrate their fellow church member’s birthdays, the children treat each other as though it is everyone’s birthday. It has become our church tradition for nearly a decade, something that our teachers are proud of as we continue to dedicate our lives for our religion. With something as little as rice cakes, we created happiness to our church community.
Culture doesn’t always have to be divided into countries. As long as a certain group practices certain events for the benefit of their own community, I believe that it is culture.