Being raised in a multicultural family, in a
multicultural city and attending school with multicultural children gets one to
face some interesting choices.
One of the Danish Traditions are that most of the kids in Denmark will confirm their belief in the protestant faith when they are 13-14 years old. Unfortunately this has become more of a tradition then a real call of ones believes. At that age, many feel that you're an outsider if you don't do what everyone else does. That involves attending a Danish church for confirmation classes - once a month where it is talked about believe, Danish culture and background, about God and other important question in life, Psalms are introduced, in the case of our family, really understand why you would want to have confirmation.
One of the Danish Traditions are that most of the kids in Denmark will confirm their belief in the protestant faith when they are 13-14 years old. Unfortunately this has become more of a tradition then a real call of ones believes. At that age, many feel that you're an outsider if you don't do what everyone else does. That involves attending a Danish church for confirmation classes - once a month where it is talked about believe, Danish culture and background, about God and other important question in life, Psalms are introduced, in the case of our family, really understand why you would want to have confirmation.
One of the Jewish Traditions are that when Jewish boys become 13, they are accountable for their actions and become a Bar Mitzvah. Even that this is a tradition as well, the spiritual side of that is taken more seriously. It is required to attend a minimum number of Shabbat prayer services, study at a Hebrew School, take on a community service project (Helen, we willin need to help you out with your shopping) and maintain membership in good standing with the synagogue. Hebrew, Torah cantillation and understanding of basic Jewish concepts are required as well.
The idea of our family is not to decide for our kid (we have already decided to many things for him) but to give him an opportunity to discover what HE really wants, feel, stand for and wishes to represent.
To support his thought, I have given him an interesting unorthodox book to read called "Does my head look big in this?" by Randa Abdel-Fattah. It is a book about an Aussie muslim girl, who is trying to decide if she wants to be a muslim and wear hijab full time, if so, will she dare to go to school and not to be laughed at, or if she decides to be like everyone else and follow the crowd. That book is written in a humour way for teens but touches a very sensible topic about how to find your our identity and stand for it. It is not a religious book, oh, far from it, it doesn't try to sell that one religion is better than the other, but just trying to show the feelings and thoughts that come thru the head of a kid living in a different environment. Exactly what is happening with him right now.
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