Listening to other cultural presentations allowed me not only to learn more about Persian and Hebrew cultures, but also to notice some similarities between these two and Hindi culture.
Namely, I’ve learned that in Iran and Afghanistan people consume a lot of dairy, and sweet tea for breakfast and ice or vegetables for lunch. In India it is similar as they drink chai or milk for breakfast, and rice is a popular dish for lunch. Also, I found out that in these two Farsi speaking cultures people consume food that is high in fat. This makes sense due to geographical environments Iran and Afghanistan are located in. Dry and hot weather requires people to consume a lot food that will enable them to save energy much longer.
Considering Farsi speaking societies, I realized that Persian weddings are very similar to Indian weddings. This is in terms of the amount of people invited, rituals before and after the wedding ceremony. One interesting thing I was surprised with was the fact that a bride choses which present she wants to receive from the groom and his family. It is different in Indian society where the bride has to pay a dowry to the groom and his family.
An interesting observation I made was that in Farsi dost means “I love you”, while in Hindi it means “friend”. In some way I can understand the similarities between these two words, but I wonder if these two languages influenced one another in regards to this word.
On the other hand, I knew nothing about Jewish communities in Asia. I am glad Lily explained differences between Jewish communities around the world. I also never knew that Judaism was passed on by father, but by mother. India also has a significant population of Jewish people in Cochin. During my stay in India I visited this city, but I had no idea about large Jewish community present there.
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