Family Rituals

My Family Rituals My family rituals derive from a culture that dates back before the beginning of modern civilization. The people I speak of are what our history books refer to as Ancient Mesopotamia; “The Cradle of Civilization”. The near extinction of its original inhabitants was as a result of war and religious crusade. Most recently of which was the Ottoman Empire’s massacre of the Christian living among them in 1914. My family is of the few survivors of such unfortunate events. Few people know that the rich culture of the Mesopotamian people is still alive. My family is one of those exceptions, and an outside observer could easily misunderstand our customs. Although, based on superstition, many old fashion misunderstood rituals are practiced in my family. The most of which are the breaking of the bread; the warding off the evil eye; and arrangement of marriage.
An interesting custom that I recently observed was a piece of bread broken in half over the head of my newborn niece before entering a home for the first time. This ritual is done when the baby enters any home for the first time. The bread ritual symbolized a right of passage to a newborn to bless a child with the body of Christ, and rid them of any evil curses that may have been placed on the baby.
Furthermore, the ritual in my family that causes bad luck or injury is the evil eye. The evil eye is placed on top of doorways in my families home. The family members will tie a red ribbon around the child's wrist or ankle to protect them the evil eye. However for a baby, the breaking of the bread will protect it from the evil eye as well. The color of the eye may vary in cultures. In my families culture the evil eye is represented as blue or turquoise color. Another color that represents the evil eye is red; it is mostly represented by the Jewish culture. When the evil eye bead appears any other color, other than blue or red it is for fashion reason. Although we know the evil eye is a