On Being Canadian and Mennonite

We celebrated my H's older brother and sister-in-law's wedding anniversary on Canada Day. Jake and Elvira immigrated as newly weds in 1961, sponsored by a member of her family. Once they became Canadians, they were able to sponsor his family, still in Paraguay, so I thought it kind of fitting for us to celebrate at their house on this day.  In Paraguay, after after 37 years of back breaking work and frugal living my in-laws came away with nothing to take with them but the determination to make a better life here.

My side is a similar story of getting sponsored by family. It is interesting to note that when refugees came out of Russia after the wars, many were separated and ended up meeting in Canada, even generations later. I was only a child, but saw how grateful my dad was to bring his family here and claim Canada as our home. I am grateful for a country that has made allowances for this melting pot of backgrounds and cultures. It truly has become our home as well as the native home to our children, which is what our parents would have wished for.

So, I wonder what the refugees looked like when they came in the early 1900's and decades later?  Maybe there were things that made them stand out.  This photo of us, taken years ago for a Mennonite dress up party, reminds me of our conception of our older church goers. From photos I could relate to the dark dress and maybe a shawl and hair braided and pinned, but it was not what I personally knew.

Today, there are those who have questioned our reference to calling ourselves Mennonites (as in the blog). In fact, we have been told that we are not Mennonite at all. Obviously people have an opinion of what makes one so, and I can understand this if people base their opinion of outward appearances. One of the things people have wondered is why we do not wear a head covering. I don't know.

I've gone back to see photos of generations before us, living in Russia and have never seen women wear a head covering, in formal pictures. Having said that though,  in daily life women wore a scarf tied under their chin. From what I can tell, when living in Russia, they dressed somewhat like the Russians and later, when they lived in Paraguay, they adjusted to the climate with lighter clothing.

In one of my earliest posts I wrote about being Mennonite, explaining some of the confusing background on what makes me a Mennonite. That post is only a short intro to the posts that follow telling of where our Anabaptist roots began and how our forefathers fled to Russia due to persecution for their beliefs. I realize that many of the same background, following the teachings of Menno Simons, did not go East, but came directly North America. This may explain some of the differences in what people know of us. Things, such as what we wear, food and lifestyle do not necessarily stay the same for people who live in different countries over a time span of several centuries. To sum this up I feel that, although in some places these things are a very defining thing about us, it is still not be the main thing.

It is possible that being Mennonite to us was not so much about what we looked like, but about about belonging to a church community with names we recognized and felt a kinship to.  Names the community around us recognized as, for the most part, being honest and hard working people. Names now intermingled with unfamiliar names, yet knowing that at the heart of it all is our faith, which is an open door to everyone.

My grandmother with two younger sisters about 1914 in the Ukraine,
which may or may not have been part of Russia at that time.
(Too much work to figure it out at time of writing)

I hope you had a Happy Canada Day.
Maybe you reflected on the circumstances that make you Canadian
or maybe reading this did.
We truly have so much to be grateful for!