Rachel Papo: "I love heritage day because you get to see different cultures and how they dress. You get to see other people celebrate and embrace their culture – it is very interesting. The day is still relevant. It says something about where I come from and we celebrate that. We get to interact with other people and learn more about them. It reminds us of where we come from."
Heritage Day is looming around the corner and South Africans – young and old – will look forward to colourful traditional attires and embrace our varied cultures. 24 September represents a day when every person in the country celebrates their roots, traditions and values, not forgetting to embrace the heritage of your fellow man. As we mark 20 years of democracy since 1994, it would seem the true essence of celebrating our uniqueness has slipped away and the day has become just another public holiday. The question of how we celebrate the holiday is about more than just the individual, members of the community gave a different palate of what Heritage Day means in 2014.
Christiaan Steyn: “Heritage Day is to celebrate where you come from but it is just a day for me to sleep in, it’s a nice public holiday. So I will just be at the pool and relaxing.”
Michelle Steele: “Heritage Day is very important. As South Africans, it allows us to remember that what we have today was not achieved easily. We have to appreciate everything that happened in the past, and the best way to do it is to spend time with your family. It is also important to celebrate with your community and especially people that are less fortunate. It is all about giving back to the community.”
Joyce Ndala: “I just know that the day is there and it’s a cultural day, but I do not know more about it.”
Dr Derik Jordaan: “I don’t know what the actual meaning of Heritage Day is for, I don’t celebrate it. I am sure there are people that celebrate it and events taking place, but what its actual meaning is, I don’t know. Basically, for a lot of white South Africans, their heritage has become irrelevant because Heritage Day came in with the new democracy and for white people, our heritage is from before that. I think black South Africans celebrate Heritage Day in its true sense than white people.”
Dorian Bruyns: “I will not be celebrating Heritage Day, I don’t think it has any real meaning these days. I didn’t even remember when it is.”
Caroline Luvuno: “I am from Zimbabwe, In my culture we like to dance.We love our traditional foods like umngqusho and dumplings.We celebrate our heritage in my country, we love to get together and do our traditional dances and make African beer.”
