Heritage day is one of the nicest public holidays that we celebrate in South Africa. It’s celebrated on 24 September, so spring has hardly sprung, the weather is warm and many people will haul out and dust off their braai (barbecue) equipment, throw together a couple of beers and call over a few friends. If there is a rugby match on at the same time, all the better.
Heritage day is about celebrating your own as well as other people’s culture in South Africa. We are known as the Rainbow Nation and we have eleven different national languages. So it should come as no surprise that the holiday is celebrated in many different ways. This year’s theme is ‘Advancing transformation of South Africa’s heritage landscape’ and South Africa’s Vice President kicked off the celebrations with traditional dancers earlier this morning.
Heritage day is also affectionately known as ‘braai day’. So all over South Africa, different cultures are celebrating over a feast of some sort. South Africans love to throw a big steak, a few lamb chops and ribs on the braai. Because I woke up too late, we celebrated with an equally quintessential South African braai meat – the boerewors, a sausage traditionally made with minced beef, pork and spices. Throw that into a bread roll, add some tomato and onion relish and mustard. Wash down with a beer, a coke, or an ice cold Pims like I did today. Can’t get much better than that on any braai day!
Until next time ☕️
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Published by Joy
I am a 60-something year old South African of Chinese descent. Although my heritage is Chinese and I cannot live without rice, I feel more connected to South Africa and the diverse South African culture than I do to China.
I have lived all my life in South Africa. South Africa is a beautiful country, with wonderful coastlines and beaches, incomparable wildlife and some beautiful mountains. We have long, hot summers and tolerable winters, with snow only in a few places. We seem to have it all.
I am fortunate to have travelled a little. I have travelled to London and Scotland in the UK; Sidney, Melbourne and the Gold Coast in Australia; New York, Boston and Colorado in the US; Beijing, Shanghai, Canton and Xi’An in China; Hong Kong and Mauritius. I would like to travel more and on my bucket list is Japan, Italy and the Northern Lights. At some point, I would like to visit China again, I was last there more than twenty years ago.
I have worked for large organizations nearly all my life. I have been fired once, nearly fired twice, and as recent as last year, I was retrenched. But I have also been promoted, won excellence awards with monetary awards and once awarded with a trip overseas. I think I can claim to have experienced it all!
The retrenchment that I recently experienced was bitter sweet because I had already reached retirement age. So theoretically I should have been sitting at home by my pool anyway. But it was still a shock to find myself with no reason to get out of bed every morning for more than six months.
So yes, I am still on the wrong side of 60, that won’t change, but I am no longer unemployed. I am not certain how long my current employment will last, but I am content for now. And should I find myself unemployed for any length of time again, I think I would do things differently. For example, I will make those plans to travel and tick a few more desires off my bucket list.
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Reading your post made me wish for some good old fashioned boerewors!
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