I didn't really pay much attention to My Big Fat Greek Wedding when it premiered in 2002, but I heard from a lot of people that it perfectly captured the feeling of having a big, loud, culturally proud family of. When I finally saw it years later, I couldn't believe how similar Tula Portokalos' family was to my own. Even though I'm of Italian and Irish descent, not Greek, I totally identify with Tula's experience; our family yelled a lot, cooked a lot, ate a lot, drank a lot, argued a lot, and most importantly, they Very proud of their heritage. It's great to see your own life reflected on the screen, so I'm excited to see that the film's upcoming sequel , My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 , looks to not only recreate the fun and magic of the first film, but share Its emphasis on the cultural importance of family and respect for roots.
If you haven’t seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding or know little about its sequel, here’s a brief overview. Tula (Nia Vardalos) is a shy 30-year-old spinster surrounded by her eccentric Greek family. She meets the secular Ian Miller (John Corbett), and the two fall in love and become engaged. But getting the couple up the aisle and toward the Greek Orthodox altar turned into a hilarious struggle to blend Ian's "normal," small, quiet family with Tula's large Greek community. The film hilariously captures the experience of having a large Mediterranean family. Some trailers even interchange Greek with Irish, Italian, Polish, Brazilian, Puerto Rican, etc. because the story and family quirks are so universal and its ability to capture a certain type of family and culture is what The movie featured such a huge hit.
Years after My Big Fat Greek Wedding came out, I had my own wedding, which, like Tula's, was a cultural hodgepodge. I'm Irish and Italian, and my husband's family is Jewish, so the whole event was full of different traditions. We had celebrations, unity candles and Celtic fasts, and my husband even broke the glass at the end of the ceremony. There was a lot of eating, a lot of drinking, and a lot of dancing. At the reception in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding ," Toula's father tells a story about how the root words for portokalos and miller may be apples and oranges, but ultimately "we are all fruits." The same sentiment was echoed at my own wedding, when my Irish and Italian relatives were lured onto the dance floor by my husband's Jewish family for their first Hola. They laughed. They missed steps. They had no idea what they were doing, but they were having a great time.
It's easy to miss this. Judging from the trailer for My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2 , Toula and Ian's daughter seems to be completely beyond her own traditions (just like Toula once was), preferring to blend in with what she considers a more "normal" American family. But I hope she eventually learns the importance of holding on to her culture and chooses to embrace it, like I did. Recently, I had the opportunity to speak a little Italian while traveling, and it reminded me that I haven’t spoken Italian in years. I learned most of the language by listening to and talking to my father and grandmother, but since my father was fluent in English and my grandmother passed away a few years ago, we don't really have to speak Italian anymore. That night, however, as I spoke a few Italian words, the feeling of family and culture came flooding back to me in the best way possible.
Families who have immigrated to the United States (almost all families) may strive to become more American, but movies like My Big Fat Greek Wedding , and hopefully its upcoming sequel, emphasize the importance of Americanization. Keep your culture close and pass it on from generation to generation. I don’t know if I’ll be able to teach my potential future children to speak Italian, or even Gaelic, but I can share family recipes, stories, traditions and history. I am hopeful and optimistic that the Greek Wedding sequels will continue to value the contributions that the Tulla family has made to the world and to each other because of their heritage. We may not all have large families, but the point of this series is to celebrate the traditions and relatives we do have, whether they are related to us by blood or by choice, and that's a lesson we should all take to heart.
Image: GM; Jiffy
