Families Around The World – Apr 12, 2011

Families Around The World – Apr 12, 2011

In this series we look at some of the more interesting family stories from around the world over the past 7 days.

This week we’re we have some amazing stories from Malaysia, USA, Germany, Ethiopia and South Korea

Enjoy!

MALAYSIA

How far has the iPad made its way into modern culture?

Chinese families around the world celebrate the Qingming Festival at this time of year.

During the festival, families honor their ancestors by burning fake money or replicas of luxury items such as flashy cars and designer bags.

This year, however, sellers of those fake luxury items to Chinese Malaysians, can’t keep up with the demand for paper iPad2’s for family members to burn!

Check out the full story HERE

USA

Imagine being introduced to your siblings 62 Years after you thought you’d never see them again.

That’s what happened to Peggy Loury, who turned 66 this week. Just in time for her birthday she had a reunion that she could only have dreamed of for more than half a century

Read more about the reunion HERE

GERMANY

You have to check out this photo essay of a German family who, for 40 years, have been celebrating Easter by decorating a tree with Easter Eggs.

Nothing out of the ordinary you may be thinking?

Well this year they managed to get 9800 eggs onto the tree. Amazing!

See the photos HERE

ETHIOPIA

Coffee connoisseurs  around the world know the story of Kaldi, the 9th-century Ethiopian goatherder who, as the story goes, discovered coffee.

From these humble beginnings, Ethiopia has become one of the most important coffee-growing countries in the world.

The connection doesn’t stop on the mountains where coffee is grown though.  CNN has put together a great video looking at the importance of coffee to family, and community, in Ethiopia. Well worth a look.

Watch the video HERE

SOUTH KOREA

Finally, we bring you one Chinese family’s remarkable Jeju story.

The Yang family was arguably the first Chinese family to dwell on the island following the establishment of South Korea. Some of its descendants still live in Jeju City, where they operate some of the oldest Chinese restaurants on the island.

A great tale of connection between family, culture and geography

Check out the story HERE

That’s it for this week’s Families Around the World.

If you have any amazing family stories you think our blog readers would like to hear about, feel free to put some info and a link in the comments to this post and we’ll see if we can add it to next week’s edition of FAW.