Our culture is belong to motherland and only there it can survive. So we need there. Culture is based on customs and customs are based on habits. And habits are formed by mostly natural environment. That's why Africans wear thin clothes, and their language has lots of names of animals and plants. You don't have to be quick while going somewhere. Because, it is too hot. You have to do your jobs in the dawn if you don't want to work under the boiling tempature of the sun. So waking up early is a habit there. And this also causes lots of habits done during the early hours of the day.
Once we were there, there was mostly cold especially the highlands. So we wore thick clothes to protect ourselves from cold weather. We had to carry weapons to protect themselves against the wild animals and human enemies to be able to survive. We had to be respected for our olds because they were the only vast source of experience which is vital as a way of gathering information for youngs. We had to have a fast horse to follow our enemies or run away from somewhere. Our dances and the rhythms are mostly fast, because it was cold. The land was difficult to cultivate and we ate fruits and we gave a great importance to fruit trees. Because, it was the most plentiful source of food. During winter nights and days, there weren't much work to do, that's why our meetings were done then. We were waiting long winter nights to tell old stories or to make conversations, which were the only suitable time for the highlanders. Our ancestors survived for generations on the difficult circumstances of the high lands for thousands years. Those valleys and mountains and the creatures gave us some habits like a gift from the creator. These habits built our customs. And they made us. That's why all the Circassians folks are familiar to each other and we are the daughters and sons of the same father and mother.
New technologies has changed the needs and dependencies. We can go to market and buy whatever we want without waiting the proper season for the fruits or anything else. We have warm, comfortable cars now. So our clothes are thinner than before. But we are heavier than before because a car can carry us. It doesn't matter how heavy we are. We are workers and factories run during the winters, too. So there are less conversations than before. We all have to wake up early. So this was the end of the famous joyful long meetings of Circassians.
First a habit and then others changed, which changed our customs and those change us. We were forced to immigrate so we lost some of our habits. And with the technological developments and a new style of living in the modern world we are losing the rest. We are not real Circassians anymore, we can only be called as a modern Circassian people, whose clothes, customs, stories, language ... etc are completely different from our ancestors.
Coming back to our lands probably won't make us as we were once. But, at least we may lose slower and we can mourn for the things taken mercileslly from us.
Sincerely yours,
Kenugi J. UBYKH
