We tweeted this news item this morning, it's from a US newspaper and heralds the introduction of a more racially diverse range of childrens toys, dolls mainly. The article supports major toy manufacturers like Mattel in giving their doll range different skin colours other than the generic plastic pink flesh tones meant to represent white people.

My experience of raising children suggests that they don't notice differences in skin colour until they are about nine or ten years old - I'd be interested to learn what the scientists have to say - by then my own two sons had stopped being interested in action figures. So for little girls playing with Barbie it is more likely to be their parents who are offended by the fact that the doll's skin colour isn't the same as theiir own. But in the case of dolls for girls there are other equally serious issues about body image to think about.

So, does that mean we should aspire to have a range of Barbies with a wider range of dress sizes too, to suit the full range of diversity of body shape, or, come to think of it, disability too.

What do you think, should we expect our toys to represent the full range of society - or are they just toys?

When it was Eid, Divali or when you are doing your Christmas Shopping, was the diversity of the toys you bought your kids in the forefront of your mind?

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment and join our poll here.

There are two anniversaries of events today, each 100 years apart from the other, but each equally earth shattering.

One hundred and fifty years ago today Charles Darwin published his book The Origin of Species and the theory of evolution was born and ripped into the heart of the traditional creationsist view of the human race.

Firty years ago a scandal errupted in the pop music world that destroyed the reputation and career of Alan Freed, the inventor of Rock 'n' Roll. The hugely influental Freed took back-handers from music industry  pluggers to get their music aired on his ground breaking rock n roll radio shows.

Freed shocked America with his persistance at thrusting 'race music', as the music played by black Americans was known, on white radio stations, even the tag that Freed gave to this music was shocking - if only decent Americans had realised that Rock 'n' Roll was a euphemism for sex among black Americans (thank goodness it wasn't discovered in the UK or we could have been listening to Rumpy Pumpy music).

Darwin was a scientist and presented his findings objectively despite knowing what the implications would be to the traditional Christian establishment; Freed was purely a business man who spotted rising trends and promoted them - he got caught out doing exactly that and resented the fact that it was promoted as corrupt.

Both men stretched the boundaries of the current thinking of their time and pushed at the culturally accepted norms until new cultures emerged.

Why do we mention these anniversaries here?

We hope that Experience My Culture will be a space where cultures are shared, challenged, defended and evolve. You don't have to be famous to push at the boundaries.

(By the way, have a look at the videos we've uploaded to get an idea of what we're talking about)

If you've decided that making Christmas Pudding on Stir Up Sunday is for you, here is our selection of places to go for help:

Traditional English Puddings: a pudiding is for life not just for Christmas! This website features a host of lovely homely puddings including a great Christmas recipe:

http://www.traditionalenglishpuddings.co.uk/#

The Vegetarian Society: Christmas Pudding and more recipes for a meat-free Christmas

http://www.vegsoc.org/cordonvert/recipes/christmas.html

Review Centre: If you've decided you can't be bothered and (like Crofty) are going to buy a pudding, here's a site to help you choose one based on other people's reviews:

http://www.reviewcentre.com/products3219.html

Enjoy Stir-up Sunday no matter how you spend it!

One of the things that set us off thiking about culture some time ago was that our culture is as individual as we are. So when people make assumptions about our thoughts, views or characteristics based on what they know about what they asume about our culture they miss out on alot. They miss out on us - the essence of the person they are speaking to.

When we learnt that this coming Sunday - the last Sunday of the Christian Church's year and the one before Advent starts - is known Stir Up Sunday and attached to Britisih cultural traditions we decided to investigate.

Here are some Christmas Pudding facts:, courtesy of the excellent Woodlands Junior School web site

Stir-up Sunday is the traditional day for everyone in the family to take a turn at stirring the Christmas pudding, whilst making a wish.

Before Christmas puddings were sold ready-made in foil containers, they were always made at home. They were made a month before Christmas day so the flavours had plenty of time to develop before Christmas.

Lucky Stir and a Wish

On Stir-up Sunday families returned from Church to give the pudding its traditional lucky stir. The pudding mixture was always stirred from East to West in honour of the three Wise Men who visited the baby Jesus. Whilst stirring the pudding mixture, each family member would make a secret wish.

On their way back from church, children were often heard chanting the following rhyme:

Stir up, we beseech thee, the pudding in the pot;
And when we get home we'll eat the lot.

These words were an adaptation of what they had heard in church on this day.

Why is it called Stir-up Sunday?

The name 'Stir Up Sunday' comes from the opening words of the collect for the day in the Book of Common Prayer of 1549 and later (The collect is the prayer of the day that “collects” up the themes of the readings during a church service). 

The originally collect (prayer) has today been adapted into more modern language and is now the Church of England's prayer after communion for Stir Up Sunday:

"Stir-up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people;
that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works,
may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."

And here's some Christmas Pudding trivia:

Christmas Pudding Traditions

A Christmas pudding is traditionally made with 13 ingredients to represent Christ and His Disciples.

A proper Christmas pudding is always stirred from East to West in honour of the three Wise Men who visited the baby Jesus.

Every member of the family must give the pudding a stir and make a secret wish.

A coin was traditionally added to the ingredients and cooked in the pudding. It was supposedly to bring wealth to whoever found it on their plate on Christmas Day. The traditional coin was an old silver sixpence or threepenny bit.

Other traditional additions to the pudding included a ring, to foretell a marriage, and a thimble for a lucky life

 

Of course that is the accepted tradition and custom, but as Crofty nicely points out in his blog post, that is not the same for everyone - far from it. Crofty's cultural heritage gives him quite a different stance on the pudding - click here to see what he says

What are your experiences of the Christmas build-up, maybe your culture doesn't celebrate Christmas? What's it like living in a place when you are less involved with the cultural festivities of the day?

There's a huge leap between a good idea and a living breathing entity, so excuse us if we are a bit excited at having Experience My Culture alive!

When we started a conversation months ago about how people have more to gain from the things they have in common than their differences, we couldn't have dreamed that Barack Obama would have been using virtually the same words in his speech in Egypt.

But then it is so true isn't it? We have riches to gain from people around us - and the world to lose by shutting ourselves away from each other.

Experience My Culture is here to give us space to share the things in our cultures we are proud of, talk about them, even challenge some of them, to learn things from other cultures too.

We are here too though, to have a think about what culture actually means. After all there are cultures that cross and counter cross all the time. Cultures drawn from sport, work or hobbies just to scratch the surface.

So join in by registering a profile and sharing the things that matter to you.

Keep an eye on the Experience My Culture blog and we'll keep you updated with news as the site develops. Oh, and don't forget to follow us on Twitter - @Expmyculture - for up to the minute cultural news and interesting facts.