I'd like to see what opinions y'all have about traditions. Not any particular traditions, but more about the concept of traditions — doing something because it has been done a long time and some (or many) people have deep feelings about them. Is the fact something is a tradition sufficient reason for maintaining a tradition? Or should traditions serve the ones observing the traditions? What about coerced observance? If a tradition has lost its significance, should we keep on doing it in hopes one day it will become meaningful again? How do you feel about traditions — and traditionalism — fading? Do you thing it IS fading? Have you created your own traditions or do you prefer the old ones?

Also, would you like more traditions or fewer? Would you like more people to observe the traditions you do, or are your traditions more personal? What kinds of traditions do you think we need in order to build/maintain a healthy society?

https://despair.com/collections/demotivators/products/tradition?variant=2457305795
"Just because you've always done it that way doesn't mean it's not incredibly stupid."

People thought for centuries that you caught a cold from standing barefoot on a cold floor. I imagine parents today still chide children to put some socks on before they catch cold. My parents and grandparents certainly did. It has only been just over a century that we know about viruses and the germ theory of disease.

Same thing with malaria. We used to think it was caused by breathing "bad air", hence the Italian name meaning bad air. We now know the cause, but the name stuck.

Saying "bless you" after someone sneezes is an odd Christian tradition that Mormons actively discourage. There is no real reason to do it, but also no real reason to discourage it. Competing traditions.

Neckties. 'Nuff said.

English spelling that is not phonetic. Irregular verbs. WHY? Tradition. The average English speaking three year old has attempted the obvious, and assumed the past tense of "go" is "goed", and we have to spend years training them about the exceptions to regular rules.

Mounting a horse from the left side. The only reason is that everyone, especially the horse, has come to expect it. The original reason is that most people are right handed, so a horse soldier with a sword hanging on the left hip (so it could be drawn across their body) mounted from the left to not get tangled up in the sword.

Tipping people whose jobs were considered servant-class in Victorian England, and not tipping people whose jobs didn't exist as servant jobs in Victorian England.

Putting handles on cups. Asians think this is weird. They consider knowing that the cup is too hot to hold to be very useful information. Why hide that?



Traditions are everywhere.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2021 10:01PM by Brother Of Jerry.

...you had jive parents...  Everyone who is anyone knows that it's going outside with wet hair that causes you to catch a cold!

I like traditions that are neutral.

Like what's the best gear to be in, to coast the car back out of the driveway so that when you start the engine, no one in the house will hear you...?

My mother, who was born during the Great Depression, persisted in thinking that you could catch a cold by not dressing warmly enough.

It depends on what the tradition is, what that tradition means (both historically and also "right now"), how that tradition affects the personal feelings of any given individual (or animal), being aware if the tradition is inherently good or "not good," etc.

Some traditions are abusive and horrible (for example: animal, child, and gender abuse), other traditions tend to uplift at least most of the people who follow them.

It also depends on contemporary realities, which constantly evolve:

Some traditions SHOULD vanish as society evolves (gender-wise, racially, ethnically, religiously, etc.).

Other traditions tend to uplift, strengthen, and empower, generation after generation.

You often need to know "what" tradition, "what" society/culture, and "what" social and socio-economic realities exist before you can make a "good" or "not good" determination.

I agree with Tevai -- traditions can be positive or negative in the ability to support and uplift families and communities.

In my family, we've been flexible. We are willing to update or adjust traditions as needed.

I still keep some of the traditions I grew up with like getting pjs on Christmas Eve. My dad's parents always gave us pjs at the family party, which we had all the years of my life up until my aunt (who had the party) died about 10 years ago.

I put up the nativity my mother made me even if I don't know what I believe.

I'm trying to think of traditions other than Christmas. My kids and I had things we always did as it was just the 3 of us like we'd watch Christmas movies every night for a few weeks before Christmas and then we'd watch the movies we got for Christmas every night for a few weeks after.

We would go to the local New Years Eve excellent buffet together--the 3 of us.

We went to Disney on Ice every year even before their dad left. He only went one year. I took my mom a few years with us and others in the family.

We don't do all our old traditions. Life changes. Like my daughter is married now and my son was married at one time. But there are some things I hang onto.

My aunt always gives us oranges on Christmas Eve as my grandfather always got them when they were young. My mother always got them when we were young, but then didn't after we got older, but now she makes sure our family all has them plus her children since our parents are dead.

I think it helps connect us. I'm very close to my dad's family and those cousins. We get together now and then even if all our parents are gone. Just the cousins and partners. We had some activity/party every holiday growing up. We went to each others' homes on every parent and child's birthday and each family would give us a gift.

I like traditions, because they are a link to the past, and I believe that families exist in time as well as in space. So a good tradition is a way of linking the past to the present.

Like if you wear your grandmother's necklace on your wedding day, or you eat pizza for Thanksgiving, because that is what your mother did, or you open your presents on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day, because that is the way you have always done it in your family.

Other traditions, can be disposed of, the sooner the better like "we don't get divorced in our family," or "we don't believe in vaccines." Some traditions need to be broken.

So choose which ones you are going to keep, get rid of or modify the ones that don't do anyone any good, and realize that just because it is a tradition doesn't meant that it is a Good Thing.

Have you been cast as Tevye in Fiddler again?

The shunning of the daughter in that says a lot, no? The things we do for our Gods. Geeeeeeez!

Traditions are like everything else. Some good some bad. The problem is being on automatic. Tradition provides structure but that structure needs to be sound and built on intelligence and caring.


Here in Socal shooting guns in the air on certain holidays is a tradition among certain people. This tradition is a sign of stupid and selfish.

When I was a kid it was a tradition for us to ride our horses up the crick and pick choke cherries for whoever wanted them to make jam and syrup. We looked forward to all getting together to do the yearly event. Shame the kids in that town don't even know now that there are choke cherry bushes up the crick. Would have been a nice tradition to carry on. But it died. Too bad the guns in the air don't die.

How about the tradition of setting off lots of fireworks during the hottest, driest month of the year in a state that is fire prone to start with.

And not one, but two holidays, same month.

Is that the same state where they have the tradition of 8 year olds "choosing" to be baptized?

“Without our traditions, our lives would be as shaky as...a fiddler on the roof!”

Sorry, instant musical theater reaction.

Thanks to the new gender reveal tradition, you no longer have a roof.

I like traditions when they coincide with something I wanted to do anyway...

About tradition***
the musical Fiddler on the Roof said it all in my opinion