Have you ever wondered why you follow the same ritual and behaviours during the same celebrations or events? How did they start? Where did they come from? Is there a bigger meaning behind them? Or, did it just start as a bit of fun and you’ve kept doing it?
In Australia we’ve just had our Christmas break where all Australian’s have a couple of public holidays and days off from work – Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Even though these days started out in Australia as religious and historical celebrations, having been originally settled by the British the settlers bought their traditions with them, all Australians now have these days off regardless of their religion. Interestingly, because Australia is now so diverse, we have also taken on a number of the celebrations of other cultural traditions such as Chinese New Year, the Hindu tradition of the Holi Festival (Festival of Colours), Greek Orthodox Easter, St Patrick’s Day, Ramadan, Diwali, ANZAC Day, Remembrance day and a host of others. Each one of these days involves tradition, thought, observance and meaning.
When you move away from the initiation of these traditions, either by distance or time, things invariably change. For example:
In Australia our Christmas lunch and dinner now traditionally has a large portion of prawns, crayfish, lobster and other forms of cold shellfish and seafood.
Some of the reasons – we are surrounded by the best seafood in the world; it is invariably 30⁰ – 37⁰ C (that’s 85⁰ – 100⁰ F) on Christmas Day; with so many different nationalities of Christians each has bought their own traditional dishes with them (eg. Polish, Croatian, Filipino, Samoan, just to name a few); and we spend a lot of time outside in our summer.
But traditions are not always the large things that are part of a whole culture or large group. I was discussing with friends our family traditions for Christmas day and one was that Dad always had to cook ham and eggs for breakfast and then we could open presents. Very simple but it always started our day as a family.
One of the other traditions my family had was camping. Our camping season always began on a long weekend in October (a weekend with a public holiday attached so we had 3 days off) and finished with Easter the following year. Our group of families spent time camping by the beach fishing, swimming, playing beach cricket and cooking that just caught freshest of fresh fish on an open fire.
Another of the very Aust-idiosyncratic traditions is that if you can’t make it to Sydney for New Years Eve you watch the event on TV. It’s in the same vane as the Ball dropping in Times Square or Big Ben striking 12. Most of us have the goal of watching the event live at least once, and even better would be being on the bay watching. I have to say being out on the water in 
Sydney Harbour at midnight is amazing. The atmosphere of excitement counting in a new year, celebrating with friends, the music, the fireworks and being part of thousands of people all just enjoying the moment is an incredible feeling. So much more than just being at a party.
Traditions can be huge, like New Years Eve, or as simple as the way you say hello with a kiss on each cheek.
Schools have traditions at graduations. Workplaces have traditions and rituals for new employees and for retirees. Weddings are full of traditions. Did you know that the tradition of placing the groom on the right started because the groom needed to keep his sword arm free to protect his bride? And that one started back in the 1300’s.
Do you have traditions in your family? How did they start?
You may find that many of the things you do and take for granted, the prayers you say, the way you play certain games, even the songs that you habitually sing at Christmas time started with someone in your family and you’ve just kept doing the same thing. Possibly because it feels good, it has a certain meaning for you, or simply because it’s what you’ve always done.
Traditions can be wonderful for the right reasons however, if they are destructive you don’t have to follow the other sheep.
What traditions do you follow? What traditions would you like to change?
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