Maintaining our traditions means that past ways of thinking and being are handed down through the generations, keeping them alive in the present.
This may have various effects on people; it can be wonderfully inspiring or, if imposed on someone, it can interfere with their freedom to be themselves, to be innovative and different. Sticking too rigidly to old rules and traditions can inhibit and constrain.
Let us first examine how tradition can be helpful to us.
- The benefits of tradition in all our lives
Tradition – Abdus Shakoor Shah. 2001. Wikioo
“The traditional ways and rituals of all of Earth’s peoples are kept in containers of poetry, song, and story. It is how we know who we are, where we are coming from and who we are becoming.”
Joy Harjo, Catching the Light
Keeping traditions enables continuity and connection with our ancestors and with the past. Doing so can help us to feel a sense of belonging, an awareness of history and a desire to continue and build on the discoveries of those who are no longer alive.
It also means that we can learn from the ideas of the past, and move them forward. Whilst we know that ‘there is nothing new under the sun,’ there are novel ways of using and transforming past influences.
“There is no creation without tradition; the ‘new’ is an inflection on a preceding form; novelty is always a variation on the past.”
Carlos Fuentes, Myself with Others: Selected Essays
Without the traditions of old, we would lack a foundation, a base on which to build for the future. The wisdom and knowledge of our ancestors is a necessary part of moving forward in terms of, for example, art, science, business, writing, music, cooking food, and many other skills.
Jewish Challah Bread, Six Braided With Sesame. 2005. Aviv Hod. Wikimedia Commons.
“Food is culture. Food is an identity, a footprint of who you are.”
Lidia Bastianich
Familial or religious traditions can also help people feel safe and connected; they can give them a feeling of containment and belonging, even (or perhaps especially) in difficult times.
During the Holocaust, concentration camp inmates wrote their treasured recipes down anywhere they could; these foods symbolised family traditions that were in danger of being totally wiped out, along with their creators. People were not allowed to celebrate religious holidays or pass down any knowledge of family traditions to their children.
An article by the Illinois Holocaust Museum describes ‘recipes as resistance;’ prisoners wrote down family recipes on ‘grenade launcher packing slips,’ and on ‘fragmentation bomb packing slips.’ These were then carefully hidden and some of these precious notes survived to this day, thus preserving for posterity something of the people who wrote them as well as passing on an important part of their culture.
- Respecting different traditions…
Image by Juan Carlos Fonseca Mata via Wikimedia Commons.
“For some, the main purpose of producing Huichol art for commercial trade is to enable Huichol communities to retain their language, religion, and customs by continuing and expanding traditional art.”
Continuing to make traditional art and crafts can, as the quote says, help preserve important aspects of ancient communities; having a material product provides visual evidence of how things were.
This can be crucially important in relation to a community’s ongoing identity and the continuation of their unique creativity. We need to respect and support these traditions.
“Choose to respect other people’s cultures or heritage.
Whether you believe in yours or not.
Whether you practice yours or not.”De philosopher DJ Kyos
- The downside and pitfalls of holding onto tradition
Giovanni Battista Piranesi. The Pier with a Gothic Arch -Imaginary Prison.c1745-50
“Tradition is a guide and not a jailer.”
W. Somerset Maugham
Tradition may point the way, but it needs to be used as an influence, an interesting start and not, as the quote says, ‘a jailer.’ What does this mean exactly?
Whilst recreating the past can be inspiring and exciting, repeating the old ways in a mindless fashion can be stultifying to creativity. It can trap and imprison us in the past; sometimes a fear of being different can make us all appear the same.
“Most people do most things because most people do.”
Raheel Farooq
Some amongst us are so bound by tradition that we are sucked into it like a kind of quicksand. This can be interpreted as a denial of the present, of our own individuality and creativity and, indeed, of change.
To some people, that is a deliberate life choice. Whatever the underlying reason, they do not want to try new foods, meet new people, alter their routine, or use mobile phones. The familiar feels safe and known. Inevitably, this implies that there are parts of the self that will be unknown to them.
“Clinging uncritically to traditional ideas and beliefs often serves to obscure or deny real facts of our life history.”
Alice Miller
This quotation is underlining the fact that, if we do hold onto old traditions without much thought, it can mean we are in denial; the traditions and rituals we cling to may be a way of masking aspects of our own past life.
Whilst traditions may keep us linked to our familial and ancestral roots, aspects of our own personal history may remain blocked off.
Traditions can sometimes be a way of avoiding reality.
The above image illustrates the way in which colours have become definitive of gender in some people’s eyes. Traditionally, since the 1940’s, girls wear pink and boys blue. This was a reversal of how things had been before, when pink was regarded as ‘the stronger colour’ and therefore was for boys to wear, whilst blue was ‘daintier’ for girls. This colour-coding has fluctuated through the ages.
This is sexism, gender-stereotyping and gender-coding expressed though colour. It also reflects a dichotomous way of seeing gender, either a boy or girl, which, in itself, denies the reality of a world where there are many different genders.
Of course, this custom is merely tradition and babies can be dressed in any colour.
- The devastating loss of tradition and identity: colonialism
Joseph Smith Preaching to the Indians. William Armitage. 1890. Wikimedia Commons.
“That is why when they colonise you, they shame your culture and undermine it, so that you might think it is not important. They want you to forget your culture and heritage of which it is your power. Losing your identity is losing your power. It will make you vulnerable.”
De philosopher DJ Kyos
In the photograph above, a man is carried by Congolese men in the early 20th century. CC BY.
Colonialism, the taking over of a people and their resources by invaders from another country, involves control and domination of all aspects of the conquered people’s lives. The subjugated people are exploited and deprived of their freedom to govern themselves. This often includes a devastating loss of indigenous language, identity, precious traditions and heritage.
- Refugees and migrants
Louis Guglielmi – Refugees – 1939. Wikimedia Commons.
For migrants and refugees, whose tradition and customs may be eroded through the fact that these are difficult to maintain in a new country, there can be a very painful form of grieving.
Loss of family, traditional foods and ingredients, of language, of friends, of culture and heritage in general, can be devastating and can increase a bewildering sense of displacement, leaving people bereft in a strange country. They experience the extreme distress of cultural bereavement, which can leave them suffering mental illness.
Aleksandr Drevin. Refugee. 1916. Wikimedia Commons
“The immigrant experience is a constant negotiation of identity.”
The Good Immigrant
In time, as they become more settled, there is hope that the migrants’ cultures can be reclaimed, and that they will be able to share aspects of their traditions with the people around them, and enhance their new society.
Gaining a balance between integrating into the traditions of a new country and keeping one’s own unique, precious identity can be difficult for anyone. For some, this might be easier than others, but it is no mean feat for anyone, however it might appear on the surface.
The Refugee. William Orpen.1918. Wikimedia Commons.
“my mother thinks i’m a living proof of cultural appropriation
but aren’t i a foreigner in my own country
an outsider
but only on the inside”Xayaat Muhummed, The Breast Mountains Of All Time Are In Hargeisa
- Tradition and dogma
Inevitably, as the world changes, so do our traditions. That is, unless they are viewed as being ‘written in stone,’ in which case people will ensure that traditions do not change. Then, they become dogma, unchallengeable, doctrinal.
However, in relation to the unchanging nature of such dogmatic traditional principles, this can only be partial, for, as time passes, life, people, countries and contexts change. No-one can live in a bubble of the past. Inevitably the firmest of traditions will have to alter in some small way to accommodate modern life.
Whilst the continuity and sense of connection and community that tradition can give us may have a constructive effect on our lives, when it descends into imposed dogma it can become suffocating.
Gallegos- The Bride’s Dowry. Before 1917. Wikimedia Commons.
“Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead.”
G.K. Chesterton
Sometimes, it might feel as though tradition is a kind of command, a parental order, or an undisputed instruction from an authority we deem wiser than ourselves. This can mean that there is a feeling of guilt or disloyalty if the tradition is broken.
It can also feel restrictive and stultifying if we do not personally believe that the tradition has any value to us.
- The need for choice
Freedom from Want, also known as The Thanksgiving Picture or I’ll Be Home for Christmas. 1943. Norman Rockwell. Wikimedia Commons
“I prefer to choose which traditions to keep and which to let go.”
Theodore Bikel
Having the freedom and the option to take or leave tradition is important for many of us; or perhaps we will decide to both uphold tradition and appreciate change. Can we do this, and can we manage the inherent paradox?
“Tradition can, to be sure, participate in a creation, but it can no longer be creative itself.”
Kenzo Tangs
The quotation is indicating that traditional ideas can be inspiring and can be integrated into current creative projects; in itself, however, tradition is static, frozen in time, unless it is given a new direction in contemporary life.
Do tradition and creative change contradict each other? They certainly do not have to. Perhaps they can even complement each other, if approached in a creative way.
“If we are to preserve culture we must continue to create it.”
Johan Huizinga
This perceptive quotation points to the fact that by moving forward and developing our traditions and our culture, we actually contribute to their preservation. This approach to tradition encourages connection and creativity. It enables us to both utilise tradition and embrace change.
A wonderful example of this is the use of LED technology in the ancient Chinese New Year lion dance celebrations. The time-honoured traditional lion dance has now been sent flying into the future through the fantastic use of contemporary LED technology. It provides a stunning spectacle, neatly combining the traditional and the modern.
Choo Yut Shing. LED Phoenixs. Performed by Tian Eng Dragon and Lion Dance Centre at the Supertree Grove, Gardens by the Bay during Spring Surprise to celebrate the Chinese New Year 2017 Festival. Flickr.
© Linda Berman
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