You hope for a good roommate when you go to college. My wife got one, thankfully. The two of them hit it off pretty well, and she was invited to dinner with her roommate’s family during a visit. Everything was going just great when a strange thing happened. About halfway through the meal one of the roommate’s family members yelled “switch!” And each person proceeded to switch plates with someone else. My wife had not been prepared for this. You can imagine her confusion as someone thrust a plate in front of her and reached for her own plate in return.
That was an interesting example of a family tradition, and traditions can be weird, can’t they? This is especially true when you don’t share that same pastime.
Take Christmas, for instance. What are some of the oldest Christmas traditions that we have? You might think of Christmas trees, and that is a good example. Where did that tradition come from? We don’t know exactly, as different countries claim to have the first Christmas tree in history. One story is that is started in what is now the Rhineland, now present-day France. It is said that Christmas trees were first sold there in a market setting during the 17th century. Some say the first ever decorated Christmas tree was recorded in 1605 in Strasbourg, and it wad adorned with roses, apples, wafers, and other sweets. Another tradition you may or may not be familiar with is the pickle ornament. The Woolworth department store is often credited with the origin here. There were several vegetable ornaments sold by the company but the pickle was not selling well. People didn’t care for an ornament that was the same color as the tree and therefore hard to pick out. Woolworth may have turned this negative into a positive, creating a tradition that the first person to find the pickle in the tree got a special present (or would be the first person allowed to open a present).
Santa Claus is of course a big tradition too. St. Nicholas was a monk born sometime around A.D. 280 near moden day Turkey. He became the subject of lots of legends due to his famed kindness. People say he gave away all of his wealth and travelled the countryside helping poor and sick people. His birthday, December 6, was considered a lucky day in Europe. Americans picked this up with the immigration of the Dutch.
And then there is the KFC tradition in Japan. After World War 2 the Japanese became enamored with Western culture. In 1970 at the Osaka World Fair KFC opened an international trial store and was an instant hit. The first regular KFC store in Japan opened in November 21 of that year. According to the company the Christmas tradition was formed when a non-Japanese customer entered a store seeking to buy chicken for a Christmas party and asked if the vendor could dress up as santa to bring it to kids at a nearby school. This turned out to be a big success and the santa-bringing chicken man turned up in more and more schools. In 2018 about 10% of the annual revenue for KFC Japan came from Christmas, during the five day period from December 21 through the 25.
What makes a tradition a tradition? Here is Merriam Webster definition of the term:
an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (such as a religious practice or a social custom) a belief or story or a body of beliefs or stories relating to the past that are commonly accepted as historical though not verifiable
Are traditions good? Think about that carefully before you answer. I am sure you can come up with “established patterns of thought” that may not be good things. Read this passage from Matthew’s gospel and ask yourself how tradition is used in the text:
Matthew 15:1-7
15 Then some Pharisees and teachers of the law came to Jesus from Jerusalem and asked, 2 “Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders? They don’t wash their hands before they eat!”
3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition? 4 For God said, ‘Honor your father and mother’ and ‘Anyone who curses their father or mother is to be put to death.’ 5 But you say that if anyone declares that what might have been used to help their father or mother is ‘devoted to God,’ 6 they are not to ‘honor their father or mother’ with it. Thus you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.
It seems like tradition is being used as a weapon against Jesus’ followers. Have you ever heard the phrase “That’s not the way we do it here?”
Traditions can be great. There are benefits from having some of them. They bring predictability and constancy to our lives. Without them we lose a sense of fulfillment and social comradery. But let’s acknowledge the need to have more than just tradition as a reason for doing the things we do.
God Bless