Are traditions important?

[P. G. Tipps]

I suspect those stalwart comrades who join in singing The Red Flag at the end of the annual Labour Party Conference might be appalled to suddenly learn the famous tradition could be 'closely associated with a conservative point-of-view' ... ?

[french frank]

As Dave says they can often outlive their importance.

Many traditions are not inherently 'important' anyway, but may mean a lot to individuals. How can someone else decide that they have 'outlived their importance'?

[Dave2002]

There are traditions that I have a lot of respect for, and which I observe. I cannot feel totally justified if I don't!

But this can lead us back into circular arguments about "respect" etc. so there should surely be some other reason. Tradition by itself is not enough.

I can think of some traditions which are perhaps dying out (maybe deservedly), and others which perhaps should be allowed to wither away, and some should be opposed completely.

[Serial_Apologist]

I think traditions are fine as long as not too rigidly clung to as representing eternal truths, and instead treated as route maps or recipes, rather than the actual practicable journeys in life, however categorised, for whose purposes they are best used as guidance. Like: this tradition has served us well in the past, and should be respected; this one hasn't, and should be ditched.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

They're a psychological crutch, aren't they - and therefore as "important" (or otherwise) as all such?

[vinteuil]

... I suppose Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France* is the first key text which tries to set out why traditions might be important - both to preserve civil peace and freedom, and to ensure political or institutional changes are made according to the common interest of citizens. This essay is I think a good critique of the problems with Burke's arguments :

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.1662-6370.2001.tb00320.x/pdf

.

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflec...tion_in_France

[french frank]

They're a psychological crutch, aren't they - and therefore as "important" (or otherwise) as all such?

So not inherently important qua tradition but important to individuals? Not sure about the image of a 'crutch': the implication is that there is 'something wrong' with people to whom a tradition gives pleasure, or food for reflection.

We have a family tradition, there is no onus upon us to keep it up. I'm the fourth generation to observe it, and a member of the next generation has said he wants to keep it up. There's no pressure on him to do so, and if/when it ends no one will be the loser.

[Sir Velo]

.. This essay is I think a good critique of the problems with Burke's arguments :

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/j.1662-6370.2001.tb00320.x/pdf

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflec...tion_in_France

Mmm...reminds me of many of the dry academic papers that one was forced to read for one's degree; you couldn't summarise the argument in a pithy two paragraphs could you?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So not inherently important qua tradition but important to individuals?

Absolutely!

Not sure about the image of a 'crutch': the implication is that there is 'something wrong' with people to whom a tradition gives pleasure, or food for reflection.

I was probably subconsciously thinking of Tiny Tim (which I always read at ... ). You're right; better to substitute "support" - no implication was intended.

We have a family tradition, there is no onus upon us to keep it up. I'm the fourth generation to observe it, and a member of the next generation has said he wants to keep it up. There's no pressure on him to do so, and if/when it ends no one will be the loser.

It isn't singing "Little Donkey" around the Tree at 3 o'clock on Christmas morning, is it?

[Serial_Apologist]

I suppose the importance or otherwise of traditions depends on what one includes in the definition. Are languages traditions? Or just language usages, such as those we discuss on the Pedants thread? Whereas language-based traditions could be blown away like smoke, to be replaced by some other symbolic form of representation, those that are embedded in institutions such as democracies are obviously important to those dependent on accessing them for having a say in the running of affairs otherwise only vouchsafed to the powerful.

So maybe the answer depends what sorts of traditions we're talking about - some being more important than others.

[french frank]

It isn't singing "Little Donkey" around the Tree at 3 o'clock on Christmas morning, is it?

In the morning? Are you mad?

[Padraig]

So maybe the answer depends what sorts of traditions we're talking about - some being more important than others.

Our traditions are important - their traditions aren't.

[vinteuil]

... In the UK we have a tradition of having some holidays or festivities around December - which normally we call Christmas, though in other countries they may call it something like "winter holiday" or different religious groups may have slightly different names and different events, but essentially festivities in winter have been going on for centuries - even millennia.
Sometimes though surely traditions are there to be broken - just like rules.

... I think most families here have their own Christmas traditions / rituals - what to go in stockings, prezzies before / after breakfast, main meal middle of the day or later, particular sweetmeats / liqueurs only consumed at this time of year. I am always intrigued when people get married and start setting up their own families / family traditions - as to how the traditions of parent x and parent y may combine to form new rituals. "O no, we never open our prezzies until we've had a bracing walk / gone to morning Mass / tidied up the chaos of last night... "
The new traditions are akin to the combining of the genes of the new parents.

And then the agonising question of where to spend the day - with x's parents, with y's, together but inviting both parents... and with more and more complicated family arrangements - "Last year we were with your stepdad's new husband - I think this year it's my stepmother's turn... "

Generosity and alcohol the only solutions to the challenges of the season.

[Serial_Apologist]

Our traditions are important - their traditions aren't.

We're talking traditions in general though, aren't we?

[Nick Armstrong]

Generosity and alcohol the only solutions to the challenges of the season.