Traditions

A friend of mine is giving a workshop on family traditions. She called me for ideas. So, while fixing supper I've been tossing some thoughts about in my mind.

What motivates the creation of a tradition?

Traditions seem to spring up around personal and family values. Our family values discussion of ideas, stories, and family history. My sisters and I created a family newsletter we called The Leafy Alternative. I began a newsletter about raising our family. I call it The Family Messenger. My father introduced his daughters to "Table Topic Dinner Discussions". He would read excerpts from magazine and newspaper articles and ask us questions.

My husband and I began our own version of discussions. They began as "car talks" or "couch talks". These began innocently. While driving home from church we would review behavior -- what was appropriate and what wasn't. My mom would play "practice church" with her girls. So I tried it with our girls. We "practiced" sitting still on the couch for the length of the church service. The girls might have felt like hostages at first. However, they could hear and smell a meal being prepared while they waited and their Dad would visit with them. "What did you talk about in your class today?" This often led to lively and interesting discussions for us all. I would chime in from the kitchen. We credit these "talks" as the beginning of our on-going family conversations and discussions--loved by all!

Families that value music create traditions involving singing or playing instruments. The "instruments" played in my home while growing up were the radio and the record player. We spent many happy hours singing along with Joan Baez and other folk singers.

My absolutely favorite tradition is reading aloud. When I was of college age living at home between semesters I recall reading aloud the Prydain Chronicles by Lloyd Alexander to my two youngest sisters, with whom I temporarily shared a bedroom. Then I would sing a hymn to them before we went to sleep.

Holidays are tradition magnets. At birthdays we always sing, "For she's a jolly good fellow" and give three cheers, "hip-hip-hooray!". I joke that our family tradition is "holiday birthdays".