“Tradition wears a snowy beard, romance is always young.” John Greenleaf Whittier
What is tradition’s place in our cultural life?
Sometimes tradition provides humor.
When our children were young, we often joined with another young family for a vacation. For several years we met on Cape Cod, enjoying the eastern landscape.
Perched on a cliff overlooking the sea, a church in the area had its beginnings in colonial times. On Sundays, we were welcomed by the small congregation. The service began with a simple procession…the cross, flags, a young child carrying a pillow, the pastor.
Eventually, someone in our group asked about the ornate pillow. Its only purpose seemed to be a spot in the processional and recessional. The pastor chuckled; he was used to the question.
In the church’s very early years, there was a problem with mice, many, many mice. Even during a service, the blatant creatures would run across the altar, snatching the communion bread.
So the congregation engaged the services of a mouse-catching cat to live at the church. To ensure the dignity of this addition during services, each Sunday in the processional, the cat was carried in on a needlepointed pillow that was placed near the altar to secure the area for a mouse-free communion service.
Even though many, many years had passed since those very early mouse years, the processions always had the special but empty pillow with its cat motif carried in and carried out…part of their precious tradition, the honor for one generation of children after another.
Sometimes traditions catch up with us, don’t they? We find ourselves maintaining a practice that lacks relevance or meaning to any of the current generation. Often, we then must admit, this tradition just might bring into question a lot of what we revere when we ask our succeeding generations to join with us in anything.
The formal family holiday dinner is a classic example with elegant table settings, linen dinner napkins, all the necessary pieces of sterling silverware arranged in order alongside the plates of fine China and stemware…and formal manners, learning experiences for the youngest generation. For the most part, there was always good conversation.
During one of the last formal dinners here, as we finished eating, the grandchildren were shown how to make music by rubbing a moist finger around the crystal glass rim to make the crystal “sing.” Heavenly music…a delight. But I caught myself wondering what my grandfather would have thought…Hmmm.
Now for holidays, it is disposable plates, carried-in food and drinks, and these younger generations insist on cleaning up and carrying the trash out with them!
Bravo! Brava!
Judy Harris is well established in Northern Kentucky life, as a longtime elementary and university educator. A graduate of Thomas More, she began her career there in 1980 where she played a key role in teacher education and introduced students to national and international travel experiences. She has traveled and studied extensively abroad. She enjoys retirement yet stays in daily contact with university students. Reach her at judyharris1579@gmail.com