“I can’t decide if I want to do my traditional birthday-day-outing with my parents this year.” A student was explaining to me that he was struggling with the fact that his birthday was going to fall onto a school day in which there were some fun activities planned. He clearly did not want to miss them. Yet he said that he loved the tradition he and his parents had of spending his birthday together, out doing things.
Traditions are so comforting. In a world that is unpredictable and ever-changing, they can provide much-needed continuity. A sort of anchor that gives meaning to the seasons and events of our lives.
Traditions can hold communities together. My elementary school has many traditions that help to bind us together and build our identity. One of my favorites is the Tile Painting Night, where families come out and each get to paint a ceiling tile any way they want. The tiles are added to the ceilings, and create a wonderful mosaic that represents our community. Students enjoy pointing out their family’s tile and commenting on others’. Since the tiles remain indefinitely, it has also become a sort of legacy of those students and families who are no longer attending our school.
This time of year is filled with traditions. The holidays give us so many traditions, customs, and routines. Some traditions bind us together as a cultural group or community. Town Tree Lightings. Church Christmas Pageants.
Some are family traditions, such as making Gingerbread Houses or decorating the Christmas Tree.
Traditions are certainly not carved in stone and sometimes shift and change. Especially family traditions. I was recently chatting with a friend about her Traditional Family Christmas gathering and how it has changed over the years. Now that her children are grown and establishing their own traditions, she is reinventing hers as well.
Traditions are definitely on my mind, as today is one of my favorite holiday traditions. Attending the Nutcracker Ballet. As a child, I remember attending my first Nutcracker performance with my sisters and parents. We drove into New York City and the Christmas Lights and energy of the city were pure magic for the country girl I was. When my daughter was born, I continued the tradition with her, and now with my granddaughters. That first one was the only one in New York City, but no matter where I have seen it, the ballet works its holiday magic. In the 55 years since I was 10 and saw it for the first time, I have probably seen the Nutcracker performed live 40 or more times. Some years it was just my daughter and me, and some years others joined us. Some years we were not able to fit in a performance at all.
But that is the thing about traditions, they are always there, to be put to the side, taken up, or reinvented as needed.
This year there will be 8 of us. Two grandmothers, two mothers, and 4 daughters. Traditions continue.
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