Traditions

Change is happening every day. Sometimes it happens so slow that we don’t realize the change. Traditions are fading out as the older folk die off.

In the area where I live, change is happening rapidly. At one time, bands and choirs existed in most every village. Young people are not interested in joining a choir or band. At one time music was taught in schools and bands were formed. Although music is an elective, it is no longer a standard in the curriculum.

Our Göcklingen Men’s choir was about to end two years ago due to diminishing members and then a choir from another village that was about to end due to lack of singers joined with our Choir. They are old people in the 70’s and 80’s and the numbers decline every year as they die off. Last night we had a general meeting to elect new officers. No one wants to be in charge as it is too much work and those who did the job for many years wish to retire from the job. The Choir director doesn’t want to continue unless there are sufficient singers. We have yet to decide if we will continue. We tried to get young people interested, but they have other interests. The Catholic Church choir has banded together with a neighboring church for the same reason. The Protestant choir is decreasing in size as well and I don’t think it will be in existence much longer. At a meeting with choir directors of other areas, they are experiencing the same thing. Some choirs have already disbanded and others are on the brink. Money is a factor in supporting a choir as the choir director must be paid. The rental of a hall for practice costs money. Fund raising projects are needed and tiresome. Unless there is excitement among the singers they lose interest and drop out.

As people die off, so do the traditions. The tradition of singing and going from village to village, putting on a performance, enjoying the comradeship/fellowship of friends and neighbors with food and drink is dying out. What the future holds in uncertain, but we know it will not be as it was. The young folk have other interests. They will create their own future and hopefully traditions that they can enjoy in old age.

Singing makes people happy. It makes them smile. It can bring back fond memories. It can be therapeutic. Losing these traditions is sad for those who grew up with them. What traditions will evolve for the next generation? Will they get together and enjoy fellowship or become isolated? What do you think will happen? What traditions are fading away where you live?

They will listen to music on their i pods,
What young person could manage to get through a choir practice--they have to text all the time.

We have to let go of the old before the new can emerge. Of course we feel sadness and a sense of loss. Losses must be grieved in order to let go and move on. We go from denial to anger to sadness, and then move into acceptance, which allows us to let it go.

The severity of the loss determines the depth and duration of the stages. Seeing the younger generation choosing their own traditions may not be a calamity, but it certainly allows for a bit of being miffed, and writing about it can help us to experience our regret.

Change accelerates these days, and we experience more and more "future shock" which makes acceptance a bit more difficult, but I believe this younger generation will develop some positive traditions that will help all of us enter this new age.

Rites, rituals, traditions and myths give us a sense of security, but the inevitability of change requires that we update them periodically.

It is really past time for letting go and updating many of them that no longer work in today's world.

I keep hearing that I should let go of the old. I don't want to let go. I want to hold on to those things that I enjoy, and when it is no longer available, I can still regret the loss and hold onto the memories.
I'm not ready to embrace all the new technology. It is available for those who want it, but it is not something one must have or embrace.

I suppose I should seek people of like mind and age who appreciate tradition and things of the past that made them what they are today. When I let go, they can place me in a six foot hole or ignite the fire.

I will be more careful with future posts.

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I will be more careful with future posts.

Gracious, Abe. I hope you don't mean that.

We all have our own perspectives, and expressing them isn't meant to deny the validity of another person's view. Combining perspectives is what leads to the synergy of a broader view that values and honors both.

I'm sure you are familiar with Dylan Thomas's tribute to to his father:

Quote :

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/do-not-go-gentle-into-that-good-night/

Abe F. March wrote:

I keep hearing that I should let go of the old. I don't want to let go. I want to hold on to those things that I enjoy, and when it is no longer available, I can still regret the loss and hold onto the memories.
I'm not ready to embrace all the new technology. It is available for those who want it, but it is not something one must have or embrace.

I suppose I should seek people of like mind and age who appreciate tradition and things of the past that made them what they are today. When I let go, they can place me in a six foot hole or ignite the fire.

Abe, I'm with you. Along with many of the traditions that get left behind, so do many of our values!

I'm caught between Ann and Abe. A part of me actually hungers for traditions long lost already. Another part of me recognizes that what appears a "tradition" to one person may be an outmoded way of thinking to another.

Sometimes traditions go hand in hand with obligations. My son chooses not to celebrate traditional holidays - including birthdays, Mother's Day, Easter, Valentine's Day, etc. That way he does not have any obligations for those days. His lack of celebration makes his life less rich also. I love the lights of Christmas, the flowers on Mother's Day, the baskets on Easter and the hearts on Valentine's Day. These celebrations give us something for which to plan...even if it's to give ourselves a lovely day.

Art, literature and music survived in the past not because of the masses but because they were supported by patrons. The wealthy have other places to invest their money to make more money, to buy more houses and cars and trips and gadgets, thus the funding for the activity that enriches one's soul is threatened.

The Lions Club that does magnificent charity work is having trouble getting younger members; and there's only so much that elderly members can continue accomplishing. Younger members want to be in organizations that help them get richer, not live a life that includes charity.

On the other hand, some church traditions continue to damn segments of society and those traditions are long overdue for change A literal Biblical interpretation is beyond my comprehension, a book written for a far different world that can be a philosophical guide but does not dictate a daily lifestyle except by very careful picking through the stories...

I've rambled here because "traditions" vary for each of us. My sister-in-law had a fit because my 93 year old mother decided the tradition of grama cooking Christmas Eve dinner had to change - she takes the family out to dinner instead. The grandchildren (adults) moaned that they would miss "grama's cooking."

This year we went out for Christmas dinner on the Friday before Christmas so mother and I could get on the road in good weather on the weekend instead of waiting for the Tuesday after Christmas...no one has thanked me for a Christmas present yet for ruining their Christmas. By the way, their "Christmas Day" tradition does not include Grama who sits home alone on Christmas day until I started bringing her to Florida. They spend Christmas Day with their real "family." Some "traditions" are painful.

From a book that Abe and Ann have:

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“Don’t live in the past, Dad,” his children would tell him.
“Why not?” he’d respond. “The present is dismal, and I have no future.”

The idea for that piece came from my grandmother when my aunt told her to let go of the past. Grammy's answer resonates with me more now than it did then.

Later that same evening, when Aunt Ruth told Grammy not to eat so fast, Grammy said, "I'm ninety-six. I must be doing something right."

To answer Abe's question:

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What traditions are fading away where you live?

Energy, optimism, ambition, enthusiasm, and a burning need to get things done, to change the world, to make a difference. Somehow those things aren't as important as they used to be.

But, Abe, we treasure the past and its traditions because we have a past and traditions. Younger people don't have those blessings. They are blissfully unaware.

It's our time to reminisce. Their time will get here before they realize it.

....

I grew up without traditions like singing in the choir, going to church on a Sunday, having Thanksgiving dinner, decorating a tree and exchanging presents at Christmas. I was like a person looking in the windows where these traditions were commonplace. I felt left out and I have tried to have traditons for my children and my grands and greats so that they have those important memories.

In my freedom from my childhood, I felt everything that Al expressed:

"Energy, optimism, ambition, enthusiasm, and a burning need to get things done, to change the world, to make a difference."

That feeling has never left me.

Love,

Betty

Abe F. March wrote:

I keep hearing that I should let go of the old. I don't want to let go. I want to hold on to those things that I enjoy, and when it is no longer available, I can still regret the loss and hold onto the memories.
I'm not ready to embrace all the new technology. It is available for those who want it, but it is not something one must have or embrace.

I suppose I should seek people of like mind and age who appreciate tradition and things of the past that made them what they are today. When I let go, they can place me in a six foot hole or ignite the fire.

I will be more careful with future posts.

I think you should say what you think and feel. We are not all the same.

By all means hang on tight to your traditions--we want you above ground.

In enjoyed reading all the comments. Thank you.

Quote :

What traditions will evolve for the next
generation? Will they get together and enjoy fellowship or become
isolated? What do you think will happen? What traditions are fading
away where you live?

Lots of traditions are fading away, an obvious one being holiday greetings. People are afraid to offend someone with "Merry Christmas" or a Halloween party. Losing traditions, or shall I say, eroding traditions, is a direct result of the "multicultural paradise" that the social engineers stridently tell us we must embrace for our own good. Groups don't embrace each other's customs and never will, despite the happy propaganda disseminated in the schools. They balkanize and water down the majority customs. I have a lot of examples of this, just don't have the time to type them all out.

The traditional family is the most obvious eroding tradition. Fragmented "families" (if you can call a single mom with multiple kids by multiple fathers a family), which is occurring across all ethnic and demographic groups, is speeding this erosion, IMO. Don't judge me! You can't judge me! You're right, no one can judge you, now go tend to your future felons.

What you say makes sense, LC. Being afraid to offend is a biggie. Being politically correct - making nice. Truth in what we feel is seldom communicated for fear of offending. I am affected by this with my posts. With close friends, I say what I think and what I think is how I honestly feel about a situation.
Have we succumbed to being politicians who are known liars?
Writing Xmas instead of Christmas is an offense to some. Based on the subject of shortcuts in texting, it seems that Xmas eliminates many word letters.

If we continue to go with the flow we will eventually wind up in the same polluted ocean.

Not that traditional families are the end-all, be-all. I grew up in one, and we were pretty much traditionless, due to the laziness and mental instability of both my parents. We celebrated virtually nothing, it was all "Hallmark propaganda" according to my dad. Whatever. We went on annual family vacations, but they were so cheap and stingy they were my blueprint for what NOT to do when I had my own family. We stopped going when my brother and I wouldn't get in the car anymore, lol. Go drive 12 hrs/day and sleep in a KOA camp yourself.

Re being afraid to offend. I actually think that's a step forward. I don't mind the heightened awareness of others' feelings. But that's not the same thing as steamrollering over a majority tradition.

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Writing Xmas instead of Christmas is an offense to some. Based on the subject of shortcuts in texting, it seems that Xmas eliminates many word letters.

That's an interesting one. It began because the letter "X" was a cross, and therefore a valid symbol for Christ.

But it is the nature of some to find offense. Before long, the "x" was connected to mathematics, specifically algebra, and the holier-than-thou's connected the "x" to "the unknown," and so, they decided, "Xmas" meant that the user did not know The Christ.

Another example of how one's perspective changes meaning.

LC, for many people, for various reasons, the old traditions bring about more angst than fond memories. I, for one, to be politically incorrect for a minute, am always relieved when the holiday season is over.

Just me.

LC,



I had no idea. Your childhood sounds abysmal!

It wasn't "absymal," but I don't want a re-do. In fact, sometimes, when I read about reincarnation, how some believe we get sent to Earth repeatedly until we get things right, and how we get to choose our circumstances before we do (Sylvia Browne is big on this), I wonder if I'd choose my parents again. The answer is usually no.

Then I read some horrible child abuse story in the paper and my answer changes back to "yes," lol. Then I wonder if those people chose their circumstances for whatever learning experience they thought they'd get for the next round.

I am so sorry.

LC wrote:

It wasn't "absymal," but I don't want a re-do. In fact, sometimes, when I read about reincarnation, how some believe we get sent to Earth repeatedly until we get things right, and how we get to choose our circumstances before we do (Sylvia Browne is big on this), I wonder if I'd choose my parents again. The answer is usually no.

Then I read some horrible child abuse story in the paper and my answer changes back to "yes," lol. Then I wonder if those people chose their circumstances for whatever learning experience they thought they'd get for the next round.

I wonder about that sometimes, too.

I'm only half-joking when I say I want to come back as one of Betty's animals.

Annie

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I am so sorry.

Why? From what I've read of your posts, I wouldn't think you'd want a re-do either, but maybe I'm wrong?

Ann -do you read Sylvia Browne?

I can be sorry that things were not better for you.



One childhood was quite enough for me.

LC wrote:

Quote :

I am so sorry.

Why? From what I've read of your posts, I wouldn't think you'd want a re-do either, but maybe I'm wrong?

Ann -do you read Sylvia Browne?

Not yet, but I know about her and have been interested. I m even more now.

I've always considered myself lucky that I was born to hard-working parents who were intelligent with good moral compasses. I was glad that my foster family was equally a good family with strong moral values. I doubt that any childhood is perfect; children suffer from their birth order!

Many traditions are religion associated or grow into the common public from those that were originally religious. Therefore, people have different traditions. Some can be harmful. Some are beautiful. Mostly these days we can pick and choose.

Mother and I have a new tradition since she has been coming to Florida - 5 years or so - we go to Olive Garden for lunch on New Year's Eve. This year we considered somewhere else - but Olive Garden called.

1/24/2013

I strongly believe in traditions, Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day,

Birthdays these are all big days for me that's how I grew up. I'm

not afraid to say Merry Christmas to anyone if they don't like it

that's their problem not mine. Oh yes as for reincarnation if there's

such a thing I want to come back rich, famous with fantastic

looks....I would use my wealth to help children and animals...

Cheers.Joe...