Tradition is often criticized and cast away. It can seem like ancient practices have no place in modern society. Why keep them when they serve no specific purpose? Are they irrelevant?
Certain things should be kept in the past, no doubt about that. Burning people at the stake would fall into this category, along with bathing only once a year. But as for other traditions, I'd venture to say that just because something doesn't bring tangible benefits doesn't mean it's useless.
For example, imagine that you must change your name, both first and last. You forgo your religious practices. You have no favorite home cooked meal. The way you dress can only be described as generic.
This is a life with no tradition. It's lonely and cold, isn't it? What's left of an identity?
As much as modern life focuses on the individual, it's easy to forget the importance of our ancestors and what they've given us. Even in the midst of familial quarrels and cabin fever, backgrounds are just that: backgrounds. Though personal choices may be in the foreground, our past is what gives us context. We are nothing without our traditions.
Unfortunately, many of us as Americans have lost touch with our ancestry. Perhaps the local lineage reaches so far back that the roots are untraceable. For others, our names were changed and our customs erased in order to assimilate. How sad is that? Everything that we are was forgotten just to be accepted in this country.
Though the modern person is less concerned with religion, dress, and folk art, I think certain aspects of the past should be kept. What is the present, if not for the past? Who am I if I know nothing about where I come from?
