How are Family Traditions Created?

[Gardenlover]

A young woman was hosting a dinner party for her friends and served a delicious pot roast. One of her friends enjoyed it so much that she asked for the recipe, and the young woman wrote it down for her.

Upon looking over the recipe, her friend inquired, “Why do you cut both ends off the roast before it is prepared and put in the pan?” The young woman replied, “I don’t know. I cut the ends off because I learned this recipe from my mom and that was the way she had always done it.”

Her friend’s question got the young woman thinking and so the next day she called her mom to ask her: “Mom, when we make the pot roast, why do we cut off and discard the ends before we set it in the pan and season it?” Her mom quickly replied, “That is how your grandma always did it and I learned the recipe from her.”

Now the young woman was really curious, so she called her elderly grandma and asked her the same question: “Grandma, I often make the pot roast recipe that I learned from mom and she learned from you. Why do you cut the ends off the roast before you prepare it?”

The grandmother thought for a while, since it had been years since she made the roast herself, and then replied, “I cut them off because the roast was always bigger than the pan I had back then. I had to cut the ends off to make it fit.”

Do we ever stop and question the rationality behind family traditions? Do we place too much importance on them? If so, why?

 

[Robb.hisself]

Family traditions serve the same purpose as 'rituals' of all sorts - they are comforting to know there is a connection to the past and past practices of loved ones of the past. We don't question them for this reason. But, it is a good idea to keep perspective. Often what worked in the past no longer works today. So it may be wise to question and break from the past, and create new traditions.

For example, we always had a Christmas tree when I was growing up. But, that got very expensive and messy each year. So, mom and dad bought two figurines of Mr. Santa Claus and Mrs. Santa Claus (reminding all us kids that mom and dad were really Mr. and Mrs. Santa), and now we pile up the presents around the two figurines placed atop a small table that is decorated for Christmas.

 

[Sassycakes]

I do most of my cooking the way my mother did. She had a routine,Monday soup and steak sandwiches,tuesday pasta,wednesday a platter,Thursday Pasta,friday fish,SaturdayPizza,Sunday Pasta

 

[Robb.hisself]

I do most of my cooking the way my mother did. She had a routine,Monday soup and steak sandwiches,tuesday pasta,wednesday a platter,Thursday Pasta,friday fish,SaturdayPizza,Sunday Pasta

My mom worked 12 hours a day, six days a week. But, my dad only worked 8 hours a day, 5 days a week. However, he never helped mom with cooking dinner. Instead, we often went out to eat. I envy your mom's efforts to make a variety of meals. Eating at home or going out to eat but, always having American food of meat & potatoes gets old with it all eventually tasting the same. Today, I rarely eat out but, vary the ethnicity of the cuisine for the sake of variety. Eating dinner does not seem to have any 'tradition' to it in the U.S. except the sort defined by a religious belief.

 

[Capt Lightning]

When I got married, I developed my own style of cooking, which unlike my mother's, has texture, variety and flavour.

 

[Mike]

Family traditions come from something that works,
or it gets everybody smiling.

My mother's Christmas cake was always covered in
blue icing, she had heard that a little blue food colour,
made the icing look much whiter, but she used far too
much, we all laughed about the blue snow on her cake,
so that was how it was for the rest of her life if she had
made a cake.

Mike.

 

[perplexed]

I like traditions myself, I cook like my mama or try too and I try and recall just how she cooked too. My mama was a great cook. I think traditions are wonderful to pass down from one generation to the next.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

Having and keeping traditions helps ground us to our clan or family. When we celebrate traditions it helps create loving memories to reflect on. Just the smell of turkey, roast potatoes and spicy pumpkin pie is not only mouth watering, but soothing to our very soul. It’s one of the reasons we don’t like to change traditions. Traditions help keep the family together. We enjoy sharing time together with good food and drinks.

 

[dilettante]

My son and his wife wanted to start one.

They hosted a Christmas get together, and put karaoke carols on the TV and insisted on a sing-along. It wasn't a hit.

 

[PeppermintPatty]

When I got married, I developed my own style of cooking, which unlike my mother's, has texture, variety and flavour.

Oddly enough our parents both used to seriously over cook the turkey, roast and ham.
They were scared of getting parasites or salmonella so the turkey was always very dry. My in-laws never cut up their leftover turkey. They’d just stick it back in the cooled oven with tinfoil wrapped around it.

Tradition! They didn’t have refrigerators back in their day and that’s what their parents did.
Luckily we have refrigerators and learned a better way

 

[Lewkat]

Traditions are passed down through the generations. Some are ethnic others are simply from societal pathways. In many cases, we may never know how they began.

 

[fuzzybuddy]

I think traditions are a human thing. You wouldn't think the direction horses run around an oval racetrack would matter. But if the track is British, the horses have to run clockwise. Otherwise, horses run around an oval track counter clockwise. I don't think the horse really care about it. It's only humans. It's "tradition".
BTW, the same is true for auto races.

 

[Robb.hisself]

I think traditions are a human thing.

I too would have thought so. But, aren't migrations traditions of a sort?