Traditions and Their Value
There are many diverse cultures in the world that celebrate different and unique
traditions. Although traditions may bring people closer together and make people happy, there is
a myriad amount of questions that must be answered about the history of traditions, how they are
started and how different cultures celebrate different types of traditions.
After reviewing many diverse cultures from countries around the world, the first most
important thing that I learned was that you cannot judge and understand a tradition just by
looking at it. To really understand a culture and its traditions, you must do very profound
research. In addition to researching the culture you must also try to relate different traditions of
that culture to your cultures traditions. One example of doing this is comparing how the Chinese
celebrate Christmas to how the Americans celebrate Christmas. They both cook lots of food and
decorate a tree with lights and ornaments. Throughout all of the different traditions that
dissimilar cultures celebrate, the one tradition that is shared and carried out amongst many
cultures is the way that they celebrate Christmas. In many separate cultures such as the American
culture, the Chinese culture, and the Hispanic culture the way Christmas is celebrated is very
similar in the case that there is a tree that is decorated with lights and beautiful ornaments.
Although tradition can bring families and friends closer together, they can sometimes be
harmful. A tradition should always be re-evaluated, changed or abolished whenever the tradition
is unfair of harmful to others. The phrase “It’s always been done this way” is often associated
with tradition as in the fact that people think it should not be changed because that is the way the
founders had made it. However, a tradition should always be changed if it becomes harmful or
unfair to others. An example of this is in the short story called “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson.
In this story there is a tradition that is carried out by a small 300 person village; the tradition is a
lottery that includes everybody’s name. However, instead of winning money, the winner is pelted
with stones by the other villagers until he or she is dead. This is a perfect example of how a
tradition should be changes because it is harmful and unfair to others.
After research, presentations, and short stories that we have read I can conclude that
tradition serve a huge purpose in our community. A tradition can not only bring families and
friends closer together, it can spark ideas for new traditions and influence other cultures to take
part in the tradition too. An example of this is in the short story called “Fish Cheeks”. In the
story a Chinese girl and her family move to America and meet a friendly American family at
church. The Chinese family invites the American family over for dinner to have a traditional
Chinese meal. However, the young Chinese girl is very embarrassed because the young
American boy thinks that the Chinese tradition is weird. Although the girl did not impress the
American boy, her mom teaches her a life lesson that she should never hide her tradition. A
tradition that my family practices is the tradition of an annual baseball game in the winter. The
tradition is that every Christmas Eve my family gets together and we divide into two teams and
play a friendly loving game of baseball. The teams usually have one captain that is an adult. This
adult captain then chooses who he wants to be on his or her team.
In conclusion there are many diverse cultures in the world that celebrate many unique
traditions and although they are different, they still have their similarities. Traditions should
always be evaluated or changed if they become harmful. Also you should never be afraid to try
new traditions or to show off your own tradition that you celebrate.
Work Cited
- Jackson, Shirley, and Reg Sandland. The Lottery. Mankato, MN: Creative Education, 1983.
Print.
- "Fish Cheeks | Amy Tan | Article/Story/Poem/Essay | Red Room." Fish Cheeks | Amy Tan |
Article/Story/Poem/Essay | Red Room. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 Dec. 2013.