Traditions: Why They Matter

The famous musical “Fiddler on the Roof” is still remembered and loved even today.  It is set in a Jewish village in czarist Russia.   The main character is a poor milkman name Tevye.  He compared the precarious position of the Jews in the village to a fiddler on a roof and asks the question, “And how do we keep our balance? That I can tell you in one word….Tradition.”  

The traditions of Tevye’s age are long gone.  Arranged marriages, sons following in the father’s footsteps, women raised to be wives and mothers.  Although each culture has retained their own traditions, in our Western culture, these have long passed. 

Does Tevye have a point? Do traditions help us keep our balance?  Remember the “blue laws”? No work or trading on Sunday.  Families were expected to have a traditional day of rest from the activities of the week.  Stores were closed and only certain essential items could be sold from select stores only. This is a direct tradition from the Jewish observance of the Sabbath now moved to Sunday for Christians.

Soon the idea of restricted “buying and selling and needing” got in the way of the Sunday restrictions.  With women working out of the home, Sunday might be the best day to do the family shopping. Also, the internet never rests…….always something to buy 24/7.

However, not all traditions have died.  Most families observe Thanksgiving where friends and family gather together….although rarely are the origins of the feast discussed.  Then there is Christmas.  Although to many, it is no longer a religious occasion but a chance to exchange gifts and perhaps, just perhaps, take in a worship service at the closest church to home. 

The main line churches each have their own traditions.  The congregants feel comfortable knowing that everything is in a certain order and this is way it has always been.   I think most of us would feel rather uneasy if we were allowed to go back in time to the original worship services where both Christians and Jews worshiped together while living  in a pagan culture such as Rome.  

Our traditions large and small help us keep our balance.  They draw us together as families, as communities and as Americans.  We may misunderstand the origins of these customs, or ignore them even while practicing their rites, but we nonetheless observe them. Traditions are the glue holding our families and culture together. They somehow bond us to our past, provide pleasure in the present, and act as a ballast as we sail into an uncertain future. 

A famous theologian and writer, G. K. Chesterton once wrote; “Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors.  It is the democracy of the dead.  Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about!” I could put a smiley face here!   

When we honor our traditions we do give votes to our ancestors and keep our balance on the rooftops of life.  Tevye had it right.