This thread is for discussing traditions. You can talk about familial or personal traditions and what things you celebrate, ask questions about formal holidays and observances, or how important or unimportant it is to maintain traditions, etc.
In my unappreciated opinion, I would define traditions as societal habits performed for little logical reason other than to amuse or create the illusion of community/have an identity. Traditions however, can be extremely profitable for the world of business. Every year in America and elsewhere, most people (of which I am proudly not one) go and buy an expensive tree, cover it in sparkly junk, and then buy a bunch of more junk to put under it. In fact, America's greatest tradition is to buy stuff that they don't need. We do this for no reason other than tradition which when I say it this way makes it sound a lot like peer pressure. But where am I going with this... shut up already. *Smacks self in face*
@SportsShark Lol, what are you even talking about? :P
Have you ever heard for slava? I guess not since only Serbs are celebrating it. In whole Balkans and perhaps in whole world we are the only one that celebrate specific Saints in specific dates. We thank to God and Saints for keeping our home in place and family stable. That "celebrating Saints" is pretty much slava in a nutshell.
Historians still cannot find where tradition of slava actually are, but many think that roots are dating up to ancient Slavic traditions and rituals.
But how do we celebrate it exactly? About two days before celebration itself, a member of family, usually our grandmas, call priests in our home to hallow the water. The priest is reading prayer from Bible and with bundle of basil and holly water blesses the house and family members. Female family part goes shopping groceries and making slava cake for celebrating night, while male part prepares candles, frankincense, lamp and vine.
On the day of celebration, in the early morning, celebrator and his or her father go to church to cut the Slava cake with other celebrators. Slava cake and vine are most important part of slava, and usually every orthodox celebration on Balkans. The cake represents body and vine represents blood. You cannot have Slava without cake. When celebrator comes home from the church, the family is fumigating and having a small meal. At the evening, our guests, neighbors, cousins and godparents come at our home so we can celebrate with huge meal.
Most celebrated slavas in Serbia are Saint Nicolas, Saint Archangel and Saint George. The period between october and december is often called Slava Months because most of slavas are usually celebrated then.
@BalkanRenegades thanks for the crash course in Slavic Orthodox and Saintism, but I wasn't talking about anything close to what I guess you think I was.
I agree with @SportShark about the christmas trees... Personally I don't celebrate holidays or .. be traditional in any way. Traditions get some people too attached to it. However, I like holidays! Due to these traditions we have, there's usually discounts. Valentine's, Mother's, New Year's, those are all days where I can find discounts everywhere in my city.
And trying to get these holidays off people's calendars officially wouldn't be a good thing to do. Every other person you talk to nowadays are either depressed, dissatisfied with quality of their life or both. Those shiny christmas trees and tables full of heavenly food caused by traditions make them a little happier. Not to mention the discounts. Best part
@BalkanRenegades seems way too enthusiastic about these traditions.
Every other person you talk to nowadays are either depressed, dissatisfied with quality of their life or both. Those shiny christmas trees and tables full of heavenly food caused by traditions make them a little happier.
Depends on how you celebrate Christmas... for most people, it is actually a difficult, stressful time - just type in 'christmas' and 'stress' in your browser, and you'll find pages and pages of websites offering tips on how to avoid stress during the Christmas season.
There is one aspect I like about Christmas, though, which is that it is one of the few times of the year when we meet other members of our family. This is what I look most forward to. You know I'm not religious so I don't care much about the symbolism of the holiday Also I never feel obliged to buy gifts, and only do so when I have a good idea.
I don't consider the mercantile aspects of holidays to be integral part of the tradition, however. It's just an aspect of consumerist societies, but has nothing to do with the original tradition*. I've been told my grandfather, when he was younger, was happy to get an orange at Christmas.
*An exception may be Valentine's Day. You know the rumors saying it was created by flower and chocolate merchants
In my fam, a tradition is we watch Christmas movies on Christmas, like the Die Hard or Nightmare Before Christmas, though that one is also watched on Halloween
I suppose many do feel Christmas stress, budgets, gifts, and food can be a cause, but I find the discounts comforting and the extended family a nightmare
X.x seems my post wasn't send with my bad WiFi x'D I will write it again !
First of all @Tristea It's cool to see you on the forums (Just a tips try to edit instead of double posting, if it was too late for just copy your previous post and add it in the new post it and delete the old )
So I'm completely agreeing with @SportShark with the celebrations being mainly used for marketing..
And it's really sad I've to say :/ !
Besides of that I will join @Saiyoku about the good points provided by celebrations
And I'm Agreeing with @Hahiha about it give an "excuse" for busy persons of your family to shown themselves and finally sharing some stuff together x'D ! I've to say I will be happy to have even a orange for Christmas like your grand father he was right it's not what we get who's matter !
To add my personal point of view, we can celebrate whitout investing that much, sharing a meal with person we like, decorating together the house ( Even with hand made stuff) , or just being together talking about nothing and all is a really warm thing in this world. So the point before even marketing stuff or religious aspects of some celebration is just sharing I guess
At least it's what matter for me I could enjoy all celebration if we have fun with person we like and as long as it's not something weird or crual stuff x'D
My tradition used to be going to stores and look at the Christmas decorations and lights to put me in the mood for the holidays.
Now I go to Christmas fairs, that's even better!
My favorite one was in Paris in 2007, it was really cold and snowing a little.
I've deleted the weird post. Rather than lock the thread, though, maybe there are some traditions people want to share?
I learned something just last week, actually. So the 'Happy Birthday' song has a lot of cultural variance (no surprise there). But I learned that in the USA, many black families sing an entirely different song at birthdays (something to do with Stevie Wonder--I'm never really listened to him, so I don't know what the song is). What's interesting to me is that, when I shared this with some (white) colleagues, they had no idea that this was the case. The same was true for (white) students. I was less surprised by the different song than I was at how unfamiliar people were with cultural differences. Not sure what to make of it, but there you go.
Maybe the birthday song is something we consider so self-evident that we don't even think about it, and are never challenged to rethink unless we're invited to a birthday where they sing a different one? Personally I had never heard about that either.
