Traditions

 Traditions represent a vital piece of our culture and nature. They help structure and build a foundation for our families and our society. They remind us that we are a big part of history and they remind us who we are today and who we are likely to become in the future. Once we ignore the meaning or significants of our traditions, we’re in danger of damaging or losing our identity.

Traditions are important! Some more than other, some help us grow closer together and remember where we came from. Others may be more like a practical joke.   Every family has traditions wether they think so or not. What is are traditions? Traditions are inherited patterns of beliefs or behaviors! As I said earlier some traditions are better than other! 

Growing up I can remember one specific tradition that I wasn’t to keen about. My father called it the spanking machine. The spanking machine is where the whole family lines up and spread their legs open wide enough so someone can crawl through them on all fours. As one would crawl through the other would spank they as hard as they could. They goal was to get through as fast as possible. The problem was that I was the youngest, therefore the littlest. As I would go through I felt like they would spank me extra hard because I couldn't do anything about it. From time to time as I would go through my older brothers and sisters would clamp me in between their legs in order to get a few more spanks in on me. At the time I dreaded the spanking machine. Still do actually. As much character I probably built while I was taking a whopping by my elders. I don't think that is a tradition that I am going to keep doing with my family in the future. To make it even better we typically did this tradition on birthdays. I don't really know how this tradition came to be but hopefully it'll end with me. 

Traditions don't always have to be some made up behavior or belief. It can be more not as made up. My whole family is Christian. Members of the church of Jesus Christ of Later Day Saints to be exact. Growing up as a member of this Church we were encourage to hold weekly meetings as a family to spend time together. Its called Family Home Evening. In my family we used this time to learn a little more about the gospel and to share what we did that week. At the end of our family Home Evenings we would always play a game and eat a dessert. Unlike our other family tradition, I actually really looked forward to this one. When I was younger I really just liked it because we would play games and eat desserts! However as I got older I started looking forward for it because I enjoyed spending time with my family and hearing about all that they accomplished that week. This is a tradition that I really want to keep going in my future family. 

As you can see there are different types of traditions. Some more useful than others, good and bad ones, fun and meaningful ones. But every family has them. There is nothing wrong with having a few traditions that are just fun or goofy but its important to have some that help straighten your family unit. The cool thing about traditions is that you can decide if you want to keep doing one or be the end of one. You can also create new ones. 

What are some of your traditions that you want to keep or not keep?