Traditions and Habits

Tradition: (dictionary definition) the handing down of statements, beliefs, legends, customs, etc, from generation to generation by word of mouth or by practice.

I am not sure that I really like that dictionary definition, it is really boring and does not tell me what a tradition really is to most of us, things we do every week, month, year and so forth. A weekly tradition could be to always go to the movies with your friends on Saturday night. A monthly tradition could be to go to your grandparents house every fourth Sunday. I have never met a person in my life that does not have at least one or two traditions they do on a regular basis, most have at least fifteen.

Habit: (dictionary definition) Compulsive need, inclination or use, addiction.

Once again, I am not sure that I totally agree with the dictionary definition, as it doesn’t really state what a habit is, though it comes a lot closer than the tradition definition. To me a habit is something you do because you have always done it, or something you do because you can’t seem to stop yourself from doing it. As with traditions, everybody has habits, and everybody has good ones and bad ones.

What exactly are traditions? I guess you could call them habits, if that is an accurate way to express them. They are more advanced habits. By that I mean that they are things you always do; only they are more elegant, they have more meaning to them and involve more planning than the average habit. That is why they have a nicer name than habits. From my point of view, I think you could probably call brushing your teeth before you go to school in the morning a tradition because you do it every day at a given time. This means that we could likewise say that going to neighborhood Easter egg hunt at Easter every year could be called a habit.

Of course, nobody wants to use an elegant word like tradition for brushing your teeth, so we gave that the word habit, and let tradition be used for bigger, better events that we would much rather look forward to. Every family is different, we all have different habits and different traditions, I can not speak for everyone, but I really look forward to my family’s traditions every year. Traditions can range from huge to very small, my extended family always has a big Christmas Eve party with all of my aunts and uncles and cousins and second cousins; this would be huge tradition. A small tradition that also happens at Christmas, my cousins and I do this wooden Santa puzzle, and it is always near impossible but we do it every year because we call it a tradition.

Traditions vs. habits, they are really not that different from each other, but when you say the words one after another you think of a big elaborate party when you say tradition, and you think of a nervous compulsion when you say habit. Why is that? Nobody has a good reason, but all I can say is I love my traditions a lot more than my habits. Anybody who reads this, please tell your favorite tradition in a post, I have heard some wild ones from my friends and it is entertaining to see what fun things everyone else’s families do.