Articles and Stories

December 7, 2014

When I moved to the United States it was in the month of October. Everything was new to me. The stores displayed pumpkins I had never seen before and advertised Thanksgiving, a holiday I did not know. Eating a turkey did not mean anything to me, nor was I impressed by all the side dishes, so we had an ordinary dinner; it was a day like every other day.

A few months later one of my new-found friends told me that it is important to celebrate holidays. Without such special occasions and celebrations, one does not remember them and every day seems to be like the last one. She mentioned that it is very important to create family traditions and to make memories as these will be the days we will remember later in life.

The word “tradition” itself derives from the Latin word tradere or traderer, which means to transmit, to hand over, to safe keep. Safekeeping your memories!

Many traditions have a long-standing history and many traditions were invented on purpose. There are political, religious and cultural traditions, and, of course, special family traditions. Common examples for traditions include special clothes, like wedding gowns, lawyer robes, uniforms etc., but traditions has also apply to social behavior like greetings and language.

Every country has special holiday celebrations and customs. In many countries, there are languages on the verge of dying out and being replaced by more modern ones. With these dying languages, traditions are also going away. Language preservation attempts are going on in countries around the world trying to make sure to document dying languages and trying to keep the traditions of the cultures associated with these languages alive while it is still possible.

There are many holidays coming up around the world this month. Whatever holiday you are celebrating or whatever tradition you follow, we wanted to wish you a peaceful and relaxing holiday season.