“A tradition is a belief or behavior passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past.”

Italians have a lot of food traditions, once I left home I never replicated any of them. I remember them fondly – hey, food! – but I never bothered with them. There are no cultural/family traditions that I maintain.

There are all the religious/secular holiday traditions, like Christmas. I don’t do Christmas tho it is a perfect excuse to give people gifts. I’m for any excuse to give someone a gift. “Oh, hey – you got up this morning – here’s a present”. I surely do love giving gifts. One of the great pleasures of my life, but hardly a tradition.

Easter baskets were not a part of my childhood but I made them a part of my younger brother’s. I saved my allowance and bought all the stuff to make him a basket every year.  He’s 60, I still send him an Easter basket every year, so I guess that is a tradition. It’s just that I never got one.

I’ve been trying my darndest to think of any traditions or traditional things (aside from you know,  like paying the bills) that are a part of my life and I am at a total loss.

The only thing that comes to mind, in the nature of family/cultural traditions, is a superstition. And that is: Never put shoes on the table.  I have no idea where that comes from but I remember when I was a kid, you come home from a shopping trip, unpack all your purchases, including your new shoes, and start to lay everything out on the table -“STOP! Do not put shoes on the table.”  I never asked why. I could google it but I don’t want to know.

Come to think of it now, all of my traditions are superstitions. Maybe all traditions ARE superstitions. Or maybe I have used the word so many times now it has ceased to have any meaning at all.

How long do you have to do a specific thing, at a specific time, for it to become a tradition? I make my husband a chocolate cake for his birthday every year. Is that a tradition? I’ve only been doing it for 2 or 3 years, and it’s not my tradition, it’s his. I just bake the cake because he likes it. Doesn’t really mean jack-all (except that I’m a nice person, a-hem).

So what is it you do just because it has been done, traditionally?