Kirkin' of the Tartan

[Troglodyte]

The best I can find on the antiquity of kirkin o' the tartan, was that it was thought up by an enterpirising New York priest after the USA had entered the second world war.

He offered to 'bless' any tartan brought along, in exchange for the purchase of war-bonds, and so is quite a patriotic act or service.

By the time the Americans got active in early 1942, Britain had been 'at it' with Germany for the best part of three years, and were getting stuck in with the Japanese, too.

So I guess Scots at home and on active service had their attentions concentrated in other directions, and tartan-kirkin' slipped in under the radar, so to speak.

But it's curious. How long does it take for a new action to become a tradition? Around 80 years ought to be more than enough, you might think, and there are many 'traditions' that are really nothing more than the fashions of a past generation, and a huge chunk of what we now accept as ago-old traditional has come about in the past 100 years or so.

Perhaps we need to be less pedantic on these issues...

[OC Richard]

How long does it take for a new action to become a tradition? Around 80 years ought to be more than enough, you might think, and there are many 'traditions' that are really nothing more than the fashions of a past generation...

Good point, "traditional" things are the fashions that stick.

As far as how long it takes for a new action to become a tradition, I used to teach High School and kids would tell me "that's how this school has always done so-and-so".

When I looked into whatever the "tradition" was, I would generally find out that a teacher had introduced it a few years earlier, sometimes just a year earlier!

On the other hand I might find out that prior to that change, the thing might have been done another way for decades, which the kids were entirely unaware of.

[tripleblessed]

[QUOTE=Troglodyte By the time the Americans got active in early 1942[/QUOTE]

Depends on how you define "active". Roosevelt had airports built all through the '30s in small towns all over the country, equipped with 5,000 foot runways. No civilian planes
needed that much. When my family moved to Douglas, Georgia in 1947, it had a population of about 3,000. Much smaller in the '30s when the airport was built. By 1939 our
little town was awash in British and Polish and French and American young men being trained to fly, as was happening across the US. An enormous investment in infrastructure
and will. Before we had sent troops officially, we sent pilots by the hundreds, trained in those airports built by someone who saw what was coming. Liberty ships were delivering
food and munitions to England and to Russia, without which Russia would not have been able to absorb division after division and the outcome would have been very different.
This continued the tradition of the US aiding friends in trouble. It certainly does not in ANY WAY downplay the struggle of those who survived enormous hardships in that period,
but those here were not exactly sitting around twiddling their thumbs.

My family has a tradition of thinking of ourselves as Scottish. "American", of course, but Scottish ethos. To us, meaning being thrifty and hard-working and ingenious. Admittedly,
there may have been a slight chip on the shoulder about proving we were as good as those that threw us out or forced us out into a wilderness, and remembering those who
engendered such strength. The chip may have mostly worn off, but we honor who got us here. And our Irish, and our Welsh, and even our English. Backing that tradition, we have surpassed the tradition of family stories with the aid of serious research proving and disproving those tales. Proven lines back 1500 years in Scotland and
England. Though many disappear in 150 years, some have been preserved. I understand that many put no value on history, but it is a tradition in my family. And learning the
facts underlying the incomplete and/or transmogrified stories has been both entertaining and educational. I often see opinions expressed on this forum that are considered tradition
and reality that are not borne out by court cases and tax records in Scottish and Irish and English archives.

All of which underpins the discussion of "tradition" being a moving target.

And to get back on topic, by invitation, I have worn my clergy kilt to a kirkin'.