How Long to Make a Tradition

[JelicoCat]

A young man newly wedded was sitting in the kitchen watching his wife make a roast. She cut both ends off the roast. She placed the roast in the oven and preceded to cook the end pieces seperately. He asked "why do you do that, honey?" " I don't know" she said "my mother always did and that is how I was taught to do it." The next time he was at his in-law's house he asked his mother inlaw the same. She replied that her mother had done it that way and so did she. A little while later he had a chance to to speak with his wife's grand mother and she also gave the same reply. After this he could not stand it and that very weekend he and his wife went to see great-grandma. "great-grandma" he asked " why do you cut the ends off a roast before you cook it?" "Well," she said "go in the cabinet and on the bottom shelf grab to black roasting pan." He did as told. "You see sonny, The roast is to big for the pan and you have to cut a little off both ends to make it fit."

[DWFII]

A young man newly wedded...[snip]..."You see sonny, The roast is to big for the pan and you have to cut a little off both ends to make it fit."

Dave Dove already used that example.

My response to you is the same as my response to him:

"If a practice is only valid or only observed because we understand its rationale, it really falls more into the realm of a precept or a code. The example you present illustrates the concept--it has become a tradition despite the lack of rationale.

It might also be said that trying to connect a tradition to its rationale, divorces it from the very context that makes it a tradition--the society which holds it in some regard...whether that be a whole people or just a family."