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David Golombek\\
21F.030\\
Journal \#7\\\\
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Traditions are those actions which have been institutionalized by a
group.  This is of course a very vauge description, but this is needed
to cover as wide a variety of things as are classified as traditions.
Nearly everything in our lives, from eating habits to clothing, is in
some way affected by the traditions of some group.  Any action which
has in any way been standardized by a group is likely to become a
tradition; indeed, simply by becoming a standard, an action is ninety
percent of the way to becoming a tradition.  The only difference
between an action that is currently popular in a group and a
tradition is that the origins of a tradition are less well known.  In
particular, a tradition has the popular conception of having existed
for ``a while'', with this again being a very flexible period.  Even
the definition of group must be called into question, because
traditions can be formed by almost any number of individuals, ranging
from societal traditions, to the smallest club tradition.

My family has it's own set of traditions, mostly associated with the
holidays.  Because my family is non-religious (a mixture of atheists,
agnostics, and non-practicers of various religions), we have developed
our own traditions for holidays, such as what to do on Christmas.  For
example, we have our own schedules for when to open presents and
christmas stockings, as well as dishes that are always served at
christmas dinner.  We have other traditions for other holidays, none
of which are written down, but which are firmly held in the minds of
all members of our family.

Because weddings in America are usually religious affairs, there is a
fair bit of differentiation among them because each religion has its
own traditions and policies.  However, there remain many common
threads among American weddings.  The bride almost always wears a
white dress with a veil, and is accompanied by her maids of honor,
sisters and friends of the bride (and sometimes groom).  The groom is
dressed in a black tuxedo, usually with a single best man, his best
friend or brother.  The audience is split into two halves, one for
friends of the bride, and one for friends of the groom, and the bride
and groom procede down the center aisle to the pulpit, where a priest
waits to bless the marriage.  Despite these similarities, many
differences remain, including the exact words spoken by the priest,
the giving away of the bride by her father in some cases, and the
giving of gifts are all traditions that very greatly between
religions.

When Laurel Kendall talks about ``invented tradition'', she is talking
about sets of actions that have been created with the explicit intent
of them becoming traditions, or taking existing actions and
purposefully turning them into traditions.  All traditions have to
start somewhere; at some point, somebody started perfoming the given
action on a regular basis, and this action was later adapted by other
people.  Invented traditions have the distinction of being created
with the distinct hope that other people will adopt them, turning them
into traditions.  She uses the term in reference to several parts of
contemporary Korean weddings, such as the tearing up of monetary gifts
from ceremony attendees, some of the changes to the bride's gift
ceremony, and some of the new programs to match rural men with urban
women.  Many of these invented traditions have their origins in the
government, which has an interest in changing existing traditions to
be ``healthier'' for the public or the state (and thus indirectly, the
public).  The meaning of healthier varies according to the situation,
but it is usually some officials view that people will be better of
with a new tradition, usually replacing some older tradition.  For
example, the state has been instrumental in trying to matchmake
between rural men and urban women, with the stated goal of maintaining
the high marriage rates (which maintains peace and stability and the
status quo, always important goals for the government).  Also, with
the average wedding taking on more of the qualities of the old upper
class weddings, costs have risen correspondingly, and the government
has worked to reduce these costs, to ensure weddings are still
available to all.

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