How can we make traditions to evolve?

Since globalization became a movement, cultures have seen themselves observed under a microscope. The question of keeping traditions or letting them go has been a real challenge for some.

Isn’t tradition part of one’s culture and thus, should be kept and guarded? Is globalization erasing any difference in culture? What kind of traditions should we keep and what kind of traditions should we let go?

We all agree that globalization has allowed us to have a reach beyond measure when talking about making connections. Relatives miles away can talk face-to-face every day. People in Europe can listen to the news about South America instantly. A person in North America can have in his/her hands literally in any item shipped from any part of the world in less than three days. However, all these advantages have also brought great disadvantages. People feel less connected to their surroundings. The local culture has been affected by tourists, and it is no longer valued. Languages and stories are being lost and forgotten along the way.

This huge connectivity has mainly two effects. The first effect is this, either people lose their tradition and identity and get disconnected from their roots, or they get defensive to any change. So, the challenge is how we can be presented to differences, and be able to grasp the good in those differences while maintaining our identity.

So, how can we make globalization to fit traditions? And how can we make traditions to fit globalization?

Having a look at traditions and what they comprehend, we can understand traditions as (information obtained from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary):

tradition
1 a: an inherited, established, or customary pattern of thought, action, or behavior (such as a religious practice or a social custom)
b: a belief or story or a body of beliefs or stories relating to the past that are commonly accepted as historical though not verifiable

2: the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction
3: cultural continuity in social attitudes, customs, and institutions
4: characteristic manner, method, or style

Traditions are considered a big part of any culture. However, many traditions are irrelevant to humankind or even diminish a group of people.
There are hundreds of examples, and some of them might have popped up already in your mind. However, we might be able to identify three types of traditions.

One of the main issues with traditions is that we think that our tradition is the right one. A lot of what is right and what is wrong comes from different perspectives. For instance, “La Tomatina” seems to provoke no harm at all and can provoke harm. Think about a hungry kid in the countryside of Sudan watching TV, seeing people throwing tomatoes to each other. He would give anything to eat one of those tomatoes that are being thrown.

What for someone is fun, for another person is a matter of survival.
The toughest challenge in tradition is how we define what is different from what is wrong.

There are hundreds of traditions. Some are harmless, others have been modified to become money makers, others say a lot about a country’s culture that maybe stop doing them would mean becoming less nation proud, and there are others that should have never existed.

Traditions were created to perpetuate information, beliefs, customs, stories from generation to generation. Now, that we are globally connected, we find different generations spread around the world. How are we going to integrate into our meaningful traditions great aspects of different traditions?

Besides, we should take an introspective look to ourselves and ask, what are the actions that our grandparents used to do that we are proud? What are the actions that our grandparents used to do and we are ashamed of? Then, we should ask ourselves, what actions do we do that our grandchildren will be proud of and what actions do we do that they will be ashamed of?

Traditions must evolve with globalization respecting their identity. But, traditions cannot evolve in one solely tradition for one simple reason. At the moment we only have one tradition, we lose the capacity of evolving because we don’t have any other tradition to compare it to. It becomes the absolute truth. And there’s no absolute truth.
What would the world be without the English tea, or the Mediterranean cuisine, or the Greek democracy? We evolve because of humankind somehow despite all its flaws; it’s capable of seeing what works in the long-run. Globalization and tradition they are not on opposite sides; on the contrary, they are a source of strength to each other.

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