Brand new tradition

Traditions are funny. Not in the ha-ha funny sense, but the other, the “you’re right, now that I think about it” kind of way. It’s interesting how they are created, and especially how fast things become tradition, or at least the way they’ve “always been done”.

Dance, man!

Like, the Scottish kilt’s tartan patterns which, according to a book I’m reading, are a pretty late invention and have nothing to do with Highland’s clans.

There are plenty of examples of that in the sports world. These days, the NHL players let their beards grow all through the post-season, not shaving until they’re out of the race. But if you look at photos of Bobby Hull, and Gordie Howe, and even the 1988 Edmonton Oilers celebration photos (like this one, or this one, or this one), it’s hard to find a team of full-bearded players.

According to one theory about the playoff beards, the tradition was born in the late 1970s, during the New York Islanders’ four-Cup run between 1977 and 1980. That happens to coincide with Björn Borg’s domination of the Wimbledon. “The Iceberg” never shaved his beard as long as he was still in the tournament, and the few Swedes – Anders Kallur and Stefan Persson were the first Europeans to win the Stanley Cup in 1977 – who admired their fellow countryman, adopted the same custom.

A Swedish tennis player’s superstition became a part of hockey tradition.

But Wayne Gretzky did start another tradition in 1988, when he gathered the team around him for a team photo. Now all teams do it.

The Stanley Cup will be coming to Finland this summer as Antti Niemi, the Chicago Blackhawks goaltender gets his 24 hours with the Cup, as is the tradition. Since 1995.

The Swedish Church was upset with the Crown Princess’s wish to have her father, the King, to walk her down the aisle to her Prince. That, according to the church, was not a Swedish tradition, and was in fact, undermining the true tradition of the couple walking down the aisle together – as a symbol that it was the couple’s own wish to get married. They were making their own decisions.

Of course, the new “tradition” is what we’ve all seen in Father of the Bride, and Father of the Bride II.

Since we can’t remember, since we don’t know, and since all the customs seem old and traditional, we believe in them. And when enough people do that, we have a a new tradition.

(In a true Swedish tradition, though, the King and the Princess and the Church came to an agreement, meeting each other halfway. Literally.)

Today is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, day of tradition in Finland and Sweden. The midsummer. People will travel to their summer cottages, or get to their boats, in droves. The Finns will light up their bonfires (nobody really knows why anymore, but it’s a tradition), the Swedes dedicate their day to dancing around a midsummer pole, and eating well. They already burned their bonfires on April 30.

In about an hour, we’ll walk to a nearby park to see people in folk costumes play the violin and raise the pole. As is the tradition, even though, my own tradition is not to do anything special. Our family never had a summer cottage so I don’t associate midsummer with anything special, and I don’t have any memories of great midsummer traditions. I remember one midsummer, though, because in 1990 I was in Canada.

Over there, it wasn’t called midsummer. It was the first day of summer.

That’s just weird.

5 thoughts on “Brand new tradition

  1. Maybe the young man dancing today, in the middle of the ring, dressed in a skirt, will become a midsummer tradition? Or was it a stag party? I really don’t remember anymore.

  2. Getting together and eating icecream to fiddlemusic is a good tradition. Dancing around a penis is also a good tradition but still a very, very weird one.

  3. But the real question is, how did the tradition of vihta start? I mean, why??? And did they originally go through several types of branches before settling down to birch? (That all being said, I do love that particular tradition.)

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