Traditions???

Traditions…

Do you ever wonder why you do something? 

Or how a particular tradition got started and was carried on?

I guess within families we all have traditions but do you ever wonder how or why great grandma or great great grandma did something and now you are doing it and you have no clue the meaning behind it?

My co-worker and I were discussing this subject.  We were talking about church and how don’t do certain things because so and so did it… and she relayed this story to me that her pastor told one Sunday...

The pastor (a female) was cooking a ham dinner and she always cut of both ends of the ham before cooking it and throws them away… Her husband often wondered WHY she did this… so one day he asked… her reply was she did not know that her mom always did this…

So hubby gets on the phone and calls his mother in law and asks “why do you always cut off both ends of your ham before you cook it?”  MIL replies “I don’t know my mom always did it”

Apparently wanting to get to the bottom of this family tradition (and probably wondering why good ham was being wasted)… husband calls grandma… “Why do you always cut off both ends of a ham before you cook it?” Grandma replies “I don’t know my mother always did this?”

Still perplexed by this ‘tradition’ and thankful great grandma was still alive… the husband calls his wife’s great grandmother… “Why do you always cut off both ends of your ham before you cook it” I guess great grandma was a bit taken back by the question and chuckled…

“Honey I always did that because I did not have a pot large enough to cook my whole ham in it!”

So here was a several generations carrying on what they thought was some secret family tradition or recipe to make a ham taste better… and all the while great grandma had no secret... she just lacked a pan large enough to accommodate the entire ham.

I laughed so hard when my co-worker got to the end of the story… here I was wondering... wow did great grandma have some secret to cooking a ham that made it taste better??? I mean to me it was so funny I had a good belly laugh and tears in my eyes…I looked at my co-worker and said what is even funnier is grandma, mom and daughter were tossing away the ends of those hams… I can almost guarantee in great grandma’s day and age… those ham ends were used to flavor some soup or greens… people did not waste in those days like we do now!  And I’ll bet they were some darn fine tasting greens!

So before you continue to do something that you have always wondered about… ask yourself…. Why do we do this?  If you don’t know ask your mom, or your mom’s mom… I mean why would you do something because someone else did just because … well that’s the way we always did it?

Sometimes things need to be changed if there is not really a good reason behind them… or maybe years ago there was a good reason, but now things have changed and the way we go about this that or the other needs to be re-examined…don't get me wrong there are some GREAT family traditions.... but be it our faith, the way we cook something, the way we fold towels, do laundry... whatever... know WHY your doing something and don't just do something robotically because, well, that's the way it was always done...