A good one

[Bad Monkey]

This is it exactly. When I attended the 300th Anniversary of the Battle of Glenshiel this June, most of the wreath layers and Clan representatives were dressed in the aforementioned fashion.





It's all about dressing appropriately for the occasion. Not every occasion calls for a bonnet and cromach, for example.

Those folk all look great. Do you have any other pics of the occasion?

[Karl R]

We already know that there is no single way to make a kilt. Over the past couple hundred years there have been thousands of kilt makers, each trying to find some way for their product to stand apart from the rest.

We have all of the evidence of how a kilt was worn, and with what accessories, over a long span of time. Styles have changed and views about the wearing of a kilt have changed in that time. And quite significantly changed.


So my question to the rabble is -

How would you compare this definition, to how the word "Tradition" or "Traditional" seems to be used on the forum?

Could it simply come down to a personal preference of the accessories we wear with our kilts such as - "I wear my kilt in what I feel is a traditional style to me."?

That seems to be the way it's most often used. A lot of the time, "tradition" seems to mark the particular past example(s) that someone uses as the foundation of their preferred style. And some of the same people use the "tradition" of their preferred style to refute the particular past example(s) that other people use instead.

Would anyone wish to offer an alternative definition that could be used on X Marks?

I first heard this in a religious context, but I think it is relevant here:
"We pay attention to tradition, so we don't have to reinvent the wheel every generation."

The same person pointed out that there were other things that also merited equal consideration, such as reason and personal experience. In other words, tradition is a tool, not an end in itself.

It's similar to your kilt-making example. If you were to teach someone how to make a kilt, you would teach them what you know (or at least some easily-grasped subset of what you know). But you wouldn't expect them to rigidly adhere to your teachings until the end of days. If they can create new techniques that work better for them, or better for the particular kilt they're trying to make, they clearly should branch out from what they originally learned.

Tradition is a source of good ideas. People should make use of them when they wish to ... and ignore them when they have reasons not to.

[ThistleDown]

A few more for you.







The piper was Iain Macgillivray, the Commander of the Clan Macgillivray. The colourful lady represented Spain.