The good news is, no country or government will be rent asunder by our differing views on tradition, what constitutes it, and what significance it ought to have. I sincerely hope nobody's life is significantly troubled by it, or even anyone's day derailed.

We read these posts, we comment, we seek to dislodge, we seek community. Why else are we here?

I would like to say at this point that little changes because of these discussions, but I do not think that is true. I think people begin to form opinions they never put into words before. Sometimes people learn things, even learn that previous ideas may be wrong. Sometimes we simply read for those we agree with, sometimes we read to see what new folly some reliable jackass has come up with.

Arguably, XMarkers have traditions of our own- a welcoming spirit, a practice of inquiry, even a habit of courtesy in our disagreement. Some of those traditions get ignored, some get upgraded, some remain unchanged.

I would reckon that a tradition can easily be defined as something that has been done since before you were around, or since before the reach of your knowledge. Thus, the Beatles might be called traditional and the Frosty the Snowman special with Burl Ives might be considered a Christmas Tradition.


Or maybe not.

Folk music often includes songs or music that are called "traditional" as in "we don't know who wrote this one," but clearly somebody did. Somebody wrote every one of them. And sometimes the lack of knowledge is caused by things other than the passage of time.

But returning to the implied topic, Tradition in Kilts, I would note the oft celebrated Scots tradition of independence. Less loyal folk might even go so far as to call it cantankerousness. If you start with independent people, allow for local variation, rule out absolute uniformity, consider the different means and circumstances of the wearers, and you may find it difficult to cite one prefect example of tradition. You may be able to show something typical or common or even prevalent, but I would suggest the factors above will always make a single standard of traditional highland dress difficult to define, much less practice or enforce.
Vive la difference, as they traditionally say across the channel.