Kale is a traditional plant for this time of year in Georgia. It seems strange to think that purple, pink, and pale green are predominant colors during the holiday season. If you travel anywhere in Atlanta you will see kale planted throughout amazing gardens and displays. I think it is beautiful, my husband hates kale. It is a running joke – a tradition – for me to point it out to him every time we see it in public, and his response is usually a forced gagging noise.
So what does ‘tradition’ mean anyway? Hanukkah is usually blue and silver. Christmas is red and green. Kwanza is earth tones of brown, gold, and red. And then there is kale all pink, purple, and pale green. To any one person any of these colors could mean a variety of things. It is in the context of the holidays that they take on a specific meaning. It is within the holidays that the tradition of these colors evoke a specific message. Sometimes the message or meaning of a tradition can change. Change can force us to do something new – a death in the family, a marriage, a birth, a move. Any of these have the ability to impact our world and turn our ‘traditions’ upside down. Traditions bring us stability and allow us to recreate the experiences we had over time. Traditions provide joy and excitement we can bank on, and meaning that our all too busy world often lacks. Tradition allows us to come together and celebrate those who came before us and built a foundation upon which our current hopes and dreams reside. Tradition can also force us to settle in and interact in ways that are expected and anticipated throughout the year. Traditions can be food or candy, meals, processes or even travel adventures. Tradition can dictate in what order we do things, in what order to celebrate, in what order we spend our days.
Tradition also reminds us that things change. What may have been done in one place, now may take place in another. What was expected by a certain date may now take place over a longer period of time. The people we traditionally see may not be around or live too far to get back to one location. Traditions change over time. They grow, they shrink, they expand, they multiply. They get passed down and sometimes even get forgotten. Traditions define us and can release us. The desire to keep them or let them die impact us all. Traditions may surprise us – like kale in a winter wonderland – and that surprise in itself may become a new tradition.
What traditions do you have? What new ones are you creating? What old ones are fading away and being replaced? What unexpected activities and experiences are quickly becoming your new traditions? Never underestimate the excitement of letting pink, purple, and pale green invade your current world. Guess what, the ‘new’ traditions may have been within view all along, you simply see them more clearly this time of year.
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