Friday, November 8, 2013

Tradition

Last night I was bored, so I picked up the July issue of National Geographic magazine and read an article about Transylvanian hay farmers (written by Adam Nicolson and photographed by Rena Effendi). I'm so glad I did. I was amazed by many things, such as how even the smallest children can identify 40-50 plants, and how the women devote hundreds of hours a year to making traditional embroidered clothing for their families. But, what struck me the most about these people is the way they value tradition.

Tradition defines them: the way they work, eat, dress, celebrate, and worship. They live a liturgical life, one that is imbued with meaning. 
"It is our land," Anuta Borca, a young mother from Breb, insisted to me about her family meadows. "We have to take care of it. We have to teach the children the traditions. And teach them something that allows them to survive if they have no job." She paused from the embroidery she was making on a linen shirt for her son. "It's important because tradition is a treasure. If they learn it, they will be richer."
Tonia has been writing lately, about the challenge of clearing her life of clutter. I immediately related to her posts! All over the internet and in every lifestyle magazine we read about ways to simplify life and eliminate clutter, yet almost everyone I know is unhappy about the amount of stuff they have in their homes, their hearts, and their heads.

This week I read Tolstoy's The Death of Ivan Ilyich. Even though this story was written over a century ago, it is still wholly applicable today. The culture Tolstoy described is the same that exists in every contemporary city. It is just the same. Tolstoy provided a subtle contrast between the lives of the cultured people and a young peasant man fresh from the countryside.It is implied that the young man understood something about life that eluded the cultured folk.

Suddenly, I understand something. We clutter up our lives in an effort to replace what no longer exists in our culture: tradition--identity, worth, meaning.

Cities are the same everywhere; they are the great homogenizers. They are our centers of cultural progress. And, progress hinges on change--the constant push forward and away from the past and tradition.
One woman she (Ms. Effendi) photographed, Maria, 23, was pregnant and working in the field when they met. She spoke more English than most villagers and told Ms. Effendi that she and her husband had spent a year in France, where he worked in construction. But she missed their home in the fields, and they returned.
In Maramures, Maria told Ms. Effendi, she has room for activity of the mind. People in France were preoccupied with the daily distractions of urban life, and they didn’t have any room left for “beautiful thoughts.” (A Fairy Tale in Transylvania: NYTimes Lens)
Our culture insists that life consists of shiny new things and experiences. If we have the right wall color, the right kitchen, the right stuff, the right clothes, food, music, books, &c. then our lives will be better--they will finally have the worth and meaning we seek. (Of course, next year, we'll need to replace all those things because they won't do it anymore.)
I found another lady in Breb one day, Ileana Pop, embroidering a linen shirt for her son-in-law. Where, I asked, did the patterns come from? "Oh," she said casually, "they come from the beginning of the world. But we mix old patterns with our new ideas. We never leave the style. We just play with the style."
Here is a two minute Nat Geo video of daily life in Transylvania:


I am reminded of this verse from Jeremiah 6:16:
This is what the LORD says: "Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls. But you said, 'We will not walk in it.'


9 comments:

  1. Real wisdom here. And I must tell you, when I glimpsed the first photo in my reader as I zoomed down, I slowed and went back because I recognised it immediately as one of yours :-)

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    1. I can recognize your photos, too! (Along with a few other people's). Sometimes I have become familiar with a person's environment, but often I have just come to know how she "sees" things. : )

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  2. Weird. I *know* I got that captcha code wrong, but it published my comment anyway.

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  3. Loved that video. It is why I love my girls participating in Village Harmony so much. THe songs they sing are of some of the most traditional places on earth. Helen might go in to ethnomusicology and do some song gathering in spots like that where they sing songs from the beginning of the world. Last year she sang some songs that were from some of the most ancient monasteries in Georgia. They were haunting.

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    1. Ethnomusicology . . . "song gathering"--what a fascinating pursuit!

      Everything is changing so fast. I learned that these Transylvanian hay farmers are one of the very last "traditional" cultures left in Europe. It saddens me to think of how much has been lost. I'm glad that people like your daughter are interested in learning and preserving some of the old ways before they are completely forgotten.

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  4. What a countryside they have! The article's descriptions of the meadow flowers made it seem irresistible. And that photo of the haystack - it's all so gorgeous.
    "Progress" sure does hinge on change; but change for the sake of change seems to be the way it is now. And most just go along with it.
    Your insight about the stuff we accumulate being a replacement for the traditions that we've given up is right on, I think.

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    1. I'm glad you liked the article and the photos, Several days later, I am still really moved by them.

      This probably sounds really weird, but a few years ago I had a cell phone and decided that it didn't enrich my life, so I got rid of it. I can't imagine ever getting another one. After reading The Death of Ivan Ilyich, my whole family is talking about consumerism and the unconscious decisions we make in "going along with it". I have a strong desire to live more intentionally in this area.

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  5. I love learning different cultures; thanks for the video and links. I feel like I could write a book here about the clutter part of your post alone. There is so much beauty in tradition and for little ones especially, so much security, peace and sense of self. It's always nice to pause on that; with the holidays near, even more so.

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    1. As my family has grown (my oldest will be 21 next month!) I have found that tradition has remained a vital grounding force in our lives. The little things we do to mark the seasons and holy days have become a golden thread that binds us together.

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