“Simply put, a tradition is the past.”
My latest for CiRCE is about Christmas trees in particular and traditions in general.
It is a delicate point I try to make in this essay. I have attempted it a few times before, but find it endlessly refinable: there is some sense in which knowing the origin of a tradition is not terribly important. Traditions are not mnemonic devices anymore than knives or aspirin are mnemonic devices. Traditions are real and potent in and of themselves.
There are still faint glimmers of civilization left in this barbaric slaughterhouse that was once known as humanity. 