There should be bumper stickers for New West cars: “Don’t tread on our traditions.” It might come with a graphic of someone hanging onto an anvil.
Perhaps we don’t defend them quite as boldly as our southern neighbours do their guns, but we take them pretty darn seriously.
The latest example of this is the brouhaha over what kind of dresses the wee girls in the May Day Royal Suite shall be wearing.
For decades – perhaps even over a century – the girls have been clad in their virginal white outfits. Then, for some inexplicable reason, someone, or perhaps an entire dress rebellion squad, decided that white had to go.
Now, there are different versions as to how this came about. Some say that in today’s “child-centred” world this was an effort to allow the girls some sense of empowerment over their dress choices. Others say it was an economical choice. Others say it was an attempt to dilute a fine tradition just for the sake of modernizing the event.
Still others suggest that it’s all part of a larger more insidious campaign to minimize traditional May Day events in the Royal City.
There’s no doubt that May Day has its critics. It’s a tradition that is based on – at the very least – old-fashioned patriarchal junk. But if we threw out every tradition based on that, there’d be very little left to mark or celebrate. Christmas is the biggest one that comes to mind. And while we’re on the subject, we might want to change Santa’s outfit. We’re thinking yoga pants and one of those new tuckless shirts would look a whole lot better. Not to mention the elves’ outfits are truly horrendous – although leggings are making a comeback.
Now, a reader at this point might suggest that we are making fun of the whole dress debacle.
Well, we are, and we aren’t. Kind of like the “is this a blue-and-black dress or a white-and-gold dress” test last year (for those who missed it, just Google it).
We treasure our own traditions, and whether they make sense in today’s world is, frankly, irrelevant. It’s the feelings that are embedded in these traditions that often tie us to our past and our community and make meaning out of life’s often chaotic twists and turns.
If white dresses are an integral part of this one cherished tradition, one that would sorely be missed, then, indeed, let them wear white.
