Are there consequences to ditching tradition?

KellyAssauer · Jan 1, 2011

Each and every New Year's Day... the family tradition insists that I have a dinner consisting of sauerkraut and pork.

With all due respect to those that enjoy this combination... I do not.

I've spent a lot of time and many gallant efforts with different recipes in hopes that my first spoonful doesn't kick in my gag reflex. None of these have ever worked and still, in my mind, every year I end up preparing the most disgusting thing ever known to my pallet.

I mean this tradition is supposed to be about having good luck in the new year -and it does give me good luck since nothing I eat for the rest of the year is worse than this awful stuff!

So, my question is this:

Have you ever told a long standing family tradition to take a hike? What were the consequences?
Would you do it again?

Seaclusion · Jan 1, 2011

My mother has black-eyed peas (the vegetables, not the band) every New Years Day. It's some sort of southern good luck tradition. Nobody eats them, but they are there on the table staring at everybody.

I say, just don't eat the stuff if you don't like it and damn the consequences.

Richard

Shadow_Ferret · Jan 1, 2011

Mmm. Sauerkraut and pork. Lucky!

kayleamay · Jan 1, 2011

Sauerkraut and pork? Your family is evil. Run away and never look back.

I dunno. The way I see it, you're a big girl and can decide for yourself whether you're willing to plug your nose and eat that stuff in the name of tradition or venture off and start a new tradition all your own. I'd have to cast my vote for a new tradition, because that combo would be more likely to bring me the vapors than luck.

brainstorm77 · Jan 1, 2011

I love pork.

regdog · Jan 1, 2011

I dunno, I think any tradition that would make me projectile vomit has to go. I was forced to eat a food I despised more than anything in this world for most of my childhood. When I became an adult, I made the decision to NEVER eat anything I don't like.

Devil Ledbetter · Jan 1, 2011

After partying New Year's Eve, sauerkraut is the last thing I'd want to eat on New Years Day. *shudder*

Vito · Jan 1, 2011

When I was about four years old I was playing with my weenie while taking a bath in the tub. My mom told me, "Don't touch your pee-pee. It's a disgusting habit, and God doesn't like it". Despite her instructions, I defiantly reached down and resumed playing with my weenie. My mom then stormed out of the bathroom and hurried to the living room, where I could hear her talking to my dad.

My dad then poked his head into the bathroom doorway and gently said, "Stop playing with your pee-pee. Ya better stop right now, 'cause I don't wanna have to come back and tell ya again. Got that?" I nodded my head and immediately took my hand off my weenie, letting it casually bob and drift in the warm bathwater.

Apparently, playing with one's weenie in the bathtub ran squarely against family tradition. But for a couple years after that, I would discretely play with my weenie in the bathtub when nobody was looking, always under the intimate cover of Mr. Bubble soap suds.

Family traditions are had to break, lemme tell ya...

Cella · Jan 1, 2011

all that did is teach you to be sneaky

Vito · Jan 1, 2011

RedWritingHood said:
all that did is teach you to be sneaky

Sneakiness -- a fine family tradition.

KellyAssauer · Jan 1, 2011

See? I knew I was doing something wrong!

Thank you Vito for pointing out the error of my ways...

Next year!
I'll put the roast and kraut in the crock on New Year's Eve...

and have it for breakfast...

Vito · Jan 1, 2011

KellyAssauer said:
Thank you Vito for pointing out the error of my ways...

You're welcome, ma'am. (Tips cowboy hat). That's what I'm here for. (Rides off into the sunset).

MacAllister · Jan 1, 2011

Kelly, what about subverting the tradition? Making something like a ham or a pork roast, and serving it with coleslaw as a side-dish, instead of sauerkraut? (Says the woman who just made smoked salmon chowder for Christmas Dinner because she didn't feel like messing with a big multi-course meal...I sorta think if a tradition isn't working for you, you should toss it out on the scrapheap.)

thothguard51 · Jan 1, 2011

I keep trying to start a tradition where I wake up on New Years day with two naked and very busty red-heads in bed with me. They are both sleeping with smiles on their faces...

Going on 60 years and no one wants to help me with creating this tradition.

Ahhh well, maybe its for the best to keep as a fantasy. Then I can't be disappointed...

KellyAssauer · Jan 1, 2011

MacAllister said:
Kelly, what about subverting the tradition? Making something like a ham or a pork roast, and serving it with coleslaw as a side-dish, instead of sauerkraut? (Says the woman who just made smoked salmon chowder for Christmas Dinner because she didn't feel like messing with a big multi-course meal...I sorta think if a tradition isn't working for you, you should toss it out on the scrapheap.)

This is exactly where I'm torn between tradition and superstition.

Somewhere down the line, some long lost family member believed this was good luck for the new year... and really, if I must be reflective, I can't say it's been un-lucky. It's just un-tasty! (to me).

That's what gets me in a fix every New Year's Day. It's not like I slam the car to a stop every single time an all black kitty crosses my path and hop out and twirl three times counter clock wise... but still... Where does one draw the line between: 'Oh that's downright silly' and "Oh my gosh, Dare I taunt the gods for a whole year of not so good luck" ?

It's silly ... yet ominous... and silly... and ominous...

=)

Cella · Jan 1, 2011

Sometimes, just the act of doing it for someone is part of the gift.

You enduring this is more for them, it sounds like, anyway.

Lavern08 · Jan 1, 2011

RedWritingHood said:
Sometimes, just the act of doing it for someone is part of the gift.

You enduring this is more for them, it sounds like, anyway.

^ Indeed.

heyjude · Jan 1, 2011

KellyAssauer said:
Each and every New Year's Day... the family tradition insists that I have a dinner consisting of sauerkraut and pork.

With all due respect to those that enjoy this combination... I do not.

I've spent a lot of time and many gallant efforts with different recipes in hopes that my first spoonful doesn't kick in my gag reflex. None of these have ever worked and still, in my mind, every year I end up preparing the most disgusting thing ever known to my pallet.

I mean this tradition is supposed to be about having good luck in the new year -and it does give me good luck since nothing I eat for the rest of the year is worse than this awful stuff!

So, my question is this:

Have you ever told a long standing family tradition to take a hike? What were the consequences?
Would you do it again?

My family did the pork and sauerkraut thing. So yeah, I bucked that tradition when I went vegan.

They were upset at first, but once I explained my reasoning, they understood and were even sort of supportive. There is no more pork on New Year's Day (which I didn't ask for, I just said I wouldn't eat it and neither would my kids, but everyone else decided to deep-six the tradition, too).

Life is too short to eat stuff you think is gross.

BenPanced · Jan 1, 2011

Seaclusion said:
My mother has black-eyed peas (the vegetables, not the band) every New Years Day. It's some sort of southern good luck tradition. Nobody eats them, but they are there on the table staring at everybody.

I say, just don't eat the stuff if you don't like it and damn the consequences.

Richard

http://www.somethingpositive.net/sp01012005.shtml

Button · Jan 1, 2011

Down here, it's black-eyed beans and cabbage. Beans for luck, cabbage for money.

The Cajun's mom made coleslaw out of the cabbage, and yummy bean and pork dishes, along with ham and lemon pie.

I don't mind the tradition so much.

kayleamay · Jan 2, 2011

KellyAssauer said:
It's not like I slam the car to a stop every single time an all black kitty crosses my path and hop out and twirl three times counter clock wise.

=)

The video surveillance footage suggests otherwise.

My mother used to have a superstition about letting a baby see himself in the mirror before he turned a year old. She said it would make death follow the child until he turned ten. She almost burst my eardrums shrieking when she walked in to see me holding my infant son in front of the mirror so he could play peek-a-boo with himself. She turned red, covered her mouth with her hands, burst into tears then snatched him out of my arms.

Well, he's eleven now. So I'm tossing that on the "things my mother was totally full of crap about" pile. That was her superstition. I have enough of my own to worry about.

Are there consequences to ditching tradition?

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