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America’s greatest tradition: inventing spurious traditions

From the State of the Union address to the marine’s salute as the president leaves his helicopter, we like nothing better than creating complicated little rituals

28 February 2015

9:00 AM

28 February 2015

9:00 AM

 

Fredericksburg, Virginia

Americans crave traditions. The older they are the more we cherish them. Thanksgiving, which beats out Christmas, was invented by Abe Lincoln in 1863 but it is an outgrowth of the timeless harvest festival celebrated by the generations of mankind that formed the earliest agricultural communities. Much harder is inventing traditions from something new.

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Florence King is the author of Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady and Reflections in a Jaundiced Eye.

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