Difference between traditions and customs. What is a custom: definition, history, sources and interesting facts The role of family traditions: what does it mean to observe them

In the modern world, a person quite often has to deal with a certain unwritten order of behavior in various situations. This situation is often called a custom. However, the term itself is quite ambiguous and complex.

The emergence of customs

So what is custom? The customs of the peoples of different countries of the world played an extremely important role in the development of the entire human society. They arose in the “pre-literate period.” Then they were the main regulator of community life. At that time, people did not always realize the rational connection between their actions and results, so in order to survive they needed to learn the correct algorithm of actions. Subsequently, this algorithm was transformed, due to which certain norms of behavior emerged that have survived to this day. Such ancient customs exist in every country. They are honored, respected and respected.

Development of the significance of customs

As society developed and writing appeared, customs retained their regulatory functions. For many centuries, there was complete equality between written law and the so-called “customary law”, which was laid down by the traditions of ancestors and transmitted orally. This “customary law” could complement the written texts of laws, but could also contradict them. Therefore, very often an established custom easily became a source for supplementing written legislation. Thus, Russian customs formed the basis for writing a medieval collection of laws called “Russian Truth”.

The importance of customs in modern life

Today, customs still play an important role in modern society. Ancient customs have been preserved in the everyday life of people in absolutely different types and spheres of activity. For example, wearing folk costumes or celebrating traditional holidays.

Even in the realm of politics one can find customs. So in some countries, if certain circumstances arise, a politician is obliged to leave his post, even if this is not specified in the legislation. It was customs that shaped modern orders in society and relationships between people.

Customs and mores are a set of norms and stereotypes of the regulatory nature of people’s lives.

They are the ones who make them up. These concepts differ (differ) from each other in the following ways.

What's happenedcustoms - definition and categories

• Their action extends mainly to the practical and behavioral aspects of life; in exceptional cases, customs can affect the intellectual or even figurative spheres. Although there is, of course, a hidden relationship between them.

Customs - concept and definition

• In terms of their sphere of existence, they are mostly associated with private life, since his behavioral stereotypes and social “masks” both in public life and in activities that extend beyond the circle of family or close family relationships are mainly regulated by the norms of the corresponding subcultures.

• For life support, for example - home medicine, home improvement, interior design, preferences for cuisine, clothing, etc.
• To the way of life, for example - standards of upbringing, the position of women, roles and functions in the family, attitude towards parents, acceptable sources of income, etc.
• To the external norms of relations and communications, an example is neighborhood, hospitality, obligations in relations with distant or close relatives, the permissible limit of external freedom, etc.
• For rituals and ceremonies, for example - holidays, births, funerals, weddings, etc.

The transmission or transfer of the experience of customs rests on the mechanism of tradition and, in fact, is the very thing that is implemented not by state institutions, but within the framework of the everyday existence of people.

Customs are present as an effective social mechanism in various “post-” societies at the level of private regulation. Of course, the effectiveness of their influence is stronger for the more rooted classes. Thus, in marginal groups their effectiveness is weaker.

The concept of custom is intertwined and often confused with the concept of morals.

What are morals - concept and features

The concept also refers to regulatory instruments, but unlike customs, it is aimed not so much at the behavioral practice of people, but at its moral component, i.e. ordinary level

Morals - concept

• Images of worldview
• Value orientations
• Morals
• Relationship rules, etc.

Morals refer to the everyday presentation of the foundations of morality of an entire nation.

It is difficult to systematize them by type. As the academician noted, they are organic precisely because of their internal order, which is subconscious in nature.

• On the one hand, they are the most mobile features of culture (just like fashion)
• On the other hand, morals are naturally very strictly divided according to the corresponding status and social criteria.

The stability of various morals is explained by the very subject of the corresponding moral attitude. Thus, traditionally stable standards of marriage (fidelity, chastity, etc.) easily coexist with changing customs of hospitality (foreigner, heterodox, etc.).

Our presentation

Morals are also distinguished by less social responsibility than customs. They characterize, rather, an assessment of the admissibility and acceptability of various manifestations or forms of relationships, behavior in individual episodes and situations. Of course, the characteristics of morals depend on and are related to those prevailing at the moment in history:

• Development of worldview (rationalistic, religious, mythological)
• The degree to which traditions or their atavistic manifestations are rooted in the people.

1.2 The essence of traditions and customs, their social functions

There is not a single nation in the world that does not have its own traditions and customs that pass on its experience, knowledge and achievements to new generations. Traditions, customs and rituals play an important role in the reproduction of culture and all spheres of spiritual life, in the implementation of centuries-old efforts of successive generations to make life richer, more beautiful, more meaningful, in ensuring the continuity of the new and the old, in the harmonious development of society and the individual. They exist and are supported by the masses in all spheres of public life: labor, socio-political, family and everyday life, socio-cultural, etc. According to the characteristics of various forms and types of social relations, traditions are distinguished: national, revolutionary, international, patriotic, religious, socio-cultural, family and everyday life, etc. There are special traditions in school, student, scientific, creative, rural and urban environments, etc.

Traditions are firmly established forms of behavior of people and their relationships, inherited from previous generations and supported by the power of public opinion, or principles according to which universal human culture develops (for example, realistic traditions in literature and art). When it comes to the family and household sphere, the word “custom” is more often used, which is the oldest form of storage and transmission from generation to generation of standard actions and behavior of people in certain typical circumstances and specific situations.

“A custom is a generally recognized norm of behavior, unofficially “legalized” by the power of mass habit, traditions and public opinion (although the very fact of the obligatory nature of this custom may not be recognized by people) and spontaneously reproduced by the actions of many people.”

Traditions and customs have certain similarities. It is based, firstly, on fulfilling an equal role in the life of society; secondly, they have the same features and characteristics (stability, normativity, connection with public opinion, moral norms, social habits, standards of behavior, etc.); thirdly, they are equally widespread. Through the system of tradition and customs, new generations of society inherit the relationships developed in it and all social experience, down to the most specific actions and actions. Inheritance of social experience with its critical understanding allows society to follow the path of social development with lower costs. Contributing to this, customs and traditions themselves reproduce themselves, with some of them dying out, while others appear or gradually change.

Traditions and customs, being included in the moral system, as well as in the system of social psychology, perform the function of a social regulator. The assimilation of traditions and customs contributes to the formation in people of socially necessary qualities, habits and skills of social activity and behavior. Traditions and customs also perform cognitive and educational functions. Without performing these functions, they would largely lose their social meaning. Traditions and customs are moving closer together, as they perform functions that are similar in their social orientation. However, this does not yet indicate their absolute similarity. Their difference is precisely revealed in the fact that they perform their functions in society in different ways and in different forms.

The content of a custom is a rule of behavior, a detailed prescription of an action in a specific situation, and the content of a tradition is a general norm, a principle of behavior. “Custom strictly fixes the action or prohibition of some action, the implementation of a strictly regulated action is the goal of the custom. Tradition does not have a rigid connection with a specific action in a specific situation.”

Through customs, people acquire the necessary knowledge, behavioral skills, experience associated with their immediate environment, and through traditions, to the greatest extent, they become familiar with the social experience of humanity (international, revolutionary traditions, etc.).

The nature of the educational influence of customs and traditions on people is also different. Based on the assimilation of customs and following them, simple habits and stereotypical behavior skills are formed, and following traditions contributes to the formation of not only complex habits, but also complex social feelings (patriotic, international, etc.).

The difference between customs and traditions does not at all indicate the advantage of one over the other. For example, the educational impact of customs is very great in the sense that people, following them, gradually instill in themselves certain spiritual traits and qualities, and are brought up unnoticed, naturally and simply. Therefore, truthfulness as a moral personality trait in children is formed much earlier than the content of the concept “truth”, and precisely under the influence of customs, in particular family customs.

The main pattern of formation of customs and traditions is their dependence on economic development, a certain level and nature of production. The influence of socio-economic relations is also great on this type of traditions and customs, such as family and everyday ones.

It is very important to take into account the peculiarities of family traditions and customs. Changes in everyday life occur more slowly than in the economy, in the system of education and social upbringing, as well as in some other areas of public life. The conservatism of family and household relations is due to the intimacy, specificity, relative independence and isolation of the family. Here sometimes the long-term, very deep influence of religion, nationalist psychology, difficulties and contradictions in the development of individual consciousness is reflected. It is in the family and everyday sphere that we most often encounter relapses of old customs and traditions that have lost both the economic and ideological basis. After all, there are cases when, after the solemn registration of the marriage, the newlyweds secretly get married somewhere else in a church. In the same way, the baptism of newborns, the consecration of a new house, etc. are performed. Funerals with a priest, wakes and other religious rites have not yet been eliminated in our everyday life. And the reason for this is not only the persistence of old customs and rituals, but also insufficiently active organizational and educational work.

Old family traditions, customs and rituals are not all so bad and harmful that they need to be completely eradicated. Many of them have enduring moral and aesthetic significance.

These traditions were formed under the influence of economic necessity; they were the most effective means of instilling hard work, not to mention their influence on the physical development and hardening of children. Respect for the results of labor, the concept of duty, and many other moral qualities were formed directly in the younger generation. True, in family life itself there used to be much more objects for the application of feasible labor for children.

But under the influence of the growth of material well-being and the development of technology in everyday life, these objects decreased, and the tradition itself began to fade away. And the consequences were not long in coming; There was a clear trend towards a decrease in hard work in children.

Some other family traditions and customs, despite significant social changes in our lives, need to be preserved and improved, because they largely express the folk ideal of those human qualities, the formation and presence of which predetermines family happiness, a favorable family microclimate and overall human well-being. Thus, the traditional friendship of families, as if related at the birth of children, the friendship of families of leading workers, etc. is of great importance.

An integral part of socialist aesthetic culture is the revival of some folk holidays (Russian Maslenitsa, Tatar Sabantuy - “feast of the plow”, etc.). However, those changes in folk customs and rituals that distort their essence and reduce their aesthetic value can hardly be considered useful.

In the Central Asian republics there is a revival of the shameful custom of the past - the hated kalym - bride price. Magnificent weddings and ruinous funeral rites cannot be passed off as folk customs and rituals, just as beautiful folk customs cannot be turned into a bourgeois cult. Some customs and traditions become so harmful that it is necessary to involve the power of state power in the fight against them. Therefore, it is necessary to strictly distinguish between traditions, rituals and customs, including revived ones that carry positive moral and aesthetic values, and those that not only do not contain anything socially useful, but also harm the development of socialist culture.

Folk traditions, rituals and customs, including traditional celebrations, should serve as a means of developing aesthetic culture, collective entertainment and recreation, and improving socialist life. We must not forget that, in addition to holidays, there are everyday life, and in them the most important element of aesthetic culture is good work and family traditions. It is not for nothing that work and family life are so inseparable in the minds of the working people; it is not for nothing that they are so widely reflected in folk proverbs and sayings, in epics, folk songs and fairy tales, which together represent the ideological content of folk traditions and customs. In all folk art, which constitutes the most important element of aesthetic culture, friendship in the family, respect for parents, love of work is glorified, and laziness, parasitism, gluttony, dishonesty, extravagance and other human vices that stem from the desire to live a prosperous life without making any effort are condemned. this work. And this is quite natural, because labor has always been, is and will be the basis of the people's way of life.

The labor traditions of the Soviet people differ from their other traditions, because during the years of socialist construction the nature of work in general, family work in particular, has changed dramatically. An integral feature of the previous way of life, especially rural, was the inevitable participation of children in general family labor (maintaining the home, caring for animals, cultivating the land, etc.). The family life structure presupposed the compulsory labor participation of children, because there were much more labor tasks in the family, both in nature and in volume, than at present. Now the family life has changed, and quite significantly. And it is no coincidence that idle children often grow up in hard-working, honest families. And one of the reasons for this is a certain fading of the above-mentioned centuries-old tradition. The tradition of heredity of professional work is also fading away: previously, children acquired professional skills and abilities most often from their parents, working next to them. Now this function is performed almost entirely by the state vocational training system.

But does this mean that labor traditions are disappearing in the Soviet family life? Not at all. Another thing is that in former times they were formed under the influence of the material difficulties of family life, but now they need to be formed in every family in order to organize the labor education of children. In those families where this important task is given due importance, a good tradition is a feasible and fair distribution of permanent work responsibilities among all family members.

Nowadays, the continuity of labor culture does not lie in the transfer of narrow professional skills and abilities or, as was often the case in the past, the secrets of the profession of fathers and grandfathers, but in instilling deep respect for work and its results, in the formation of a healthy desire to be useful to people, society, skills and habits of organization , self-discipline, efficiency and composure.

If traditions and habits are organically fused in the life of people, then the former should be established, and the latter trained with the help of elders in the family, those who have more life experience and moral authority than others. There can be many such small and large traditions, supported in each family in its own way, but subordinate to the general principle.

A good family tradition for maintaining everyone’s interest in the concerns and successes of each family member is a constant exchange of opinions about labor and social affairs, impressions of what they have seen, heard, and important events. It is very important to form a healthy public opinion in the family. This should also be a tradition.

The ritual design of events of family significance, Soviet holidays and other important social events plays a very important role in the comprehensive development of the individual, in ensuring the effectiveness of education, etc.

The specificity of the rite, as well as the ritual, consists, first of all, in its symbolic, sometimes strictly defined character. In any tradition (especially in customs) there is a ritual, ritual side. A wedding as a tradition and custom, in its meaning and content, is perhaps not much different in different countries. But the ritual design of this event has significant differences among different peoples.

A ritual, as an integral part of a custom, one or another traditional activity, subordinates the behavior and actions of people to a single emotional mood, creates a moral and aesthetic background against which reason and feeling, rational and emotional impulses and actions of people merge and are directed in a single direction. The ritual is characterized by an impressive, bright form that has an aesthetic and psychological impact. Many rituals and their aesthetic design include all major types of art.

One of the features of the ritual is that, despite the difference in roles in one or another ritual ritual, all participants are internally active and experience the same feelings.

Rituals in a special way perform important social functions: mass communication, educational, social-normative function of social inheritance. A ritual is a special way of transmitting ideas, social norms, values ​​and feelings to new generations. This transfer is carried out through direct personal contacts.

The social nature of the ritual determined its collectivist character. At the same time, people satisfy the need for collective experiences, complicity and public assessment of events that are important to them. The ritual not only shapes, but also deepens people’s feelings, enriches their emotional world, which is especially important in our era - the era of the scientific and technological revolution with its social consequences. Solemn symbolic acts form in each performer a sense of belonging to a team and society. If we consider that most rituals are performed at key moments in the life of an individual, family, team, people, state, society, then it will become clear how great their educational significance is.

A characteristic feature of the ritual is its conservatism, resistance to external influences, and stereotyped actions of people. This is his social strength and weakness. Serving society over a number of historical eras, it very effectively ensures continuity in the development of human culture. But during social revolutions, the conservative force of rituals plays a difficult antisocial role and becomes an obstacle to social progress. Therefore, in communist construction, in the development and improvement of a new way of life, both the struggle against old rituals and the creation of a new one, corresponding to new forms of life and everyday life, communication and social development of rituals, are of particular importance.

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IntroductionINTRODUCTION
Traditions, customs, rites, rituals
play an important role in
life activity and directly
development of society. These words can
evoke ideas about the power of the past,
striving to subjugate the new,
young, delay the development of life.
This is how we sometimes imagine
the meaning of these ancient and wise words,
sometimes forgetting that customs and traditions
always consolidate what has been achieved in
public and personal life, namely
they stabilize social
relationships, consolidating what was
achieved over centuries by our generations
ancestors

Traditions

Customs

Stereotypes that have developed in society

Some conclusions

Rite. Custom. Tradition. Ritual.

Basic concepts and definitions.

They say that in recent years Russia has been losing its traditions, its face, its identity. What has filled us is Western, overseas, foreign.

Is this so?

Yes, there is a justification for this statement. Indeed, many foreign holidays are now celebrated in Russia, for example -Halloween, carnival came to Russia from abroad. Yes, we take a lot from overseas and learn a lot from them. But to argue about the displacement of our culture, art, traditions... On the contrary, in recent years there has been an increased interest of people in the original Russian culture.

The revival of folk traditions and rituals in our time is realized in most cases - this is through the holding of mass folk festivals (Christmas, Maslenitsa, Trinity, Ivana Kupala, etc.). The main idea of ​​holding such events in our days is, first of all, the revival of national culture and education patriotism in every citizen of his country.

Nowadays, the scenario of folk holidays is based on re-enactments of ancient customs of rites and rituals.

Ritual is a set of established customs and actions associated with religious ideas or everyday traditions. There is some kind of symbol.

Custom - a stereotypical way of behavior that is reproduced in a certain society and social group and is familiar to their members. Outdated customs are replaced in the process of historical development.

Ritual - a ritual ceremony, a historically established form of complex symbolic behavior. An ordered system of actions expresses certain social and cultural relationships.

Tradition – (transmission) - elements of social and cultural heritage transmitted in certain classes and social groups for a long time. Traditions are certain social institutions, values, ideas, and customs.

Ritualism - this is a spontaneous theatrical play action, which is contained in many folk holidays, celebrations, and festivities dedicated to the most important events in a person’s life and his work activity.

Ritualism is a traditional, generally accepted gaming action that includes a number of characters, artistic images, aesthetic and emotional techniques. One of the forms of ritual is ritual, which can be part of a large ritual action or perform an independent function of a solemn official act.

Symbol - this is a sign for each ritual, there may be several of them. A symbol allows you to reflect some idea through expressive means

Everyone knows the ritual, it cannot be rehearsed, it must have a composition that has its own development.

The ritual action has a real basis, real heroes.

With the penetration of Christianity into Rus', new celebrations appeared, but preachers opposed them to pagan ones, because pagan ones were of a sensual nature, and Christianity turned them into spiritual traditions.

Examples:

Tradition - to celebrate any holiday

Ritualism: - to rite, to decorate

Custom: Example – shaking hands, letting a cat into the house.

Ritual symbolism

Character classification

Used by a variety of images to reflect reality

Verbal symbols . They are expressed in terms that have accumulated a generalizing meaning, i.e. these are pioneers, Komsomol members, circle members, etc.

Sound symbols . Sounds that give rise to certain associations that carry meaning: a horn, a bell.

Eternally subject symbols . Natural and artificial things with symbolic meaning or meaning: Christmas tree and toys. Pennant and tie, eternal flame, etc.

Graphic symbols . These are symbols that are drawn or inscribed: an emblem, an icon. Coat of arms

Ritual movement : parade formation, honor guard, religious procession

Gestures carrying a certain meaning: saluting, military greeting, etc.

Relics: rod, crown, etc.

Symbol as a tool of orientation in a specific action : pennant, flag, cup, etc.

Personification symbol – real personality