Text Examples for
Traditions

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Traditional saying:
Gold and silver do not matter. All I want is to break the pinata!
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New Year Traditions:
Traditions of the season include the making of New Year's resolutions.
That tradition also dates back to the early Babylonians. Popular modern
resolutions might include the promise to lose weight or quit smoking.
The early Babylonian's most popular resolution was to
return borrowed farm equipment.
The Tournament of Roses Parade dates back to 1886.
In that year, members of the Valley Hunt Club decorated their carriages with
flowers. It celebrated the ripening of the orange crop in California.

Although the Rose Bowl football game was first played as a part of the
Tournament of Roses in 1902, it was replaced by Roman chariot races the
following year.
In 1916, the football game returned as the sports centerpiece of the festival.
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For Luck in the New Year:
Traditionally, it was thought that one could affect the luck they would have throughout
the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day of the year.
For that reason, it has become common for folks to celebrate the first few minutes
of a brand new year in the company of family and friends.
Parties often last into the middle of the night after the ringing in of a new year. It was once believed
that the first visitor on New Year's Day would bring either good luck or bad luck the rest of the year.
It was particularly lucky if that visitor happened to be a tall dark-haired man.

Traditional New Year foods are also thought to bring luck.
Many cultures believe that anything in the shape of a ring is good luck,
because it symbolizes "coming full circle," completing a year's cycle.
For that reason, the Dutch believe that eating doughnuts
on New Year's Day will bring good fortune.
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Hanukah Traditions:
TRADITIONS - Gelt

Savings bonds, checks, and small chocolate coins wrapped in gold foil-
these are the modern incarnations of the traditional gift known as Hanukkah
gelt.
"Gelt" is a Yiddish term for "money." Although it is an old and cherished
custom, the roots of gelt-giving go back much further than the Middle Ages,
the era in which the custom is usually said to have originated.
Even though it is not mentioned in neither the Talmud
nor the Shulhan Arukh (the Code of Jewish Law),
the importance of coins in the history of the Hasmonean period is
undeniable.

TRADITIONS - Food

A favorite Hanukkah food is latkes, or potato pancakes.
Originally, the pancakes were made of cheese.
From the custom of eating cheese delicacies
grew the custom of eating pancakes of all kinds.

TRADITIONS - Menorah

Menorah is a Hebrew word meaning "candelabrum."
In relation to Hanukkah, it refers to the nine-branched ceremonial lamp
in which the Hanukkah candles are placed and then blessed.

TRADITIONS - Driedels

Dreidel is a derivative of a German word meaning "top,"
and the game is an adaptation of an old German gambling game.
Hanukkah was one of the few times of the year when the rabbis
permitted games of chance. The dreidel, therefore, was a natural candidate
for Hanukkah entertainment.

The four sides of the top bear four Hebrew letters: nun, gimel, hei, and shin.
Players would begin by "anteing" a certain number of coins, nuts, or other objects.
Each one in turn would then spin the dreidel and proceed as follows:
nun ("nichts")-take nothing;
gimel ("ganz")-take everything;
hei ("halb")-take half;
shin ("shtell")-put in.
The winner would often receive money (Hanukkah gelt).
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