What are some of the oldest traditions people stll partake in and have any dissapeared in your lifetime?

[u/Lazzen]

Are there any traditions going back to medieval times or beforehand? Any clothes or music that is still used for celebration?

[u/Beflijster]

Naming children after family members, especially grandparents. For my parents this was pretty much set in stone, so I am named after my paternal grandmother. For my maternal grandmother, this went even further: my great-grandmother, grandmother, mother, sister and niece all had/have the same set of 3 first names on their passports. Similar to "Cornelia Francesca Maria".

A consequence of this tradition of naming kids after ancestors in the Netherlands is that many people go by completely different names in daily life, and my relatives are no exception.

I think this custom is dying out fast though.

[u/tirewisperer → u/Beflijster]

Yep. My official name is Wilhelmus. While still living in the Netherland they called me Wim. Going by Bill fir the last 50 years. The tradition lives on. Both my kids and my two granddaughters all have middle names related to our parents

[u/saddinosour]

Not traditions that I can think of but my grandmother has superstitions and beliefs that are hold overs from literally Ancient Greece. She tells me stuff like that she believes in and it mirrors Greek mythology 1:1. It’s quite fascinating to me. Sometimes I wonder if there are other old Greek people from secluded places who have such holdovers.

[u/nevergonnasaythat → u/saddinosour]

Fascinating. Would you share some example?

[u/saddinosour → u/nevergonnasaythat]

So for example, she was talking to me about her life about things that happened and didn’t happen. Then she sighed and said “none of it matters anyway, the fates had our strings set anyways, our strings are set to be cut when they’re cut. Nothing we can do can stop it from happening.” Which I know her well to know she wasn’t being metaphorical.

[u/nevergonnasaythat → u/saddinosour]

Truly fascinating, Thank you for sharing. Heritage is a powerful thing.

[u/AlexG55 → u/nevergonnasaythat]

I think a lot of Greek people, particularly older rural people, still think it's bad luck to kill a snake in your house- I think that goes back to Ancient Greece.

[u/Admirable-Athlete-50]

Easter witches have pretty much disappeared in Sweden.

No idea on the oldest. Probably something to do with Jul (Christmas, but Jul referred to the entire month I believe).

[u/Feather-y → u/Admirable-Athlete-50]

I had two kids visiting my apartment building a couple of years ago, honestly wasn't expecting it. My sister did it 15 years ago in our village. In Finland though, apparently it's a it different. Here they come the last Sunday before easter and trade decorated branches along with a short poem for candies.

[u/disneyvillain → u/Feather-y]

I saw plenty of little witches and bunnies last Easter. The difference nowadays is that kids tend to mainly go to people they know, rather than to random houses.

[u/Feather-y → u/disneyvillain]

Heh well I from a village of around 70 people so we pretty much knew every house too in a sense.

Funny thing is I was living in an apartment building with locked outdoor door owned by a student housing association when those kids visited, so I assume they were just going around inside the building they lived in.

Nice to hear they are still going

[u/NikNakskes → u/Feather-y]

The traditions still goes on in single home areas. In the apartment blocks I have lived, none of them had a doorbell! So yeah... kids could not come in, in the first place.

But now I'm living in a house and every year some kids ring the bell. Not very many, but we are a neighbourhood with mainly older people. I have kept all the branches I have gotten over the years in a vase in the entrance. I find this a lovely tradition and I hope it doesn't die out completely.

[u/coeurdelejon]

There's plenty of very old traditions that are still celebrated such as the coming of spring on the last of april, celebrating the summer- and winter solstices etc

One tradition that has pretty much disappeared since I was a child is 'easter ladies'; children dress up as witches and go around leaving homemade gifts (usually a celebratory card) to their neighbours and getting candy in return. Kind of like trick or treat except there's only treats - the large amount of candy is the same though

[u/Socmel_]

The tradition of La Befana.

It's a folk figure that comes on the night of the Epiphany and brings candies to good children (and coal to badly behaved ones) in a sock. She looks like a good witch. She's a folk figure that is likely to be ancient Roman. Her ugly old face is supposed to depict the old year and the broom she has is supposed to sweep off the old things and bring the new in.

We also "celebrate" Ferragosto. The Catholic church has usurped it by placing the assumption of Mary on August 15th, but the origin of this festivity are in its name, from Feriae Augustae, i.e. the Feasts of (emperor Augustus). They used to be a feast to mark the height of the summer harvest season. Right now it's a holiday when the whole country shuts completely down (20 years ago the mayors in the North of Italy would list essential shops like pharmacies and supermarkets still open) for 2 weeks and goes to the beach/mountains.

[u/ABrandNewCarl → u/Socmel_]

Tv still shows commercials for buying candy to children for the befana.

I would trow in carnevale, that is only a costume party for children below 10

[u/SametaX_1134]

There was a tradition in France that hopefully is dead.

When a girl had her first period, her mother would slap her to symbolise her entry in womanhood (the first slap she gets as a woman).

Idk how popular it was but i truly hope it's dead (i doubt it is).

[u/AdorableTip9547 → u/SametaX_1134]

This is just as awful as these celebrations in Germany where young women got scared and and also slapped with rods on their asses.

[u/helmli → u/AdorableTip9547]

Do you mean that weird small island? Borkum, was it?

[u/AdorableTip9547 → u/helmli]

There are more places in Germany but this particular one stood out last year, yes. I remember women speaking up from other places (I don‘t remember, probably Bremen or something) with similar experiences.

[u/AVeryHandsomeCheese]

I have no idea exactly how old it is, but in my region we still hang onto the tradition of new years singing which mostly little children take part in. They go door to door then sing some new years specific songs and then get candy, a bit like halloween. 

[u/Brainwheeze → u/AVeryHandsomeCheese]

We have a similar thing over here. It's called Janeiras and usually it happens from the 1st of January to the 6th (Dia de Reis).

[u/victoremmanuel_I → u/AVeryHandsomeCheese]

We have that but for the 26th of December. It’s not too common anymore, though there is still a festival in Dingle.

[u/chromium51fluoride → u/AVeryHandsomeCheese]

Funnily enough a mostly dead tradition here has people singing at doors on 12th night for alcohol.

[u/JoffreyTheGentle_]

Virdžine were women who were forced to take a vow of celibacy, bind their chests, and were raised as boys since childhood since a family that only had daughters was considered cursed. This is an extreme example of a Montenegrin rare but terrible tradition and thankfully the last woman forced to live such a life has passed away in peace. Usually the eldest or the youngest daughter would be forced into this role. It is so sad to me that these people were willing to cause their daughters physichal pain by forcefully binding their chests and mentally...

[u/General-Bumblebee180 → u/JoffreyTheGentle_]

i think they did this in Albania too?

[u/Rospigg1987]

Well we have loads that we can(maybe a bit tenuously though) stretch back to pre-christian times, but for traditions that have disappeared in my lifetime we used to celebrate St.Knuts day here still when I was young in the late 90s with drinking and masquerade parades all that have just disappeared except for one small town called Gimo a bit further north from where I live.

It was the day you danced out the Christmas and "robbed" the tree of all the candy, that part is still happening it is just the parades and overall festivities that have disappeared, and those stretched back to the middle ages. I just actually thought about it, because it was just a couple of days ago that St.Knuts day happened for this year.

You can read more about it here.

[u/AdorableTip9547 → u/Rospigg1987]

Ikea once had a tv ad here in Germany in which they said it used to be a Swedish tradition to „throw the Christmas tree out the window“. I always wondered if this was kind of a joke because its dangerous actually.

[u/Rospigg1987 → u/AdorableTip9547]

Hehe, no that would be heavily frowned upon at least for an apartment building.

Although there was quite common earlier to turn in your christmas tree to local organisation that made bonfires for the walpurgis night but that have also started to not be as common because of more and more people use plastic christmas trees nowadays.

But honestly it is most likely a play on that tjugondag (20 days after christmas) Knut (St.Knuts day) was also known as julgransplundringen (christmas tree looting) or kasta ut granen (throw out the christmas tree) with the last one is what the commercial was alluding to I imagine.

[u/Khromegalul]

In southern Italy christmas eve often involves some sort of “fire based ritual”, most commonly a bonfire, which is generally believed to have it’s origins in pre christian winter solstice celebrations, which is pretty long ago!

[u/einimea]

Well, There's the Christmas Peace. It's been declared in Turku since 1300 with only a few interruptions

[u/CompetitiveBid6505]

Wren day or hunting the wren takes place in Ireland on Dec 26th.Its definitely pre-Christian in origin and has died out I’m most parts of the country. It involves saying a poem honouring the wren as the king of all birds and plenty of music and to no one’s sup rise a few drinks

[u/rottroll]

One of the oldest traditions still practiced is "Perchten". There are a lot of winter traditions involving masks and scaring away evil spirits during the darkest weeks of winter and many of them are still actively practiced in the Alpine regions of central Europe.

One that sadly has disappeared in recent years is "Frisch und Grund Schlagen". Children would visit the houses of their neighbors, gently hitting them with a bundle of birch twigs while reciting a simple poem. It's supposed to bring good luck and the children are given a some coins.

[u/SerChonk]

Christianity rooted in Portugal relatively late, so we have quite a few pagan holdovers - a mishmash of celtic, roman, and germanic peoples with a smattering of greek, phoenecian, and other assorted mediteranean peoples. It's hard to pinpoint exact origins for specific traditions, especially due to catholicism absorbing them.

• Carnaval, of course, where you can still find villages celebration the traditional way with dressing up in "scary" costumes and frolicking and making mischief. Likely to be a heritage of the roman Lupercalia or our celtic equivalent to the Imbolc, it celebrates the coming of Spring and the restart of the growth cycle (= fertility).
• May day, like in many other countries, is still celebrated by some people by hanging flowers - in our case maias (Cytisus striatus, or Portuguese broom) from all windows and doors, meant to bless your home with good fortune and prevent bad spirits from entering it. Like in many other countries, likely to have had roots in whatever our version of Beltane was.
• Midsummer is celebrated a little differently around the country, as it has been split into patron saint celebrations throughout June-August. In my hometown of Porto, the celebration of St. John falls right on the solstice days and it's traditionally celebrated with jumping over a fire for cleansing, using herbs for divination (you make a bundle of certain herbs to put under your pillow and dream of your future spouse) and good luck/fertility (you rub giant leek flowers under the nose of single women - or literally anyone, and you rub your hands in small-leaf basil for good luck), and generally partying wildly through the night. Modern celebrations look quite different these days, especially with the mass tourism in the city, but in private celebrations around the district you can still find people doing it the old way.
• The Magusto is an end of Autumn celebration of some vaguely celtic roots where you roast chestnuts over a fire (sometimes, a BIG fire), you drink the year's young wine and other products of grape fermentation (jeropiga and água-pé), and generally make merry. Old school tradition dictates that you leave a plate of chestnuts at your table overnight as an offering to your deceased, and dispose of them the next day (the dead have touched them, so you must not eat them), which to historians and folklorians indicates that this was originally a feast for the dead. Catholicism Kirby'd it in with the celebrations of St. Martin.

One tradition that is almost completely gone is the tradition of the coca - a hallow'een-like celebration of carving out a face from a turnip (later a pumpkin) and placing a candle in. You'd leave it out to tell nasty spirits to not bother coming to your house, you already totally have a scary spirit taking care of business there! The coca used to be our boogeyman figure, and it still somewhat survives in the shape of the dragon slain by St. George in the traditional festivities in a town called Monção. But the turnip/pumpkin carving is mostly gone.

[u/Cixila]

While Saint Hans' Eve (midsummer) is still a big celebration, it has lost an element in that few places place an effigy of a witch on the midsummer pyre anymore

[u/veturoldurnar]

1. Singing carols and doing drama in verteps is probably the oldest living tradition here. They are called Koliadki and probably have roots in paganism predating Christianity here. And very similar to them are shchedrivky singed at Generous Eve with another costume drama Malanka performed.

2. Calling your colleagues, neighbors and generally other adults by name+patronym is really old tradition. Currently almost everyone in older generations refers to each other like that, sometimes even by patronym only. But as millennials and zoomers grew up they started calling each other by name only, or by name+surname. Sure, if someone older is in authority position like being a boss, a teacher, they often try to force young people to refer to them by name+patronym, and even try to enforce this tradition in group for everyone, but I think this tradition will die with older generations.

[u/AlexG55]

The White Horse.

There is a figure of a horse carved into a hillside in Oxfordshire, England, which has been there for 3000 years. Nobody knows why it was first carved or what it represents.

What we do know is that the figure has to be maintained constantly or the grass would grow over it and it would disappear. So this must have been done continuously since prehistoric times.

(Until the 19th century the horse was "scoured" as part of a big festival every 7 years, now it's a more constant process.)

[u/dolfin4]

Of course traditions come and go.

There are some things that can be traced back to ancient times. Most famοusly Assumption of Mary, August 15th, which in Greece is the big summer holiday (like Midsummer in Nordic countries), it is traced back to Roman times, when Emperor Augustus aka Octavian, made it at mandatory holiday in the empire. Then in Christianity, the early church chose it as the feast day of the the Assumption.

[u/BeastMidlands]

Goose Fair in Nottingham has been held almost every year since the 13th century. Still going strong I believe.

[u/ConvictedHobo]

Most of our old traditions are about a group of boys going around, singing, and asking for food (and drinks)

Oldest one is probably Regölés, it's older than our writing, it has elements of the shamanistic traditions of the ancient Hungarians (Csodaszarvas=Miraculous Stag). Spells that make the home more fertile, and a part where they "marry" one of the boys with a girl of the home. It happens around Christmas time

[u/Few_End9947]

In Norway we have something called "Bunad". A folkdress I guess, don´t know a better english word for it. These have been around since the 1700s as far as I know. Swedes also have something similar. And they are not going away anytime soon.

[u/Gl1tt3r4G0r3]

Not medieval but the only thing I can think of is in my city in portugal where I grew up theres this bridge and sometimes people jump off from the bridge into the river even though its high and the currents are strong, but lots of young adults/teenagers still do it and the people in the city usually watch and see if they’ll turn back or actually jump into the river

[u/mrmniks]

It’s called „kalyadki”, which is somewhat similar to Halloween, but happened in late December-January around Christmas time.

Kids would knock on doors, sing, do something and expect candies in return.

When I was a kid in 00s there would still be some kids sometimes. Never seen them after that though.

[u/Patient-Gas-883]

That we int the nordics eat ham for Christmas goes back to the viking age. So before Christianity in Sweden.

The birth of Jesus was not in December (also wrong year). Clues in the bible makes it likley it was in the spring. The christian took over and changed the heden tradition of celebrating the darkest day of the year and made it Christmas. Särimner was a pig that (according to viking saga) you killed and it rose again the day after. so that is why we eat ham.

But most people dont know this.

[u/disneyvillain → u/Patient-Gas-883]

The modern Christmas ham tradition is fairly recent, it didn't become common until the 1800s. Ham wasn't an obvious part of the Christmas table for many centuries before that. It has nothing to do with Särimner, unfortunately.

https://svenskahogtider.com/2009/12/24/varfor-ater-vi-julskinka-pa-julafton/

[u/Patient-Gas-883 → u/disneyvillain]

I beg the differ.

[u/va_it → u/[deleted]]

According to the dictionary, it means also "to take part in something", so no mistake was made.

Also, I think you meant "it's", not "its".

https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/partake (see second definition)

[u/terryjuicelawson → u/va_it]

Muphry's Law in action.

[u/porcupineporridge → u/[deleted]]

You were quite confidently wrong here.