Traditions and Cultural Evolution

Cultural traditions evolved because they carry a people forward. Some cultural traditions have been carried around like a cross to bear, unnecessary burdens that no longer serve the purpose they once did. Technology, mobility, and advances in education and available knowledge have rendered very much of our great grandparent's worlds completely foreign to us.

My mother, age 8, on the right, around 1950

So, why do we still dust off so many of the same beliefs, traditions, habits that they held? Is it in order to continue to tell ourselves nothing has changed while the world outside is on fire with changes?
We might begin to look at changes with wide open vision, and examine our beliefs, our traditions in the light of this fire, and do what we can to create new understanding.
Where once there was trust and belief, we must find new ways of coping. Where once there was rituals fit for a world that is behind us, we need new ways to make sense of the world in which we now live.