Growing up in a family with a Roman Catholic and Italian heritage, Christmas Eve meant two things above all others: Mass and Fish.

The Italian tradition of the Feast of the Seven Fishes is steeped into my Christmas memories and richly flavored with abundant warmth, love, and joy. And garlic. So much garlic.

We would pour into my grandmother's home, squeezing ourselves into her tiny upstairs dining area speckled with harvest gold and avocado green floral prints and anchored with a table that stretched all the way from one end of the room to the other, decked out with the most festive tableware. We'd sit on those plastic-covered chairs, devouring calamari and smelts and shrimp and all that seafood goodness and sharing stories with aunts, uncles, and cousins. Even the porch brimming with homemade cookies couldn't hold a trump card to that feast.

It was crowded. It was hot. It was loud. And it was wonderful.

After dinner, we would stream back out of grandma's house and head just a few blocks over to the Catholic church in town, greeting all the other families in a standing-room-only sanctuary that smelled like fish and garlic and sounded like a giant family reunion at the before the reverent and beautiful Christmas Eve Mass service began.

Though my grandparents have passed on, and many of our families have scattered across the country, we do our best to keep some of that tradition alive every year. I love how the kids look forward to that calamari just as much as I did each year.

The Feast of the Seven Fishes, tradition says, was the Catholics' way of honoring the required fast from meat before the Holy Day of Christmas, with the number seven representing completion or perfection throughout scripture. Seems like quite a loophole to make a fasting day one of the greatest feasts of the year, but no one in our family complained!

Tradition Affirming: A Classical Christian School Hallmark

Christmas is a season soaked with tradition. Whether near-universal traditions of decorating a tree or placing gifts in stockings, to cultural ones like the Seven Fishes or the Mexican paper stars our Spanish class makes, to quirky moments specific to each of our families, it's part of what makes this time of year so precious to us all. Christmas without the traditions would surely lose much of its endearing, lasting charm. We can still celebrate the awesome truth of Jesus' birth and his coming as God in flesh without these accompanying customs, and the awesomeness of that truth wouldn't be diminished in the slightest. But if we're honest, attaching tradition to the celebration of our Emmanuel takes it to another level of meaning in our hearts.

People inherently love tradition. Even the most countercultural among us can likely point to at least one point in their lives where tradition added special meaning or memory. And how many times do we insist on doing things a certain way, even if it's difficult, because "it's tradition!"

Veritas is a tradition-affirming school, so much that we have included this as one of our Core Values. Our statement associated with this value says:

We affirm the great tradition of learning in the Christian West and the doctrines of the Protestant Reformation. We stand on God’s Word and we value the Great Books and the classical method of education. We build on this foundation creating a school culture that binds us to this grand tradition.

Yes, tradition has its faults. When we cling to tradition over truth, we find ourselves in troubled waters. The church has found itself in this position over the centuries.

"Often in my theological education, tradition was contrasted with revelation," Veritas Head of School Ty Fischer says. "The question was always about what is the ultimate authority: the Bible or Church Tradition? As a faithful Protestant, I always answered that question by affirming the Scriptures.

"While I am still in the same place regarding ultimate matters affirming that the Bible is the Word of God and that God’s Word is more authoritative than Church Counsels, Church Traditions, or my own feelings, I also recognize that this can leave Protestants in the place of disregarding or even despising tradition. We forget to even think about what tradition is."

The traditions upon which we've built our school - from solid theological foundations to quirky and fun pastimes - have made Veritas Academy the unquestionable unique and special school experience that it is for so many students. When we caught up with several of our alums last Christmas, that fact became abundantly evident when we asked them what their favorite school memories were (you can see their responses on the video below).

As we wind down this year's Christmas season and all of its treasured family rites, it's a good time to consider the traditions that bind our families and lives together, and the important role they play in helping us remember truth and relish in relationships.

"When we consider the irreplaceable value that tradition holds in our hearts, lives, churches, and organizations, we realize that there are good and worthwhile reasons to honor certain traditions and to keep them for the generations," Mr. Fischer says, reflecting on why we, as a school, chose to include "Tradition Affirming" as one of our Core Values.

Why should your family establish and value tradition? From the frivolous to the foundational, these are things that matter. On a macro level, you may be enlightened to consider the cruxes of the great Western Tradition, laid out in The Classical Difference Magazine's Summer 2019 issue (read it here). Traditions are easy to take for granted sometimes, but we should take great care to discern which traditions make our families, our school, our culture what they are and treasure them.

Below, Veritas Head of School Ty Fischer outlines why being a Tradition Affirming school (or person, or family, or organization) is worth it because of what tradition really means to our culture and our lives.

Four Reasons to Establish and Affirm Tradition

From Veritas Head of School Ty Fischer

Tradition is the accumulated wisdom of the past concerning how to live well.

This should not control everything that we do, but we should imagine that some things that our forefathers did was wise.

Tradition is a value that makes us part of something bigger

It is something that makes us part of something that is bigger than us and bigger than all currently living in your community. Chesterton claimed that "Tradition is the democracy of the dead. It means giving a vote to the most obscure of all classes: our ancestors."

Tradition provides connection to those around us

It links us to other living people and to those to whom we owe so much in our family, our community, our country, and our churches. Because of their wisdom we have a path forward toward joy and fun.

Tradition serves as a training ground

Finally, it gives us something to live up to. It trains us toward certain values. We come to Christmas. It should train us to be generous and good (i.e., thoughtful) gift-givers. We come to Easter. It teaches us to be sacrificial mercy givers because we were giving mercy. We come to Pentecost. We are taught to look out toward others who need freedom, forgiveness, and restoration.

All of these are reasons indeed to pay attention to traditions and affirm them.

So, as we enter the new year, take a look at what your families' traditions have been, or what special moments you can make into new traditions for the coming year and beyond, to help your family live wisely and well, connect with each other and the greater good, and train your young ones up to carry your values onward.

Here at Veritas, you can be assured we will do the same, carrying on those traditions that connect our students and families with Christ's truth, beauty, and goodness...with a heaping dose of great joy, too!

Would you like to be part of a school community that connects your child and your family to something greater, to lasting truth, and to a lifelong love of learning woven together with meaningful tradition? Come see this unique school community in action with a school tour! 

Classical Christian Education is unlike any other you'll find in Lancaster County. Alive, joyful, deep, rich, and rigorous, it will cultivate your child into a loving, serving, thinking student and adult. Come see for yourself!