> The ultimate example may be All Souls College, which has a ritual, the Mallard Song, that occurs once a century.

You can't walk for more than five minutes in the UK without tripping over some nonsense like this. History is very important, and traditon has its place, but really? As a brit I find it all kind of tediously performative sometimes.

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xg15 3 days ago | parent [-]

Not a Brit, but Terry Pratchett's ritual of the Other Jacket told me all I need to know.

https://community.pearljam.com/discussion/71416/tradition-go...

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scubbo 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

a) GNU Terry Pratchett

b) In case you are one of today's Lucky Ten Thousand, this is a reference to the real-life Ceremony Of The Keys[1]

[0] https://xkcd.com/1053/ [1] https://www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/history-and-stories/t...

	▲	xg15 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		GNU Terry Pratchett And yeah, I knew about the Ceremony of the Keys, but not the details. Didn't know it really has that kind of scripted dialogue that Pratchett parodied there.

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andyjohnson0 3 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> Here is an example of how mindless adherence to tradition can get a bit weird and very funny

See also; the King's Remembrancer and the Quit Rent Ceremony and the Trial of the Pyx:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/King%27s_Remembrancer

It is truly strange how my country can create a political and cultural operating system that allows this stuff to just go on and on for almost 800 years, right up to now.

	▲	xg15 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		> The King's Remembrancer swears in a jury of 26 Goldsmiths who then count, weigh and otherwise measure a sample of 88,000 gold coins produced by the Royal Mint. I mean, you have to admire the stamina for that.