Canadians have certain traditions that were established by the early European settlers of this vast country. These developed into this country's cultural heritage. Strangely enough, many Canadians feel their country has no culture, that they live in a place devoid of tradition. As a consequence they turn to traditions from other places which they view as more romantic, or more colorful. The result is that the old Canadian ways are often neglected, or completely ignored, in favor of someone else's cultural traditions. While it is undesirable to follow tradition blindly, it is desirable that a country's heritage should be preserved in its own environs.

There are now many who spend every New Year's Day at an imitation Viennese New Year's concert, which is staged at Roy Thomson Hall. Called a Salute to Vienna and performed by the Strauss Symphony of Vienna, it offers the same kind of mundane polkas, Strauss waltzes, and operetta excerpts that is piped live annually via PBS to North America. The latter features the Vienna Philharmonic and various guest hosts. On January 1, 2009 Julie Andrews will wax 'sentimental' about a long-gone Vienna and its moth-eaten popular musical heritage. Considering how many people across North America watch this PBS presentation every year, it becomes evident that Canadians aren't the only ones who think another culture has more value. North Americans clearly suffer from a culture-deficit inferiority complex. Why? It is a question we have frequently asked without ever getting a true answer, though it may lie in the past when North Americans were viewed abroad as uncultured low-brows. It is an image that appears to have stuck despite evidence to the contrary.

Being creatures of habit with a desire to prove to others that we have cultural status, we allow another oddity to appear every Christmas season in the form of Handel's Messiah. Just before Christmas in Toronto alone, there were at least four different professional presentations of this work that has really nothing to do with Christmas, except for a very brief moment. Handel composed the Messiah in a desperate moment when he needed some music during Lent so he could make some money. Forbidden to perform his operas at that time of year, and desperately broke, he needed an entertainment acceptable by the Church during the 40 days of Lent. Yet, people flock every Christmas season to hear the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Mendelssohn Choir, the Amadeus Choir and the Elmer Iseler Singers, the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra and Chamber Choir, and lastly, a downsized version by the Classical Music Consort.

A third well-established habit is Toronto's obsession with The Nutcracker. Now, there is no denying that Tchaikovsky created a wonderful ballet set to a delightful German fairytale written by E. T. A. Hoffmann. But why does the National Ballet of Canada repeat this ballet every year? True, after many decades of presenting Celia Franca's version of the ballet, the NBC replaced it in 1996 with James Kudelka's choreography and staging. Yet, there it goes, year after year, following a never-varying tradition of enticing children with this German tale set now in Russia. The other Nutcrackers that appeared this year in Toronto were a the Xing Dance Theatre version, the Pia Bouman School verison, the Canadian Ballet Theatre version and finally, Ballet Jörgen's production. The last is perhaps the most Canadian version of this Christmas fairytale. Group of Seven paintings inspired choreographer Brent Jörgen, who set his ballet in Canada (Algonquin Park) and not in Russia, and featured Canadian animals, i.e. the Arabs became loons, the Russians turned bears, the Spaniards became raccoons, while the Chinese turned into dragonflies, among many other visual and story changes. Just too bad that none of these companies can find a Canadian story to create a truly Canadian Christmas ballet. Perhaps, the answer lies in human nature. Being creatures of habit, will anyone come to see a ballet, attend a musical New Year's Day concert or a Christmas choral presentation that didn't hark back to a long tradition with a foreign connection?