Homemade rockets hurtle into the mountains to invite the beginning of the rainy season. A daughter takes afternoon tea with her aging father to keep the memories alive. Hundreds of people build human towers several stories tall.

Though traditions take many forms—personal or public, sacred or profane, somber or joyous—the human instinct to create meaningful rituals is universal.

"Every day people are involved in events they recognize as traditional," writes Simon Bronner in Explaining Traditions: Folk Behavior in Modern Culture. "Tradition fuels their culture ... instead of being a synonym for the past, tradition brings out the connection of the past in, as well as to, the present."