Following the recent controversy surrounding the celebration of Beltane at Mt Franklin (in Central Victoria, Australia) the question of tradition was raised on many levels. (For more on this see Mount Franklin Annual Pagan Gathering ).
1/ The tradition of Beltane at the mountain (if 30 years is long enough to establish a tradition), which has been organized by the same group of people since its inception, as was who that tradition "belonged to".
2/ The tradition of the school of witchcraft and the claims of some of the protagonists to have attained certain degrees of initiation was also raised and has since become a point of contention (see- Mount Franklin Annual Pagan Gathering: Statement from Stuart Bruce Re: Ron Sommeling ).
All of this raises the questions- What is the importance of tradition? If it is important then what are the genuine traditions? And, how long must something endure to become a tradition? (For more on this I have posted a short history of modern occultism at The Rosicrucian Roots of Modern Witchcraft Cults Dgmattichakjr's Blog ).