The Pionniers (pioneers) are the combat engineers and a traditional unit of the French Foreign Legion. The sapeurs of the Legion traditionally sport large beards, wear leather aprons and gloves and hold axes.

Military traditions are customs, symbols, ceremonies and practices through which an armed force, service or unit preserves selected parts of its past. They include distinctive uniforms, insignia, drill, military music, commemorations and unit histories.[1] Military culture is broader term than military tradition. It includes the shared values, beliefs, norms, symbols, language, and behaviors that define a military organisation's identity and its members' goals. Traditions are one way through which culture is expressed and transmitted.[2]

Concept and transmission

Military culture is communicated through both formal instruction and everyday social practices. Traditions, deployment, rituals, vocabulary, and shared values shape interactions among personnel and transform civilians into military members.[3]

Military tradition is not immutable. Militaries may abandon practices incompatible with professional ethics. The U.S. Army classifies rituals like "blood wings" as hazing.[4] The United States Army prohibits hazing in any form, with the policy applying to Active, Guard and Reserve soldiers, as well as Army civilians and contractors.[5]

Military music

Armies once used drums, fifes, trumpets, and bugles for audible signalling across battlefields and camps, covering tactical orders (advance, halt, assault, cease fire) and daily routine calls. This order-by-instrument practice is termed celeustic music.[6]

Telegraphy ended most battlefield uses of bugle calls, but they remain in military routines and ceremonies. In the United States Army, Reveille and Retreat mark the beginning and end of the duty day and accompany flag ceremonies.[7]

Military music has served signalling, morale, ceremony and unit identity, with modern primary use as ceremonial.[8]

Commemoration

Some military practices evolve into public commemorative rituals. The Last Post began as a daily bugle call. It is now sounded at military funerals and remembrance services.[9]

In Europe

European armed forces maintain traditions through regiments, connecting current members to past formations via names, insignia, ceremonies, battle honours, and uniforms.[10]

Chivalry developed as an important ethical, social and martial ideal among the medieval European nobility and warrior elite, though it varied across time and place.[11]

Within Europe a wide variety of separate military traditions developed until at least World War I. Subsequently, major political and social changes have tended to break-down the historical continuity that had been a source of military tradition in many armies.

In the United Kingdom

In Britain, military traditions developed primarily along regimental lines, taking the form of long-established regimental customs, insignia, badges and distinctive features of uniform. Since the late 1960s, a series of regimental mergers and disbandments have diluted British military tradition, although it still remains strong in the Guards Division.

A French zouave from 1888 in the distinctive campaign uniform worn in North Africa. His trousers would normally be red.

In Germany

For the Bundeswehr, tradition is a selective, value-based engagement, prioritising post-1955 history and only constitutionally compatible elements.[12]

In Prussia and the German Empire, states relied on their own history to maintain military traditions, although some specific regiments within elite formations did maintain distinctive customs and items of dress. For example, one regiment, the Potsdam Grenadiers, consisted of extremely tall men.

In France

The French created the concept of Esprit de corps, or the concept of pride in one's unit, within most elite or uniquely French units. North African units like the Zouaves, the tirailleurs, the French Foreign Legion, or even the Mamluks which served in Napoleon Bonaparte's Imperial Guard developed distinctive styles of dress. Many of these distinctive styles were later adopted by the French Metropolitan Army during the nineteenth century.

Zouaves emerged in Algeria during the 1830 French conquest, initially with local mercenaries. Their name and distinctive dress later symbolized French colonial troops.[13] The 1st Foreign Regiment is the oldest regiment of the French Foreign Legion. Founded in 1841, it maintains the Legion's ceremonial and historical roles, as well as its heritage and band.[14]

Japan

Bushidō has often been presented as an inherited code of the samurai, but historians have shown that its modern form was developed and popularised in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During the Meiji era, writers refashioned samurai models as a national character, later linking them to military traditions and nationalism.[15] The postwar Japan Self-Defense Forces use awards and ceremonies to recognize service and reinforce unit cohesion. The Ministry of Defense states that personnel awarded badges and medals for metric contributions to their units may wear them at SDF ceremonies and other official occasions.[16]

United States

Military service sometimes extends across generations within American families. A 2011 Pew Research Center survey found that veterans were more likely than the general public to have immediate relatives who had served: 50 per cent had a veteran parent, 43 per cent had a veteran sibling and 21 per cent had a son or daughter who had served.[17] This tradition is associated with the Southern United States and is seen in a high representation of Southerners in the U.S. military today and throughout the nation's history.[18][19]

Baron von Steuben drilling Continental Army troops at Valley Forge, depicted by Edwin Austin Abbey.

American military drill was substantially standardized by Baron Friedrich von Steuben, who arrived at the Continental Army encampment at Valley Forge on 23 February 1778 and subsequently introduced a systematic program of drill and training.[20] In 1779, he wrote Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States, known as the Blue Book. Introduced at Valley Forge remained for 85 years, until the American Civil War, and its vocabulary survives till the current day.[21]

TC 3-21.5 (successor to FM 3-21.5 and FM 22-5) now governs U.S. Army drill.[22] During the retreat ceremony, Retreat marks the end of the duty day and is followed by To the Color, during which the national flag is lowered.[23] Other U.S. Army ceremonial drills include change-of-command ceremonies, reviews and parades, guard mounting, military funerals, color ceremonies.

In fiction

Military Tradition is used in the strategy game Sid Meier's Civilization III, released by Atari, as a technological advance that allows the building of cavalry units.

Military Tradition is a game concept in the strategy game Europa Universalis IV released by Swedish PC strategy game designer, Paradox Interactive. In the game, a player-controlled faction can accumulate Military Tradition by engaging in land battle. A higher Military Tradition value results in the ability to recruit generals and conquistadors of better quality.

Distinct elements of a military culture are also present in many fictional publications. These are often used as an important element in shaping fictional culture by authors. Military fiction is a key component of the "military and popular culture" subfield.[24]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "The Bundeswehr's Traditions". Bundeswehr. Federal Ministry of Defence. 29 April 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2026. "Traditions are not history, but rather a set of deliberate and meaningful selections from it."
  2. ↑ Isham, Matthew (2021). "Leadership in a People-First Army". Military Review. Army University Press. Retrieved 7 August 2026. Army culture is the "shared set of beliefs, values, norms, and symbols" that unites the institution and is communicated through "policies, doctrines, customs, traditions, songs, and ethos."
  3. ↑ Heward, Carolyn; Li, Wendy; Chun Tie, Ylona; Waterworth, Pippa (2024). "A Scoping Review of Military Culture, Military Identity, and Mental Health Outcomes in Military Personnel". Military Medicine. 189 (11–12): e2382–e2393. doi:10.1093/milmed/usae276. Retrieved 8 August 2026. Through norms, traditions, rituals, values, lexicon, dress, training, and deployments, military culture governs interactions and fosters identity transformations among personnel.
  4. ↑ Mattson, Jennifer (5 September 2012). "Senior leaders combat hazing". The United States Army. United States Army. Retrieved 8 August 2026. The Army has to move away from all forms of hazing, including those that are recognized as traditions during a promotion or pinning ceremony.
  5. ↑ United States Army Chief of Staff (13 January 2012). "Army Leadership: Hazing not compatible with Army Values". United States Army. United States Army. Retrieved 8 August 2026. Hazing, in any form, has no place in our Army and will not be tolerated. This applies at all levels to all Active, Guard and Reserve Soldiers, Civilians and contractors.
  6. ↑ Dumoulin, Géry (November 2024). "Bugle". Musical Instruments Museum. Royal Museums of Art and History. Retrieved 8 August 2026. Soldier buglers were trained to sound the various signals that governed military life as a whole, from unit designation calls to tactical signals ... not forgetting service signals ... The ancient art of transmitting orders using musical instruments is known as celeustic.
  7. ↑ Binkley, Cameron (28 March 2023). "From the Historian: Bugle Calls—The Origins of Army Music". The United States Army. United States Army. Retrieved 8 August 2026. Today, the bugle call is no longer needed to communicate a commander's orders in battle. However, the tradition of using bugle calls is deeply engrained in Army culture.
  8. ↑ "When Music Sounds the Marching Orders: The Army, the Nation and Its Harmonies". Institut des hautes études de défense nationale. Institut des hautes études de défense nationale. 18 July 2025. Retrieved 8 August 2026. Military music began as a means of tactical communication on the battlefield, but has evolved to go beyond this function alone.
  9. ↑ "The Last Post". Australian War Memorial. Australian War Memorial. 8 December 2020. Retrieved 8 August 2026. In military tradition, the Last Post is the bugle call that signifies the end of the day's activities. It is also sounded at military funerals to indicate that the soldier has gone to his final rest and at commemorative services such as Anzac Day and Remembrance Day.
  10. ↑ "Infantry". The British Army. British Army. Retrieved 7 August 2026. The Infantry of the British Army is based on the regimental system, built on hundreds of years of history from its antecedents.
  11. ↑ Kaeuper, Richard W. (2016). Medieval Chivalry (PDF). Cambridge University Press. Retrieved 7 August 2026. Emerging in the medieval period, chivalry embodied ideals that elite warriors cherished and practices that formed their profession. [...] Though showing regional and chronological variations, chivalry at its core enshrined the practice of prowess in securing honor.
  12. ↑ "The Bundeswehr's Traditions". Bundeswehr. Federal Ministry of Defence. 29 April 2019. Retrieved 7 August 2026. Germany's military history is characterised by ruptures and caesuras. Only elements of German history that are consistent with the value system of the free democratic basic order can serve as a basis for traditions.
  13. ↑ "Marche des zouaves". Carnet de chants de l'armée de Terre (in French). French Army. Retrieved 7 August 2026. Les premiers bataillons de zouaves sont constitués dès 1830, aux tous débuts de la conquête de l'Algérie, en incorporant des mercenaires.
  14. ↑ "1st Foreign Regiment". Légion étrangère. French Army. Retrieved 7 August 2026. "Created in 1841, it is the senior regiment of the Legion." Its Foreign Legion Services Company performs Legion-wide functions including "history and heritage" and "the Foreign Legion band".
  15. ↑ Benesch, Oleg (1 September 2016). "Reconsidering Zen, Samurai, and the Martial Arts". The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus. Retrieved 7 August 2026. The 1890s saw many new and repurposed concepts popularized as ancient "native" ethics, and bushido was ideally suited to this purpose.
  16. ↑ "Defense of Japan 2020" (PDF). Ministry of Defense, Japan. Ministry of Defense. 2020. p. 410. Retrieved 8 August 2026. Recognized personnel may wear Defensive Meritorious Badges and Medals for Contribution to Unit Merits on their left chest at SDF ceremonies and other occasions.
  17. ↑ "The Military-Civilian Gap: Fewer Family Connections". Pew Research Center. Pew Research Center. 23 November 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2026. Fully half of military veterans have a parent who served, compared with 41% among the general public. And 43% of veterans say they have a sister or brother who served in the military, compared with 27% of all adults.
  18. ↑ Kane, Tim. "Who Bears the Burden? Demographic Characteristics of U.S. Military Recruits Before and After 9/11". The Heritage Foundation. Archived from the original on February 6, 2017. Retrieved 2020-09-15.
  19. ↑ Wood, Louise, Amy (2010). The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture: Volume 19: Violence. Univ of North Carolina Press, sponsored by the Center for the Study of Southern Culture at the University of Mississippi and the Center for the Study of the American South. pp. 112–115. ISBN 9780807869284.
  20. ↑ "Steuben's Regulations Book". Valley Forge National Historical Park. National Park Service. Retrieved 8 August 2026. On February 23, 1778, it was answered with the arrival of the Prussian officer Baron de Steuben. Steuben's hands-on training program helped the army become a more proficient fighting force
  21. ↑ Drill and Ceremonies (PDF) (Report). Headquarters, Department of the Army. 3 May 2021. TC 3-21.5. Retrieved 8 August 2026. To ensure continuity and uniformity, von Steuben, by then a major general and the Army Inspector General, wrote the first Army field manual in 1779, "The Regulations for the Order and Discipline of the Troops of the United States," commonly referred to as the Blue Book. The drill procedures initiated at Valley Forge were not changed for 85 years, until the American Civil War, and many of the drill terms and procedures are still in effect today.
  22. ↑ Drill and Ceremonies (PDF) (Report). Headquarters, Department of the Army. 3 May 2021. TC 3-21.5. Retrieved 8 August 2026.
  23. ↑ Mayne, Anthony R. (22 August 2013). "End of the day ceremony honors American flag". United States Army. Retrieved 8 August 2026. The retreat ceremony actually has two distinct sections. The first bugle call, Retreat, is approximately 29 seconds long, the second part, To the Colors, is 42 seconds long.
  24. ↑ Ender M.G., Reed B.J., Absalon J.P. (2020) Popular Culture and the Military. In: Sookermany A. (eds) Handbook of Military Sciences. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02866-4_36-1 https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-3-030-02866-4_36-1
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_tradition