One problem, I suspect, is that some try to portray a tradition as "that's how it is and that's how it always has been." Which, in every case, it hasn't *always* been. But yes, 200 years is certainly enough to create a tradition, but besides not being the Original Way it Was Done(tm), traditions also aren't as ironclad as some people wish they were. They had to come from somewhere.

Or, as someone on another board I frequent put it: "These great old traditions have to start somewhere. Why not here?"