Social communities refer to and are constituted by tradition. Traditions create cultural identities and confer cultural significance to social contexts. Traditions constitute social groups and are crucial for drawing the boundaries between ‘us’ and ‘them’. From a social-constructivists perspective traditions are the most interesting because they create and structure social realties. But how real are traditions? Can they be ascribed a (social) ontological status? Or should traditions be regarded as (mere) social constructions? Referring to concepts of collective and cultural memory not only allows for discussing the ontological status of traditions but also to thoroughly investigate their impact on identity formation.