9 Virginia Traditions That Only Make Sense If You Grew Up There
Virginia has 38 of the nation’s 41 independent cities. They’re places that answer to no county government at all.
Try explaining that to the rest of America.
These are the traditions that only make sense if you grew up in Virginia.
1. Brunswick Stew Season
Virginia churches and volunteer fire companies still stir Brunswick stew in enormous cast iron kettles every fall, the way Knights of Columbus Council 395 outside Richmond has done for close to 200 years.
The stew traces back to 1828 on the banks of the Nottoway River in Brunswick County.
A crew shows up before sunrise to build the fire, then keeps stirring for hours because the stew scorches the second anyone stops.
Then it goes in the freezer section by the quart, usually around $12 a quart, with the money funding whatever the group needs that year.
Virginians drive past a smoke-filled parking lot every October and know exactly what’s cooking.
Ask an outsider the same question, and they’re stumped.
2. Firehouse Oyster Roasts
Virginia’s Tidewater firehouses turn their engine bays into oyster roasts once the weather cools, and the tradition runs deep enough that Urbanna’s version has been going since 1958.
That’s nearly 69 years running.
The festival organizers say it draws more than 50,000 people to a town of about 500 residents, and it still bills itself as the Commonwealth’s official oyster celebration.
Smaller versions happen at almost every volunteer department between the Chesapeake Bay and the Eastern Shore, usually a flat entry fee for all the shucked oysters a person can eat.
Virginians just know which Saturday to show up hungry.
3. Foxhunting Country
Virginia’s Piedmont region still runs organized fox hunts every fall and winter, and the Rappahannock Hunt has chased the same 384,000 acres across Rappahannock, Madison, Culpeper, and Orange counties for a full century now, founded back in 1926.
That’s a century in the saddle.
Riders and roughly two dozen hounds chase a scent trail on horseback, and the fox almost always gets away.
Master Gus Edwards, who’s led hunts there for decades, says the fox escapes 99.9% of the time.
Around Sperryville, riders cheer just as hard for the fox to win as for the chase.
4. Historic Garden Week
Virginia’s Garden Club has opened private homes and gardens to strangers every April since 1929, when members organized a flower show to help preserve the trees Thomas Jefferson planted at Monticello.
Historic Garden Week has raised more than $500 million for historic preservation and landscape fellowships over the last 50 years.
That’s half a billion dollars.
All of it comes from strangers paying to walk through Virginians’ kitchens and gardens for one week each spring.
Homeowners spend weeks pruning boxwoods and polishing silver so someone from three counties over can admire their mantel.
Anyone who didn’t grow up with it just sees a line of tourists at somebody’s front door.
5. Tacky Lights Tour
Virginia’s Tacky Lights Tour turns entire Richmond neighborhoods into a self-guided Christmas parade every December, and families have been mapping routes on a dedicated tour website since 2004.
Some houses run so many lights the display can trip a circuit breaker.
Locals debate which subdivision goes hardest every year, the way other cities argue about sports teams.
It’s not a competition.
Everyone treats it like a competition.
Brake lights back up for blocks some nights, and Richmond drivers built the whole tradition around inching through them on purpose.
6. Foxfield Race Day
Virginia’s Foxfield Races, held every spring and fall in Charlottesville since 1978, drew about 8,000 people on the first race day and 12,000 to the second that same year.
The horses matter less than the parking lot.
Families stake out the infield with blankets and coolers hours before the first race, and many never look up once the horses run.
That’s not the point.
Big hats and old friends fill the field long before anyone checks an odds board.
That’s the actual draw, year after year.
7. Grand Illumination
Virginia’s Williamsburg has lit up its Historic Area with candles and fireworks every December since 1935, a tradition modeled on the colonial habit of setting candles in windows to mark a special occasion.
That’s nearly 90 years running.
Musicians perform on stages up and down Duke of Gloucester Street while fireworks burst from the Capitol and the Palace at the same time.
To Virginians, that’s just how the holidays start.
A visitor expecting a simple tree-lighting gets a colonial fireworks show instead.
Nobody warns them ahead of time.
Psst! How much do you know about Virginia’s history? Take our quiz and see how many you can get right.
Quiz
Old Dominion Trivia
Answer these questions on Virginia’s history and firsts. We bet you can’t get them all right. Prove us wrong?
Virginia’s state seal carries a Latin motto. Which English phrase does it translate to?
8. Ham Biscuits for Everything
Virginia families still serve salty country ham on small yeast rolls at weddings, funerals, and Christmas parties, treating the ham biscuit as close to mandatory as the guest list.
Skip it, and somebody notices.
The tradition is barely a century old, tracing to the early 1900s when appetizers first showed up on American tables and Virginians paired their smokehouse ham with something small enough to eat standing up.
It caught on fast.
A funeral without a ham biscuit still feels unfinished to many Virginians.
What Makes Virginia Ham "Country" Ham
Virginia's country ham earns its name from the cure, not the flavor.
The meat is dry-cured in salt for one to three months, then aged anywhere from several months to a couple of years depending on how much fat it carries.
That much salt is what lets a whole ham hang at room temperature without spoiling.
It's also why a whole country ham spends a full day soaking in water before anyone bakes it.
9. Chincoteague Pony Swim
Virginia's Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company drives a herd of wild ponies across the Assateague Channel every July, then auctions off some of the foals the very next day.
The company has run the swim for more than 100 years, with 2026 marking its 101st.
Saltwater cowboys round up the herd on Assateague Island and push it into the channel on the last Wednesday of July, timed to slack tide.
Thousands crowd the shoreline for a swim that's over in about five minutes.
Virginians grow up knowing exactly which Wednesday to circle on the calendar.
Where the Pony Auction Money Goes
Virginia's Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Company treats the pony auction as its biggest fundraiser of the year, and the proceeds cover veterinary care for the herd for the rest of the year.
About 60 foals are born on the island each year.
Selling most of them at auction keeps the wild herd capped at around 150 adult ponies, according to the fire company's own auction FAQ.
The fire company tags a handful of foals as buyback ponies instead.
The winning bidder pays full price knowing the pony goes right back to live wild on Assateague.
Buyback ponies have become some of the priciest animals in the sale, with the buyback record hitting $25,500 in 2021, while an ordinary colt still sells for a few thousand dollars.
10 Things Virginia Grandparents Did That Their Kids Would Never Allow Now
Nearly half of American kids walked or biked to school on their own in 1969, and by 2009 that number had fallen to just 13 percent.
Letting kids roam the neighborhood alone was just the start for Virginia's grandparent generation.
10 Things Virginia Grandparents Did That Their Kids Would Never Allow Now
3 Virginia Historical Markers That Got History Wrong
A roadside marker outside Hampton stood for two decades before a Hampton History Museum researcher proved part of it wrong.
Nobody had flagged it before her, and it wasn't until 2015 that the Department of Historic Resources swapped in a corrected marker.
