relics of the past

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

objects, practices, institutions, attitudes, or cultural forms that survive from an earlier period and persist into the present as remnants or survivals from a world that has otherwise been transformed; in religious usage a relic is a physical remnant of a saint — a bone, a garment, a possession — preserved and venerated for its connection to the sacred person; in secular use relics of the past are things that have survived the process of historical change without themselves changing, carrying the quality of anachronism — belonging to a past world while existing in the present — and provoking either nostalgia and reverence or a sense of incongruity in the observer depending on the relationship between the surviving element and contemporary values