i heard it said by history related people(ethnography and archeology buffs) that catholicism converted a lot of the local pagan worshipping rites, places, and festivities into saint worshipping, and in south america missionaries did the same to local and slave religion, while protestantism was born more out of theological philosophy and draws less from natural tradition
When Christianity was adopted as the official religion of the Roman Empire, many Roman pagan holidays (like Saturnalia) we co-opted to Christian celebrations so the people wouldn't complain too much. The Roman Catholic Church periodically added new celebrations and festivals as well.
The Reformation (i.e. establishment of the Protestant churches) was much later. The reformers wanted to scrap a lot of the Catholic Church's celebrations, primarily those that weren't based in some way on the (revised) Bible. The result was pretty varied, which is why we have Protestants observing Lent and Halloween and other nonsense.
what i was talking about is more things like local shrines, patron saints, and festivals and not catolicism\empire wide mandated traditions. many are, the scholars* argue, direct descendants from local traditions.
*by scholars i mean people i get drunk with
You'll never find a church that isn't based on culture or tradition in at least some form. Protestantism isn't based any more or less on theology or culture than Catholicism.
i never said otherwise, but they vary widely depending on their age and the writing technology available to it's precursors.
you can find religions or religious interpretations intensely based on folk culture and oral tradition, and others dictated by historical people, like mohamed, aquinas, luther, calvin, the trent council, constantinus, hubbard, joseph smith, etc.
protestantism is a spawn of the press, motivated by theological disagrements, and implemented relatively recently by dissatisfied purists\fanatics from the ground up in a virgin land or countries rescued from satan worshipping corrupt clergy, while catholicism was an effort to standardize the chaotic religious scene of the borglike romans, and implemented by coerced natives who mostly tried balance keeping their traditions and their heads