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Journal rjamestaylor's Journal: Cyclical holidays 14

Journal by rjamestaylor
How many people still celebrate cyclical holidays? Most, I reckon. One year in college I was struck with talk about how better the world was at a certain time of the year. I heard people around me and on the media who seemed to think a certain season would make the world a better place. Then, it hit me: I hear this every year.

When is it that the season's effects wear off? What is it about January, February or March that causes the world to return to its hard, mean state? Perhaps the world didn't really change in December, afterall . . .at least, not enough to "stick" the rest of the year. What, then, makes December different from other times of the year, or conversely, the other 11 months different than December?

Some may claim a focus on religious, spiritual, or family values makes December better than the other 11 months. My question is, do not these values hold true in the other 11 months if in December? Or does the earth's relative position to the Sun affect us to such an extent (if so, Astrology may be the purest religion!).

I decided that if something is true in December it must also be true in January--and July. From that point, if it was merely a cyclical observance (and I'm not a farmer) it probably held little or no relevance to me.

Your thoughts?

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Cyclical holidays More

Cyclical holidays

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  • Consumers like spending money. Store owners like receiving money. In short, people like exchanging money.

    In December, there's a ton of this... piling the charges onto their visa's and amex's. Then in January they get the bill and grumble while they work on paying off the debt over the next 11 months :-)

    Just a thought...
    • To be a bit provocative regarding your .sig. . .what about Christians (who believe in the fundamentals regarding the incarnation of the God-man, His perfect human living, vicarious death, resurrection and ascension, as well as our being saved through faith as a gift, et al) who don't celebrate Christmas? :)
    • Well, Douglas Adams puts it very well:

      This planet has - or rather had - a problem, which was this: most of the
      people on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. Many solutions
      were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned
      with the movements of small green pieces of paper, which is odd because
      on the whole it wasn't the small green pieces of paper that were unhappy.

  • ... that Chanukah began on November 29 this year, and that for Old-Calendrist Orthodox Christians, Christmas (Dec. 25) falls on what is now January 7. That's got to be good for another week or two, surely. :-)

    • Or Ramadan (the month of *wink*wink**nudge*nudge* fasting during daylight hours, which, BTW, occurs during the winter *ahem*), Kwanza (invented in Long Beach, CA, where my sons were born), the Saturnalia (is that redundant when discussing Christmas? :), etc.

      Sadly, it won't be a time of year that changes things for real.

      Festivals are fun, but the good feeling engendered seems to fade rather quickly . . .

      • Maybe Ramadan is actually a counterbalance to all this peacefulness, given that the Koran says:

        ``But when the holy month is past, then fight and slay the unbelievers wherever you may find them, and seize them, harry them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem.''
        (Koran, Surah 9, verse 5 -- though surely some MESA type will now pipe up and tell us that that is calling for a `Jihad of the heart, not of the sword' :-P ).

        Kwanza, three of whose seven pillars are `black self-determination, collective economics, and collective labor' (see here [jewishworldreview.com] for the others) may not be the most helpful influence either. ;-)

  • when you can be faux nice for a month and feel all better about yourself? I think that's the real reason these traditions continue. People don't want to move out of their comfort zones. Being thoughtful, nice and giving all year round would require too much effort.

    Or maybe I'm just too cynical.
  • You have an excellent point, but practically there's a lot in favor of holidays that are known well in advance, evenly spaced out, and shared by most of the population.

    Suppose the U.S. had a major holiday every time its president had a good idea. Definitely something worth celebrating, but hard to (travel) plan for, out-of-country F+F won't get time off, and prone to things like a 6 year drought followed by two ideas in two months (Aw man! I just took the decorations off the statue!).

    There're also observances whose whole point is to be periodic reminders, like Rememberance and MLK days, although as you say they generate a lot less excitement.

    • Good point and it is preferrable to have national holidays for planning getaways and group events. However, no one expects the world to be a better place leading up to the Fourth of July :)

      It's interesting, too, your comment about "reminders" -- the only designated reminder in the New Testament is the Lord's Table ("Do this in rememberance of Me") which, in the New Testament, was practiced weekly. I guess it's harder to forget when you're reminded more often . . .

  • I propose that each year's holidays are determined in advance, spaced out over the year at random.

    This will give people the variety of holiday times they've been wanting, while still allowing for planning by announcing the holidays a long way in advance. Even better, some years holidays will be spaced out all year round, and in other years they could be grouped together, giving true variety to people's lives.

    Some holidays, like New Year's day, will need to be renamed - maybe "After-Christmas" or "New Resolution Day".

    As an added bonus, each year there will be a TV special where next year's holidays are drawn. Starting with the big Christmas / New Year's day double, then moving on to Easter and finally the bonus one-dayers and non-holidays line Valentine's and Mother's day.

    Of course, the religious element will complain about celebrating things at the wrong time of they year, but this can be easily countered by pointing out that we don't know what day Jesus was born or died on anyway. Easter moves around every year, so why not the other holidays too!

    I'm off to start a petition, I hope you will all support this exciting new proposition.

    • A petition is good, but to do it right we need to organize and do it quickly! How about starting a web site dedicated to the cause: BreakTheCycle.com? Acyclical.com?

      Very funny, BTW.

    • No, no, no. For holidays to be truly random, you'd get up in the morning and there'd be a tag on your forehead telling you that today had been decreed some random holiday. That way it would be a genuine surprise, and you may well get Xmas in July!! ;)

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