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Monday, April 21, 2014

A holiday from holidays

Blogger's note: For my British friends, when I say holiday, I am not talking about a vacation. I am referring to days we celebrate special occasions.

It's just the day after Easter and I have to say that all of the holidays we have anymore just blur into each other. It's this hyped up continuum of days we need to celebrate. You go from Halloween to Veteran's Day to Thanksgiving with Christmas nipping at the turkey's tail. Then quickly there is New Years.  Martin Luther King Jr. squeezed himself in there followed by Valentine's Day. President's Day parades by merging Washington's and Lincoln's birthdays. Then St. Patrick's Day staggers by followed closely by Easter. Now they are hyping Mother's Day followed by Memorial Day, then Father's Day and the 4th of July. There's not much in August (other than my son's birthday). Then September is back to school (which is really not a holiday). And finally we're back to Halloween.



Plus they throw in the second string holidays like Arbor Day and Earth Day. Flag Day and Columbus Day don't really count either since we don't get to take a day off. And don't get me started about Kwanzaa. Cinco De Mayo is another one that people use as an excuse to drink like St. Patrick's Day.

I realize that many of the holidays were commercially driven by greeting card companies to sell more cards. Grandparent's Day is one of those scams. And I won't even get into Administrative Assistant's Day which used to be Secretary's Day until that became unpolitically correct.

We need a holiday from holidays. Because in between holidays,  we also have to keep track of birthdays and anniversaries. I just want a solid block of days when I don't have to send a card, buy a present, hide an egg, fill a stocking, decorate, sing or watch holiday themed specials. I don't want to see any sales, decorations, or countdowns geared toward a holiday.

With my luck they'll create the Holiday from Holidays Holiday complete with cards, customs and decorations. So I might as well start shopping now.

Sigh.

5 comments:

The random ramblings of a magpie mind said...

My sister always gets confused because Mother's Day over there is on a completely different date to Mothering Sunday over here.... She also bemoans zoning restrictions so that she is unable to celebrate Bonfire Night with fireworks ( only in the UK do we celebrate a failed plot.... Go figure!)

Time said...

I didn't even want to get into the plethora of holidays from around the world. Does Bonfire Night have something to do with Guy Fawkes?

liz young said...

You want to try living in Tenerife! One fiesta day blurs into another here, and on top of that, being foreigners, half of them take us by surprise with no food in the firdge or money in our wallets!

The random ramblings of a magpie mind said...

It certainly does... Obviously we burn his effegy on the fire ( although he was hung, drawn and quartered in reality; nice!), roast sausages , potatoes in their jackets and marshmallows in the flames,and set fireworks off... It's like living through the Blitz that weekend ... Short days means the fireworks start as soon as the sun sets... We know how to party!!

Time said...

Lizy, I wouldn't mind trying to live in Tenerife.

Alex,
I imagine it became Bonfire Night because it sounds a bit more friendly than "Hung, Drawn and Quarter Night."