Holiday Adhesive

October 2006

Veteran’s Day hasn’t quite caught on, has it?  It’s just around the corner, and I haven’t seen a single Veteran’s Day card or decoration in the stores.  Sure, the government shuts down and there might be a parade, but nobody thinks it’s a serious holiday.  The same goes for Columbus Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and President’s Day.  These holidays observe important turning points in our history, but it’s impossible to find Styrofoam busts of the presidents, cardboard Mayflowers, or MLK banners in your nearest Hallmark store. 

Some holidays are clearly more successful than others.  Take Halloween, for example.  The candy starts showing up in August and I have no trouble finding pumpkins or cardboard skeletons to toss around the house.  And the day after Labor Day, stores start turning red and green and gold for the Christmas embellishments that usually don’t come down until January when everything turns pink and red for Valentine’s Day.

Two thousand years ago, Halloween celebrated the harvest and the New Year and to connect with the dead.  It had a serious purpose.  But somewhere along the way, people started giving out food to beggars and before you knew it, we were donning our Grim Reaper costumes and handing out food to insatiable brats dressed as cartoon characters.  I doubt anyone uses Halloween to connect with his dead ancestors anymore.  Ouija boards do the trick.

Christmas is another often-ridiculed holiday that started out differently.  It was a celebration of birth of the guy who showed mankind how to get into Heaven and live forever. But then that monk Nicholas started giving presents to children and sailors in need.  Now, people torture themselves to find the perfect unnecessary keepsake for some friend who already has 200 pairs of shoes and a beach house.  Sure, Christians go to church for an hour or so, but when ripping through fifteen presents and eating sugar cookies, nobody’s thinking about Jesus.

If any of these newer holidays wants to make it in the long haul, they’re going to have to make a few changes.  Clearly there’s no need to match your celebration to the day’s purpose.  What has an Easter bunny chucking eggs to do with Jesus? 

The solution is simple.  All proper holidays include food, presents, and/or decorations.  A parade is fine, but unless you tack on a bacchanalian feast, lavish gifts, and lawn ornaments, that holiday won’t have any staying power in today’s society. 

Maybe on Veteran’s Day, the USO could begin collecting an underrepresented food like Spam to distribute to veterans who show up and tell their war stories.  And they could decorate the hall in patriotic paraphernalia left over from the Fourth of July.  On Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, people could don Afros and get together for a late afternoon lunch to eat soul food and tell each other about their dreams.

I know I’m going to do my part to help these unappreciated holidays stick.  For Arbor Day next April, I’m planting a tree, eating some leaves, and decorating the house with dirt.