Anna pretty much summed up my feelings about Christmas in her blog.

But I felt the need to expand on that and say I don't just feel apathetic about Christmas. I feel that way about ALL holiday! Maybe I'm just the most jaded person on the planet. I just feel like there are WAY too many stupid meaningless holidays.

I guess my feeling is that we take whatever grain of dignity various holidays once had and comercialize it to the point of obscenity. I mean all of your basic holidays in this country came originally from a religious or patriotic background but have somehow gotten incredibly out of hand!

I'll start with tomorrow. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. A day to give thanks. A day to gorge ourselves on rich foods surrounded by smiling 'Indians' and pilgrims. OK I'm not a hugely political person, and I'm not big on political correctness but come on! We all know the crap we learn about the 'First Thanksgiving' is just that, crap. The picture we paint on that day of Native Americans and New immigrants sitting happily down at one big table to a meal of Turkey, pie and corn is so unbelievably fictional. And yet our society continues to perpetuate it, not at all unlike Santa except at least with Santa they eventually break the news that he's not real. Not that I don't relish the idea of having one day of the year set aside to make huge pigs of ourselves but come on! Lets not do it hidden behind such hypocrisy!

Christmas. The Biggest of all American holidays. There's the pagan side of it which somehow long ago got all mixed in with the Christian traditions and more recently it was all comercialized. It would almost be an interesting study in collaboration if the parties involved weren't so adamantly against eachother's ideas. When I was a teen my friend had a Christmas decoration at his house that was Santa kneeling next to baby Jesus' cradle with his hat in his hand. Talk about mixed up holiday! If you're Christian this holiday has meaning and I think that the fact that society has assimilated a religious holiday and made it something entirely different is just wrong. I'm not Christian. But I am against trampling religious beliefs. How shocked would people be if we took a high holy day of another religion and marketed it to the masses? What if we comercialized Ramadan or Hanukkah? Oh wait we are working on that aren't' we?

Have you noticed that? When I was a kid Hanukkah seemed almost like some scary little Jewish secret. Granted we sang the Dreidle song in school but now it's becoming much more in your face. Which is sort of good I guess. Although I think it does perpetuate the common misconception that Hanukkah is the 'Jewish Christmas'.

New Years is probably the most 'legitimate' and untainted of the holidays. A celebration of the new year which is something we all share regardless of religion, race, or political stance. And it's not based on some false history fabricated to gloss over the terrible things that have happened in this country. Of course staying up until midnight to party and getting really drunk (while, ok, adamantly it's fun) is either a rather trite way to celebrate a significant event or a pretty glitzy way to mark anniversary of another trip around the sun. Depends on how you look at it. Because really the passing of another year isn't some huge accomplishment. It's something that's been happening every 365 days or so for the last several million years. Not to poo on anyone's celebration. But it's sort of silly when you think about it.

Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day as some would call it. The idea that we need a special day to express our love for someone is a little odd. And the direction that marketing has taken this is just bazaar! It's supposed to be about 'love'. And yet school children across the nation are forced (yes, forced) to bring cards to EVERYONE in their classes for this most wacky of holidays. Nothing means as much I guess as sending a card that says 'you're a great friend -be Mine' to the class bully. It's a crazy holiday all about candy, wine, sex, and roses. I'm surprised that Christians are even allowed this holiday as it seems far more sinister than Halloween from a 'potential for sin' perspective.

There is a whole slew of minor holidays which seem to serve absolutely no purpose at all except to give school children something to decorate the walls with. Presidents day is one of those. I guess the fact that both George Washington and Abe Lincoln had birthdays in February was reason enough to create a national holiday. I'm sure at the time they didn't realize just how silly the holiday was. St. Patrick's Day would also fall easily into the meaningless holiday category. It's something about being Irish, or Catholic, or a leprechaun. You'd think with my rich leprechaun heritage I would know more about it. There's Groundhog Day, Mardi Gras, Ash Wednesday, April Fools Day, May Day, Flag Day, Columbus Day, etc... Not that people really celebrate these days. I suppose they are really there in case you need a reason to think about something.

Easter is another prime example of the Christian/Pagan/commercial Holiday conglomeration. It's the time of year when we take what is quite possibly the most significant event in Christina Mythology and pair it up with a Perky chocolate egg delivering rabbit! Now I've seen people try to convince themselves over and over of the symbolism of Christ in the pagan Easter. And I wonder if they see how silly they're being. Can't they just accept that they are trivializing their own beliefs with an excuse to buy chocolate? Someday I will see an illustration of the Easter Bunny standing next to an empty tomb and I will know for sure that the whole of society has sold out.

Then there are the people days. There's Mother's Day and Father's Day. Now there's Grandparents Day, and Secretaries day, Bosses day, Postal Workers day, firefighters day, Health Care Workers day, Cashier at Jack in The Box's Day, Old Lady Who Lives Next Door Day, etc... Ok I exaggerated a little. But really do we need to have a special day to recognize every single person in our lives? And Bosses day?? What the hell. I think that was just corporate retaliation against Secretaries day.

There's Memorial Day AND Veteran's Day (??) then There's Labor Day and Martin Luther Kind Jr. Day. I lumped them all together because they are all really just excuses to get time off of work. I know they have real meaning but that has been largely lost and now it's just a reason for JC Penny's to have a HUGE SALE!

Independence is a good thing to celebrate. Though I think more and more people just go for the fireworks and the food. In fact as I'm writing this I had to stop and really think about what this holiday was celebrating. Independence from WHAT? Oh yeah, England. That's right. ;)

In my 2003 calendar September 11th was listed as Patriots Day. I don't know if this is an official holiday or just wishful thinking on the part of the people who made the calendar? I don't mind if they make September 11th a holiday after all we already have Pearl Harbor day, but I do hope Patriots Day doesn't stick. I would definitely have issues with that title. Patriot: one who loves his or her country and supports its authority and interests. I would have to point out that many (probably most) people who died on September 11th were not particularly patriotic by this definition, and to memorialize them as such would put them right up there with the Indians at on Thanksgiving. Call it WTC Day, Call it Memorial Day II. But lets not make gross generalizations about so many people in the intrest of creating another holiday.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about the whole holiday issue is that despite the fact that there are dozens of religious/political/commercial holidays in this country there still isn't a single one in August! You'd think that they would have gone out of their way to remedy that a long time ago since there doesn't seem to be any hesitancy to create new random holidays at any given time.

So there you have it. My extensive list of holidays and why they are foolish. You are free to disagree with me. I know some people like any excuse to party. I guess I'm just a scrooge.