How important are holidays in your life? (best, relatives, employee)
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How important are holidays to you? I define a "holiday" as any day generally observed in one's community which commemorates or celebrates some event or person. In the U.S., the primary holidays are: New Year's Day, Easter, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Eve (did I forget any?) Certain holidays like "Columbus Day" and "President's Day" are not observed as strongly or widely as the preceding list, so I do not consider them "primary holidays".
Honestly, I don't place much interest in holidays, except perhaps Christmas. I really don't care about the others, and some of them I loathe. Part of this is just my personality; part of it is the many family-related tragedies I've had happen in my life that, for me, remove the appeal from holidays. I could work on many of them and be perfectly contented.
When I was growing up holidays were very important to me. My family always did something. We might take a trip or get together with others. If nothing else we usually at least had a special dinner. When I moved out on my own holidays seemed less important. I still looked forward to visiting with family. Also it usually meant an extra day off from work. Now that my parents are gone most holidays are just another day for me. Seeing how I can take as much time off from work as I want when I want, I often volunteer to work straight thru from Thanksgiving to New Years so that others with families can have the time off.
I like celebrating Independence Day; it seems like the one holiday that has an emphasis on fun and family gatherings without the family dysfunction or a huge feast. Also, July 4th has just a picnic involved, and no relatives insisting I stuff myself or else I don't love them.
Thanksgiving I like in theory, but in reality dislike it quite a bit. I like the idea of a day to give thanks. Unfortunately, it's become a day to over eat and indulge in family dysfunction. Oh well, at least its 2 days off work.
I like Christmas, Easter, and the other religious holidays that seem to fall at the same time as those two. What can I say, I like holiday lights, christmas trees, dying colored eggs, biting off chocolate bunny ears--all the whimsical traditions. I like getting together with friends and family (as long as I don't have to go to my inlaws). I don't like Christmas gifts, however. I also try to focus at least a little on spirituality since it is "the reason for the season."
Memorial Day is cool here in the DC area. Vets get properly honored here, and Rolling Thunder is a hoot so it gets a thumbs up from me.
Columbus Day has a secret special meaning to me. I try to make a a Day of Discovery from time to time.
I'm fine with Labor Day, Veteran's Day, Martin Luther King Jr's birthday and President's Day, especially if there's a local event noting the meaning of the day. But... if all there is one year is a big sale, I guess that's ok too.
New Years Day is probably my favorite. I'm one person who really does try to start a new and make/keep resolutions. Not big on New Years Eve parties, though. I like the Rose Parade.
St. Paddy's Day, Cinco De Mayo, Groundhog Day, National Nutella Day, etc. etc.--bring 'em on! I like holidays where all I have to do is wear a special color, eat a special food, or tell a joke. I''ve been known to throw my best parties around days like this.
Valentines Day is the only holiday I really wish would disappear. It makes lonely people feel bad, and causes couples to fight over stupid things like gift giving. No thank you.
So.... I guess this means holidays are fairly important to me. Any excuse to celebrate works for me, as long as we can avoid the cumpulsory gift giving or dysfunctional family feasts.
Holidays don't mean a thing to me. I apreciated them before I retired because I could spend time with my family. I do like Christmas because things are festive and folks are generally in a good mood.
Valentines Day is the only holiday I really wish would disappear. It makes lonely people feel bad, and causes couples to fight over stupid things like gift giving. No thank you.
So.... I guess this means holidays are fairly important to me. Any excuse to celebrate works for me, as long as we can avoid the cumpulsory gift giving or dysfunctional family feasts.
^This! Anytime a Holiday involves being pressured to be nice to someone a day...such as Valentine's, father's, mother's, etc...I shy away from! These are designed to benefit the commercial sectors, aimed at the gullible masses! Love and affection should be shown throughout the year, not just one day...I'd rather give or receive something out of the blue just because...!
I remember one Valentine's day when my husband went against our agreement not to celebrate this day, just because he didn't want me to feel left out at the office where most ladies were showered with gifts. He surprised me by showing up bearing a box of chocolate and roses, which made my remaining co-worker embarrassed and angry at her hubby, she was the only one left without anything to show and tell. This is after I told her not to feel bad, My husband and I don't celebrate it either. She had a big fight with her hubby that night!
When I was in the workforce paid holidays were the only thing I looked forward to, a day off with pay, otherwise now they don't really mean much to me. I am turned off by the over commercializing of them.
It's nice to have a paid day off, and I enjoy some of the food traditions that are associated with some holidays, but the holidays as such are mostly pretty meaningless to me. I am not a deist, so the religious-themed holidays have no meaning for me, and a lot of the rest seem to be focused more on strident nationalism and/or cultural appropriation than anything else.
I'd really like it if employers would give "floating holidays," letting each employee decide for him or herself what days off would be useful/meaningful rather than arbitrarily designating certain dates as holidays. Instead of mandating that January 1, the final Monday in May, the first Monday in September, the fourth Thursday in November and December 25 are Official Holidays, give workers the chance to pick five days-off-with-pay of their choice throughout the year. Since increasing numbers of employers expect their employees to work on most of those days anyway, why insist on naming those dates "holidays?"
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