Celebration Days

The celebration of national holidays, I think, tells much about the values of a people.  It seems obvious to me as a Christian and a patriot, that certain days such as Easter, Christmas, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Memorial Day—all traditional American holidays—clearly should continue to be celebrated in this country as we remember the significant contributions of certain noble individuals or groups of people associated with that day or time in history.  There are other days, of course, that commemorate noble or noteworthy individuals or classes of people (e.g., Mother’s Day and Father’s Day; formerly Washington’s and Lincoln’s birthdays in America but now—overly generous in my opinion—‘President’s Day’) who contributed to our country’s greatness and  stability and security. 

There are also days that vested interests have promoted that are noted as worthy of remembrance by more limited segments of our population. 

But then there are some days, such as Halloween, that seem to have (to borrow a legal phrase) ‘no redeeming social value.’  And it has become, perhaps, our biggest national (non) ‘holiday.’

I bring this to the attention of the reader because I have seen, in my lifetime, a definite shift in emphasis pertaining to certain celebration days.  Halloween, again, has gotten much more emphasis and Easter (truly for Christians a ‘holy day’) has been devalued as America has slid to a much more secular state. Schools no longer have an Easter vacation, but rather a ‘spring break.’  Christmas vacation, likewise, is now ‘winter break.’  And Thanksgiving Day is ‘turkey day’ followed by ‘black Friday,’ to emphasize, I guess, gross materialism. 

For America’s schoolchildren the celebration of the traditional holidays provided a focus for recognizing the lasting significance and historical value of those events/people/times.  Now, by contrast, attention has been refocused on ‘fun’ or ‘escape’ or a legitimizing of a time of ‘letting down,’ usually of morals. 

As a moralist, I encourage parents, teachers, and other responsible adults to hold to the traditional and not cave in to the de-emphasis of things/times/people of real value.  I, for one, do not buy in (literally) to the moral shift and decline of our culture and great American heritage.