Ok, this has nothing to do with libraries. Have you noticed how holidays that started out being anywhere from sacred to very sacred holidays are gradually more and more loosing their sacred-ness and becoming more and more secular? Probably the one thing we think of as the most obvious is Christmas as that has been the biggest holiday of the year. As I was growing up Easter was still held sacred. But schools can no longer have Easter Breaks, they're spring breaks. Then people started hanging Eggs on their trees in their front yard! That, besides looking stupid, is really -- what's the word I want? -- degrading to the meaning of Easter even more. (That wasn't the word I was looking for, but the statement is true.) 'Course, when it comes right down to it what do eggs and bunnies have to do with each other? However, since I grew up with that, it does seem more normal! (right or wrong).
Now, Nov. 1st is All Saints Day. It was nearly 500 years ago (minus 11 years) that Luther nailed his theses to the "door of the reformation" -so to speak. I guess what got me thinking about this is the fact that my mother was born the year of the 400th anniversay. We've come "a long way..." as they say. Boy haven't we! But I'm not sure the direction is at all wonderful. I think Luther needs to come back and shake up the world again. I heard several mention that it is expected that families will spend, I think, 5 BILLION dollars on Halloween this year. It is fast catching up with what is spent on Christmas. In Christmas' secular version even, Halloween still doesn't come close to anything good that Christmas does. And Now! Halloween decorations in the trees! "Dumb and Dumber" How stupid can you get? Don't tell me. I don't want to know!
PS - Oh, here's a couple more: St. Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day - originally celebrated something that was of Christian value. Now it's an excuse for chocolate and beer. ...Well, I'll take the chocolate, but forget the beer!
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4 comments:
Just tumbled onto your blog...
While I agree with your complaint about sacred holidays being no longer sacred, I think that you're blaming the wrong cause. When a country allows certain sacred holidays to become national holidays, everyone in the country gets to have a say in it. Therefore, since not everyone celebrates Easter, but everyone gets off for Easter, we call it Spring Break so that no one feels offended. And then, because Easter is not sacred to me (I'm Jewish) and I have off just as people who celebrate Easter have off, some people who celebrate Easter start to act like those who aren't celebrating. And then, in this endless spiral, you end up with people hanging eggs on their trees because it's "cutesy."
In any event, I think you have to remember that something special and sacred is most often kept that way when it's celebrated only by those who care for it.
I guess I was thinking mainly in terms of money spent on holidays, how they’ve been secularized, and commercialized – not so much the political aspects of it. I probably shouldn’t have compared money spent on Halloween to taking time off at Easter. “Apples and oranges.”
I understand your point. And you raise a good one. This happens anytime anything is secularized. Historically the Christian holidays were held sacred by the nation because it was mostly Christian at one time. That is not true anymore. What would be nice is if everyone would be respectful of anybody’s sacred holy day. Not just tolerant. And you’re right – to those for whom the holiday is most sacred they will treat it as such.
Then there’s the various levels of commitment to one’s faith and others who are looking for a way to turn it into a money making endeavor. There is no easy answer, and will continue this way as our country becomes more and more secularized itself, ignoring its Judeo-Christian roots.
Our forefathers wanted a country where they could follow their Christian beliefs without interferences from the government. They certainly tried. But what’s “good for the goose, is good for the gander.” Ideally this nation needs to be respectful of all faiths, but this is not being done with equity. Alas, case in point, our human nature with all its flaws, does not allow that. In some ways we have painted ourselves into a corner. Thus the dilemma continues.
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