So today was Columbus Day. A rather uninspired holiday, if you ask me. Columbus tries to sail around the world, or at least, to India, and fails, and ‘discovers’ a continent that a great many groups of native peoples have known and lived on for probably at least a thousand years or some shit. We actually close our banks and our stores for this guy?

Hoi.

Anyway, as far as holidays go, Columbus Day is rather pathetic. Nobody gets together for Columbus Day Feasts, or gives little columbi-gifts, or even acknowledges that the man existed, except maybe in gradeschool. What do we do on Columbus Day? Close shop, and throw up a flag. Because, uh… yeah, I really don’t know why. Most of the time, we everyday joes here in the States ask each other, “So, what holiday is it supposed to be today? President’s Day? No, can’t be. Memorial Day? Veteran’s Day? Ohh. Right. Columbus Day. Haha.”

Aside from the fact that the dick didn’t deserve a holiday to begin with (bless my blasphemous soul), what is it that makes a holiday a holiday? What makes Columbus Day and President’s Day so different from the other holidays of the year, like Christmas, or Thanksgiving, or even the 4th of July?

Connections. Personalization. Nobody knows Columbus, and in this day of modern feats, where you can jump from New York to Australia in a matter of hours, nobody really cares what he did. President’s Day? Nobody knows any presidents - at least, not any decent ones, and nobody really cares about those dead and gone. What do we care about? Family. Religion. And fun. We celebrate Christmas and Thanksgiving and Easter for religious or familial reasons. We celebrate New Year’s and Halloween simply because it’s a blast to dress up or go out and party. We celebrate the 4th of July because it’s got fireworks, and it’s in the middle of the summer, when everyone wants a vacation anyway. Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day aren’t big in my family, but if you’ve got a vet in the family who needs honoring, or you’ve lost those close to you, they become more important.

As a pagan, I’ve found celebrating the pagan holidays damned difficult. Yule is easy - it’s right next to Christmas. But I don’t know any pagans in real life - not close to me, anyway - and it’s not like I throw a Yule party. Nor do I get so much as an acknowledgment from anyone I know that it /is/ a holiday. I don’t send out Yule cards - I send out Christmas cards. Everyone I know celebrates Christmas. I follow their customs. I don’t have a nice family dinner that day. I don’t do /anything/ except small personal rituals.

And that’s the easy one of the year - well, perhaps next to Samhain. Halloween is pagan from the get-go and that can’t be denied.

The others? Much harder. Holidays are difficult without family. I’ve got a religious reason, but it’s difficult without the support backing of family - of friends. What makes a celebration, except people? People - in the plural. One person makes for a difficult celebration. More of an acknowledgment. A reverence, perhaps. You can have a good reason for a holiday - religious, thanks, fun, etc. - but a holiday still isn’t much without a celebration of sorts behind it.

If I wasn’t surrounded by people who celebrated Christmas and Easter and Thanksgiving, I don’t know that I’d do that either. Throw up some deco, maybe. But (to me, at least) holidays are about getting together with the people you love.

I don’t have a pagan support group in real life. I may never have a Beltane feast. But at least these holidays have a place in my heart that Columbus’s ‘discovery’ ever will.

1 Comment »

1. I’ll celebrate your pagan holidays with you, K. :) Just let me know.

   Comment by amber — October 11, 2007 @ 4:38 pm

Leave a comment