What is so holy about holy? Just asking the question is an absurdity. Dictionaries don’t help. “Holy” with a capital “h” is the sacred, pertaining to divine things or beings. While “holy” can also be merely a word used in expressions of surprise, as in “Holy cow!” And then there is Hollywood where there are neither hollies, nor anything holy or even surprising.
Be that as it may, where I am at home December is the Christmas season. An educated extra-terrestrian visiting for the first time would assume that this holiday season has something to do with Christ, a prophet or a divine being venerated by some earthlings, depending on whom you ask. If the extra-terrestrian were to ask me I would have to admit that the season is probably more about entertainment. At my local Seniors’ Center, for example, you are, if you are old enough, invited to a lunch where you will enjoy “a rocking Elvis Christmas”. Can’t you just see it, a pelvic Saint Elvis strumming a voluntary to “Rock of Ages”?
Here is an interesting aside: the above-mentioned invitation to the Christmas lunch came before Thanksgiving. That old Pilgrims’ holiday is in danger of getting lost in the shuffle for Christmas. Maybe it needs a distinctive possessive modifier. Staying with the entertainment theme I would propose “Reality Thanksgiving”, at least this year.
Lest you fear that this trend toward secularization of holy days signals a nationwide decrease in religious fervor let me assure you that, while some churches may have lost a few members, the attendance at the Cathedral of St. Market was phenomenal, last time I visited the Mall.
Thinking of minor holidays, there is one that certainly does not need a modifier, and that is Mothers’ Day. But even then, you might get a few more rsvp’s if you invited the neighbors to a “Martha Stewart’s Mothers’ Day” party. But it would probably be too cynical to call attention to June 18 as “Folsom Fathers’ Day”. So, scratch that one. Saint Valentine’s Day needs no help, nor does Saint Nicholas’ Day, although even lifelong Christians might be surprised to learn that Father Christmas, Grandfather Frost, Santa Claus, and Saint Nicholas of Myra are one and the same person whose feast day is December 6, not the 25th.
Another less holy “holiday” with an obvious name is Black Friday although I have no idea which Friday that was, or is. And then there is “the Fourth”. It used to be an almost holy national celebration of liberty but in many neighborhoods it is now often celebrated for the freedom of lighting illegal fireworks under the nose of the police. Gradually, I suspect, the Fourth of July will be seen as nothing more than the forerunner of Christmas. You doubt this? Do not underestimate the power of St. Market!
Food-oriented people have their days, too, I should add.. People often refer to Thanksgiving as “Turkey Day”. I have not heard anyone call Halloween the “Candy Day”, but that would be a possibility, although not very likely because everybody is getting more and more health conscious. Come the week before next “Easter Bunny Day”, might we now run into “Lean Tuesday”? Fat chance, I reckon.
(c) 2016 by Herbert H. Hoffman