Now that the holidays have passed and the retail stores are slowing down to a halt, it is time to reflect on why we celebrate these holidays in the first place. In this article, I am only going to discuss the big hitters in America (sorry Hanukkah, Kwanza, and Dia de los Muertos). In the United States, we tend to mask mass consumerism and sales with different holidays. I will be analyzing the bastardization of a select few holidays and contrast what they were intended for and what they are now.
Easter, for Christians, is the day that Christ rose from the dead. To said religion, this day is monumental. However, this holiday has slowly deteriorated into the Easter Bunny, egg hunting, and Peeps. According to http://time.com/3767518/easter-bunny-origins-history/, the Easter Bunny came over from Germany and is a weird, egg-laying hare, which made it so cool. It appears to be related to Paganism and some countries do not even use this animal for this holiday. It does represent fertility, but it seems American Capitalism has turned the good ole Osterhase into a new way to promote consumerism. We see Easter Bunny dolls, Easter Bunny chocolates, egg candies, egg paints, baskets full of gifts, and of course the infamous Peep. There is nothing particularly wrong with any of those things, it just seems a bit incorrect if we label something Easter when really many of us just celebrate it for presents, candy, and egg hunts that aren't even related to the origins of the holiday.
Halloween was originally celebrated by the Celtics (to my understanding) and is again related to Paganism. It was a celebration of life, death, and some other stuff and people threw bonfire parties and dressed up to scare away baddies. Now, from dressing up as 'slutty' nuns to 'sexy' popes, and from Nixon masks to promiscuous Donald Trump costumes, today we dress up as whatever with absolutely no relation to the original festival. Also, a large portion of our country does not have Celtic roots. And of course the business world has turned a major profit from this holiday. Costumes, yard decorations, candies, books, and movies all have a spike in sales as people who celebrate Halloween gear up for the 31st. Again, nothing wrong with people buying crap or dressing up, but why celebrate it on a holiday when you're tossing out the real reason for celebrating to promote Capitalism?
Thanksgiving is the time when we get together with our families to give thanks, although we actually just argue about politics or go Black Friday shopping. Yes, we do celebrate Thanksgiving properly, even though things between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans did not go so well afterwards, but the most consumeristic, materialistic, greed-driven day follows the meal. The infamous shopping day that retail workers dread and bargain-hunters love, when employees get assaulted and a few unlucky souls literally die, Black Friday is the antithesis of Thanksgiving. Black Friday is already ironically close to Thanksgiving, but in recent years it has creeped into Thanksgiving day (some stores even opening at 6 p.m.). Black Friday is slowly consuming our day of thanks in America, and do you know what the consumers are shopping for? Christmas presents.
Christmas is probably the biggest American holiday because, through the history of our country, Christianity has been the predominant religion. Let's begin crapping all over this one, shall we? The birth of Christ was not on December 25 but actually sometime in September. Some even think that we moved the celebration of the birth of Christ to match a Pagan holiday (what a surprise). This holiday is also supposed to be a time of giving, but usually ends up tto be about receiving. Unsurprisingly, this holiday has been bastardized just like the others on this list. Christmas trees, lights, presents, movies, and ballets all are making a whole bunch of money and getting people a whole bunch of materialistic objects but really have absolutely nothing to do with Christ. People also get into arguements/fights: Merry Christmas v. Happy Holidays, Christmas cups v. Holiday cups (which complaining on social media only makes Starbucks more money), and more politics. People seem to allow their greed to run rampant on this holiday, which is incredibly ironic. Some cases of people pretending to be Salvation Army Santas to make money have also been reported. I'm not saying consumerism is bad, using holiday spirit to mask consumerism to justify our spending is bad. Be self-aware.
This article is not to trash holidays. I think it is nice people have a time to celebrate what they believe in and spend time with their familes. Holidays should not be used as a way to make mass consumerism and possession of materialistic objects more acceptable. It is disrespectful to use holidays that some people actually care about. If you want to buy crap, indulge yourself, but just be honest about it.
