LogFAQs > #929896855

(cont)

And who defines "real holiday"? You dismiss Valentine's Day, but I guarantee you there are people out there who see it as being more meaningful to them in their lives than Thanksgiving (and certainly more than Halloween). Easter? Again, it's religious, but it's also taken on secular overtones (and kind of dances around Passover and "Generic Spring Holiday"), and there's probably some people who would view it as more important while others dismiss it out of hand.

Then you've got days like Martin Luther King Day and Memorial Day. It's easy to say "Well, who gives a fuck about those?", or to point out that they're relatively meaningless (I can assure you I've never "celebrated" either in any real way at any point in my life, nor do I know anyone who has), but I guarantee you there are people who would be extremely pissed if you told them they weren't real holidays or that they "don't count".

What about Columbus Day? There are plenty of people in this country who want it erased from the calendar entirely, and others who would dismiss it as meaningless, but in heavily Italian-American regions (especially in the NYC area), it borders on being one of the more important holidays of the year. Parades, all-day festivals, family dinner - to that demographic, the day is one of the most significant days of the calendar, so should they be exempt from expectations?

St. Patrick's Day? Personally I consider it a joke holiday mostly used as an excuse for assholes to get drunk (and I'm of actual 1/2 Irish descent), but some Irish-Americans absolutely treat it as a day to have family get-togethers and reflect on the religious/cultural elements of the day (corned beef and cabbage being a popular traditional meal for the day). So do you include or exclude them?

Give me a room full of people and ask all of them to write down the three most important days of the year in their lives (or even the three most important holidays specifically), and I guarantee you you'll get a lot of different answers. Yes, "Christmas" will probably show up on a lot of lists, but I guarantee there'll be a lot of lists it won't show up on at all (it wouldn't be on mine, for instance). And after that you'll see a LOT of variation.

I know people who feel like Halloween is the most important holiday of the year, and I know others who couldn't give a single shit about it. I know people who view July 4th as super-important, others who barely acknowledge it. I know people who do big family dinners for Thanksgiving, and others who haven't had an extended family dinner in 25 years. I know people who don't celebrate Christmas or birthdays. I know people who treat April Fools Day or Talk Like a Pirate Day more seriously than I do any actual holiday.

So again, who decides which days are magically sacrosanct and which don't matter in your scale of forcing businesses to shut? What objective measure are you going to use to decide which days are significant enough holidays and which don't?

Because I guarantee you no matter what list you come up with, a fuckton of people are going to disagree with you.
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