The "Holidays"

I am a member of an organization called the Grange. Some of you may have heard of it, some of you may not have. It is essentially a fraternal organization, devoted to farmers, that has a charitable element, a community service element, a social element, and a political element. While I got involved in it at work, it is the latter that got me going.

Our Grange, in the Sammamish Valley, was dying, like the vast proportion of fraternal chapters are doing. Until one of our infrequent members suggest we get involved with a "Heritage Garden" (since then he has become quite active). That got a whole bunch of new members involved, and we have re-oriented ourselves, and we now have a focus. I think we will survive.

I will discuss the latter in a future post. One of the things we got involved in was a Sammamish Valley Rural Alliance, or something like that. Kind of like a chamber of commerce for all those who have some kind of interest in preserving a rural character to the area. This fits with our goals.

One thing that has been suggested is we hold some kind of quarterly event - mainly, a quarterly dinner for all members involved. One of the other suggestions was to have soltise party December 22 - a few members, myself included said we would have a problem is any pagan elements were involved, as we do not want to compromise our Christian beliefs. We were assured of that.

One other problem I had was that it is in the depth of "The Holidays." There is too much going on to have a major event, and have people come. I suggested that we have soltise/equinox parties four times a year (of course, eliminating any pagan elements associated with them) and in addition, have a quarterly dinner. I suggested moving the event closer to late January. It was tacitly agreed to go along with my plan.

Now that I think of it, I have another reason for it. Our society lacks in interpersonal relations. People do not see enough of one another. They stick by their media devices too much, especially too many of the young. Sociological studies indicate that people who do not engage in this kind of activity are also much less inclined to take part in participation in our republic. Citizen participation is one of the founding blocks of our republic. So extremists tend to take over the process. Don't ask me to quote the studies, I just know they're there. OK - I can get the book, if demanded, and pull some stats out of it (and not a book written by anyone with an ideological bent, either).

In early America, there was no "The Holidays." Especially in New England. Christmas was associated with the god Mithros. This changed after the civil war, and it was seen as important to celebrate the birth of Christ.

While this started as a day, over time, "The Holidays" stretched out from Thanksgiving to New Years Day. That gives a month.

However, in old European tradition, since crops did not grow, and most people were agricultural, winter time was seen as a festive time, and a time to visit one another. While I do not like importing things from that socialist continent, I think this is something we should bring back.

Right now, there are two unofficial holidays - de facto holidays - that can frame the season. October 31 is Halloween. Most kids celebrate that, and more adults do, too. And, in the last 40 years, thanks to the National Football League, there is Super Bowl Sunday, in late January-early February. Sure, there are other de-facto holidays around that time, like Columbus day, Veterans day, and MLK day, and President's Day, but no one really celebrates those (and in fact, I have thought it would be a good idea to move MLK day to his baptismal day, because, after all, he was a minister, and keeping it so close to Christmas means that people balk when having that day off too, with too long without a break in between that day and Memorial Day; that way, more people might insist on having MLK day off). Instead, those are shopping days.

Thus, my suggestion would be to make "The Holidays" start on Halloween, and end on Super Bowl Sunday. We can add some unofficial holidays in November and in January - like move Kwanza to around November 06. And have a feast day or two in January. I think this would encourage more interpersonal communication, and would be better for our Democracy.

Of course, I am some guy pecking away on his blog, but then again, I have lots of good ideas. I think that doing this in an unofficial capacity would be much welcome. This can start by people having various events in early-mid November, and an event (or themed party) around January 10 and January 25, or something like that. And we can find some way to celebrate MLK's birthday, too, but make it festive, rather than listen to a bunch or boring speeches on diversity (which is perversity).

That would make the week from Christmas to New Years the "High Holidays" when all official business is put at a minimum, and the emphasis is on festivities (yes, "having fun") and on a constant stream of visitations.

As to our event? How about a mid-winter feast? To commemorate the good fortune we hope to have for the year? Sure, you do this on New Years, but that is more about banging post and getting drunk, and for a few losers, getting arrested.

I think this is a good idea, and I think it would be worthy of pushing people to think in these terms, and to do more.