Manufactured, manmade holidays?

[cheddarsox]

Today, in the USA, people celebrate (or hate) Valentine's Day.

Little kids take cards with superheros and cartoon characters to school and hand out pink cupcakes and bags of pink and white M&M's.

Teens use it as an excuse to go to the next base with their significant other.

Men hope the flowers/candy/jewelry/lingere they bought is the right size.

Women wish their partners knew them better than they do.

A lot of people, out of priciple or loneliness, decry the day as an artificial commercial holiday and refuse to have anything to do with it.

As a pantheist, most of my holidays are observences of naturally occuring events...solstices, equinoxes, the changes of seasons, meteor showers...etc. But I confess, I LOVE Valentine's Day, always have.

I still make corny homemade cards for people.

It's not "couples" day for me, or about sex and romance, it is about good, old fashioned "you make me feel good" feelings people have for one another. I like that there is a day that I can unabashedly tell another person... I like you, I love you, I'm glad you're in my life...without it seeming creepy, dramatic, etc.

I think the day is both wildly attractive to people, and painful, because we need it so much. We all want to hear that someone thinks we are dandy, that they want to be our friend. All of us.

So maybe it isn't an artificial holiday, maybe it organically rose to prominence because of this basic human need to connect.

I hate that it seems to have been hijacked as a "lovers only" day in many people's minds. Because I need to tell lots of people about my warm fuzzy feelings for them...not just my SO. And I want others to tell me back.

So...Happy Valentine's Day! I hope you find the opportunity today (and everyday) to give and receive love, to celebrate friendship, and to know you are cherished.

cheddar

[Tullip Troll]

Happy Valentines day to you as well

(((((((((((((((((hugs)))))))))))))))))))

[Diotima]

In my country, Valentine's day is called "Friend's Day". Sure, it is terribly commercial and imported from US some 15 years ago. But, at least our marketmen realized that romanticizing the day would bring less customers. So, here people send Valentine's cards or give little gifts to their friends and family.

It's very much like "you make me feel good day"- though, of course, there are still people who cry loudly that nothing about such an imported celebration can be real and genuine...

Me? I get off the hook because today is my birthday. :bigblue:

[cheddarsox]

Me? I get off the hook because today is my birthday. :bigblue:


Happy Birthday! Throughout my entire life I have had, and do have an extrodinary number of friends with birthdays on or near Valentines Day...it seems to produce smart, funny, down to earth people.

I hope you have a great day.

[Windsmith]

Huh. You know, I hate Valentine's Day. But I like you, cheddar. In fact, I like you so much that I'll say:


HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

[cheddarsox]

Huh. You know, I hate Valentine's Day. But I like you, cheddar. In fact, I like you so much that I'll say:


HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

Awww...thanks!

You make me feel all snuggly inside!

[Treegoddess]

It's not "couples" day for me, or about sex and romance, it is about good, old fashioned "you make me feel good" feelings people have for one another. I like that there is a day that I can unabashedly tell another person... I like you, I love you, I'm glad you're in my life...without it seeming creepy, dramatic, etc.

I agree! My husband & I don't really celebrate this day as a *love day*, but really enjoy it for our children. My daughter LOVES this day, she enjoys making cards for each of her friends and adding special touches to let them know that she cares about them. We had a party and did the whole valentine box thing (we homeschool) just b/c the kids love it!

It is over commercialized, I can't stand all the flower and diamond commercials this time of year, but like anything else (Christmas?!!) you make the holiday what YOU want it to be, for us, Valentines Day is just a fun day to celebrate our friendships and tell people we care about them. :)
Not all holidays are as special as sabbats, they can be just fun, simple days to enjoy.

[Shanti]

Its just another holiday with its roots in Christianity that has gone horribly commercial!
We dont bother with it.

[Fiamma]

For all I dislike Valentines day, I will happily celebrate the high holy Half-Price Chocolate Day every Feb. 15th.

[cheddarsox]

For all I dislike Valentines day, I will happily celebrate the high holy Half-Price Chocolate Day every Feb. 15th.

I like that day tooo!

So...how about this question...are there any holidays, either personal or cultural that DO speak to you? (collective you, not just Fiamma), that you observe regularly...what and why?

[RavenStars]

I'm still observing the quarters and cross-quarters. I find the 2 month interval convenient, as well as liking that they match the turn of the seasons for my area. At the moment I'm really looking forward to Beltane. I've been thinking about the holiday all year. I associated it with bees last year and found that it really resonated with me. I'm hoping to do some more reading between now and then, and maybe visit a bee keeper. Otherwise Samhain has always been my favorite. It's the tipping point here in Northern California into winter. We get our first rains after the annual 6 month drought. It feels dark at night. Not the nearly transparent night that summer brings. And I must admit I like the witches, goblins, autumn leaves, etc! I've done some ancestral work in the past but near really felt a connection. I can't help wondering what this year's observance will bring.

I've only done one retreat based on Denise Linn's Quest/A Guide for Creating Your Own Vision Quest. I would very much like to make this sort of thing an annual spiritual event. Since I wasn't able to afford to go to the art retreat I wanted to go to this year, maybe I can do a mini retreat like this instead. I do think that solitude is a powerful tool to connecting with yourself and with what's important. I hope I can make it happen. Does anyone else make something like this part of their observances?

[Eleisawolf]

I celebrate all kinds of holidays, and I really do like Valentine's Day. I used to celebrate it as a kind of anti-Valentine's Day, and I even loved it then. I loved having something to rebel with.

I find that any reason to celebrate love (which really is the warm fuzzy feeling I get from humanity, as well as from Life, The Universe, and Everyting) is great. And there's too little love in much of the world to let a chance to hold on to it get away from me. I try to celebrate it every day, but if there's one special day that can help wake people up to what love should be, I'm all for it.

I also enjoy celebrating National Cheese Day, Talk Like a Pirate Day, and National Hop On One Foot Day.

That being said, it's three days after V-Day, and I love you all.

Peace

[TygerTyger]

I wouldn’t say that me and Mrs Tyger exactly celebrate Valentine’s Day, we observe it, give a card and a token gift, and one of us will usually cook a meal for just the two of us (me this year), and if we are both in the mood it might lead to something more intimate.

However, we both object to the plain profiteering that goes on concerning Valentine’s Day, flowers, cards, chocolates, restaurant’s, etc., all hike their prices and charge you double to say “I love you!” to someone who, in our case anyway, already knows (but enjoys having it confirmed).

That said, I like the idea of the broader versions of the holiday that some people seem to enjoy, the inclusion of family and friends and not just your lover(s). Unfortunately, we British are far too reserved to either change the meaning of Valentine’s Day or introduce a new holiday that allowed us to turn around to a friend and say; “you know, I love you and I’m glad you’re my friend!”

The obvious retort would be; “have you turned gay?!”

[Windsmith]

So...how about this question...are there any holidays, either personal or cultural that DO speak to you? (collective you, not just Fiamma), that you observe regularly...what and why?Thought I'd answered this before, but apparently not, and I've been thinking about it the past few days.

As some of you know, I love Perihelion and Aphelion. I love thinking of the Earth moving closer and further from the Sun in its yearly meander. And especially in the Northern hemisphere, where I live, there's beautiful contrarian symbolism in Perihelion, when the Earth is closest to the Sun, being the coldest time of year, and Aphelion, when it's farthest away, being the warmest.

And then earlier this week it suddenly hit me that New Year's Day is January 1, Perihelion is January 4, and in between is the anniversary of my self-dedication to Paganism, which occurs on January 2. What an amazing confluence of events to celebrate!

So, obviously, I'm too late for this year, but in 2010, I'll be plotting some sort of big, long, 4-day celebration of awesomeness! Celebration of awesomeness. Yeah.

[Modesty]

One of the holidays a lot of pagans celebrate is Lupercalia. I celebrate it (today it is known as Valentines day). It's origins do not lie in Christianity.

http://roman-history.suite101.com/article.cfm/the_lupercalia_a_roman_festival

[Louisvillian]

Valentines day is bullshit. ****ing people with relationships lording it over my head like there's something bad with being single. **** that.

As far as I'm concerned, it's just "My dad's birthday".

[RavenStars]

You know, I do love decorating for all the holidays. My family is into as well. My 82 year old Mom is very Catholic so I keep my pagan holidays mostly to myself. I even decorate for Valentines Day... the hearts, flowers, lace, and everything. It doesn't hves any significance in the real world sense (no S.O., etc.), but it does add serious splashes of color to my studio at a very dark time of the year. I do like the idea of a friends day!

[Heart of All]

I love love. Thusly, I love Valentine's Day. But it isn't all a couple's day for me, since I never get to see my beloved on Valentine's Day. I've always done it as a friend love day, to spread as much love around as I can.

[Caitlin.ann]

I love love as well and adore Valentines Day though it sucks that I can't be with my SO on it when it comes around.

[Glowy]

Romantic Love is for Valentine's Day- to appreciate someone you love is what Sweetest Day is for.

I love Valentine's Day as well... I just never have had a good one.

[spiral]

I like the idea - celebrate love - but I dislike the way it's usually carried out. I don't like the whole 'if you don't get your partner an expensive gift, you're a crappy girlfriend/boyfriend', and the 'poor you for not having someone give you a gift' feel of it.

Having said that, I like the idea of a Friend's day.

[RainInanna]

Thanks for bumping this :)

We are creating our own Valentines Day family traditions now. Although it's too cold to take the kids tromping around outside, we're making Valentine's crafts in the house together. We use dollar store Valentines card kits and baking pans to spend hours enjoying eachother's company through play, learning, and working together to make beautiful things we like. Then we have a card that makes us smile and remember that day we spent 3 hours baking cake that just flopped anyway, and how much my son loved standing on his stool to help me work, and how I drew a heart in flour on his face as I told him I loved him.

Oh wait, I haven't made those memories yet :) Valentines day is for making those memories.

[Windsmith]

Usually Valentine's Day is when my wife and I go to a movie or play that has as little as possible to do with romance. We saw Triplets of Belleville our first Valentine's Day together; last year we saw a gorgeous play called 36 Views, which is all about forged art, and all the characters are always lying to each other. This year, that same company is staging Caligula, and that would've been a perfect V-Day date. But then we realized we'll be at Winter Witchcamp on the 14th, and that's an even better way to spend it: freezing cold and surrounded by witches!

[la tortuga]

Eh, I have no one and nothing to owe anything to on Valentine's Day this year, and I'm glad. I'll probably just want to go out with friends or something like that. :)

For me, it's difficult because I've never really had a Valentine's Day with someone special. Even when I wasn't single they usually would say "Well I don't celebrate Valentine's Day" and it always made me kind of mad because the least they could have done would have been to say "Happy Valentine's Day". It's all I ever wanted, and it's something I've never had.

Maybe next time, but this year it's all about partying itup with FRIENDS who are awesome.

[cheddarsox]

About every second or third year, I get some people together a week or two before Valentines day and we make Valentines, I just haul out all the craft stuff, magazines, etc, and we go for it, as campy as we wanna be.

I don't send Valentine's to just my romantic partner, I send them to whomever...friends, secret crushes, relatives I've lost touch with, whatever. I figure we all need to know someone thinks we are special from time to time.

I hate sending Valentine cards that are not homemade, because that is just one holiday that generic doesn't cut it...though I have to admit, I've gotten some great commercial cards that clearly were picked out just for me, and put a big smilie on my heart.

I guess it's the artist in me...we are whores for an audience.

Other than that, I usually cook a nice meal and make a fun dessert and whomever is handy shares it with us.

I really never saw Valentine's day as being primarily about romance, it just has always felt like a celebration of love, in all it's forms.

[*~Amora~*]

So maybe it isn't an artificial holiday, maybe it organically rose to prominence because of this basic human need to connect.



Err. . every holiday is man-made. :wtf:

[No More Apologies]

I really never saw Valentine's day as being primarily about romance, it just has always felt like a celebration of love, in all it's forms.

That's pretty cool. This year we're bringing in seasonally found items from outside, and I just spray them with a fun scent from the dollar store. When we get tired of them (ie. they stop smelling good or we find new seasonal stuff) we just chuck 'em out the door and let them become compost. It's amazing how easily you can buy dried seasonal items in the dollar store too, if you don't find the time to dry your own.

[Mogget]

I like that day tooo!

So...how about this question...are there any holidays, either personal or cultural that DO speak to you? that you observe regularly...what and why?


I celebrate Australia Day as an appreciation of living in such a great country. I celebrate National Sorry Day to acknowledge that our great nation was built on the bloody bodies of the indigenous culture, and that we have a long way to go to repair relations between these cultures.

I celebrate the Equinoxes and Solstices and give at least a passing nod to the full moons... I acknowledge in a minor way anniversaries and some birthdays.

I absolutely do not celebrate Valentine's Day, Easter, Christmas or New Year... and have not for years now.

[Xentor]

Err. . every holiday is man-made. :wtf:

What she said.

[Sequoia]

Err. . every holiday is man-made. :wtf:

Yeah seriously. You beat me to it.

ALL holidays are man-made. The only "holidays" that aren't "man-made" are things like the solstices... they aren't just another arbitrary date. But again, it's not like everything in nature stops and celebrates the day. It's just another day.