What do holidays and ceremonies, rituals in general, mean to you?

[belamyi]

Like Christmas, Thanksgiving, national days, birthdays. anniversaries...

 

[rareboy]

Less and less as the years go by.

I tend to ignore my birthday, Thanksgiving means we get to make a Turkey dinner and Christmas means we get to spend another holiday with my one remaining Aunt and her family....but to be honest, the 'meaning' behind holidays has been exhausted by all of the
commercialism and over-reaction all these decades on.

 

[belamyi]

^ But you DO make a Turkey dinner, and you do spend Christmas with relatives... I was not asking about your "inner self's feeling" about it (Now The Garg would say that I post these threads only to make fun of people ).

I only wanted to know how many people live those days as just another day, or as a mere day off work.

 

[Vannie]

buying cabbage

stuffing cabbage

eating stuffed cabbage

febreze

 

[belamyi]

^^ How many still left?

 

[Benvolio]

I think they mean less to gays than to those with wives and children. I enjoy several Thanksgiving dinners, but I am usually alone for Christmas and birthdays. Extended families would not be an improvement.

 

[Cormac135]

Fuck all really, just another excuse to get drunk, not that i've ever needed an excuse for that.

 

[Kahaih]

We don't celebrate changes because nothing changes anymore. There is no completion of the harvest celebration because the harvest is constant and everything that once had a special season is now available every day.

Phones and Internet let us visit our people anytime of any day.

There really is nothing special, or left to be or feel special - to excite us on a specific day or time of year.

 

[freefall]

Since my family likes to gather around every Chinese New Year and International New Year, it means a lot to them.

For me though, usually only longer sleep time. And struck ill right on the New Year's Eve whilst annoyed by the flagrant display of fireworks.

 

[oakpope]

As a Catholic man, Catholic holidays have always a special meaning, but Christmas is my favorite by far, the time when the family meets and celebrates together the happiness to have lived yet another year.

 

[HoodedRat]

I have a few personal special days and seasonal times that I 'celebrate' each year. But I pretty much ignore all the commercial/religious ones. Christmas, Halloween, Easter, etc mean nothing to me.

 

[Telstra]

It means days off for me and or for other people.

 

[belamyi]

^ Even for those whose religion would allow us to shop on Christian holidays, isn't it

 

[eastofeden]

I buy and collect (and sometimes sell if you really want it) vintage and antique holiday decorations...so I like to decorate...but that's about it. I think I have maybe 10 of the 1950s aluminum trees....maybe a couple thousand of the old ornaments...the 1960s felt reindeer and elves and other things that go along with it and that collection is over 1000 I am sure at this point...

Then there are the light up blow molds and other misc stuff...like old cards and old advertising...

Actual celebrating of the holidays? ...I don't bother....

I LOATHE Valentines Day with a passion but I do like the Victorian Era VDay Cards...great graphics and so innovative....

I hate Easter too.....I don't collect anything Easter...

Thanksgiving makes me laugh because it is such a load of bullshit.....our ancestors slaughtered the people who they sat down with and then stole their land...if no one mentions that..I am not gonna pretend I am having a good time. I do like interesting hand made turkeys and also the German candy containers with turkeys...

Birthdays...I take people to dinner and get them a present that is usually something they collect that is hard to find if possible...but I try to take them to MY favorite restaurant

No one has caught on yet or if they have..they haven't said anything

Memorial Day and Veterans Day are both a bit sacred for me. Every time I have the definite pleasure of meeting a WW2 Veteran I am almost in tears...I have to fight them back. My voice will start to shake sometimes too....I am very grateful to them and what they sacrificed....same thing sorta but a little different with Vietnam Vets...I like them to tell me their stories because I want to HEAR them...too many people didn't....

 

[Rickrock]

We used to have big family gatherings on most holidays. These days we are lucky if we have 1 to 3 guests and that is okay with us. We do have special meals on Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas as well as go to church on two of those days. We put a flag out on the national holidays of Memorial Day, the Fourth of July, and Labor Day. Birthdays we usually just wish the person a happy birthday.

 

[medic1]

Like East, i hold certain dates "sacred" Cenotaph day, "rememberance Sunday" holds a special place both as an ex-serviceman and because of Erik's death in Afghanistan. G feels the same way, as he spent many years more than i in the forces.

World Aids Day is another that brings back many memories of friends we have all lost.

As many here know i am a catholic, however i have not received the Sacrament since G and i were married, being forced to choose either or by the church, i chose or.......

Both G and i have a day of memories on the anniversary of Erik's death, it is not as macabre as it sounds, we share stories about him with friends, which leaves us all crying but with laughter not sorrow.

 

[Yooper]

Interesting question, and a long winded answer (sorry).

Growing up in The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (aka 'Catholic Lite'...all the ceremony and half the guilt), the religious holidays still resonate; I am continually disappointed that the vast majority of them are now merely commercialized. As a kid, we 'did' Christmas as a religious holiday, including the tree went up on Christmas Eve and came down on Epiphany. It continues to bother me when folks tear down their Christmas Tree on December 26th...

That said, in my current professional life, Christmas IS what pays my bills. My first buying trip for Christmas 2018 is on January 9th and I'll have everything ordered by the end of March. I get April-June mostly off and the first Christmas order will be scheduled to arrive just after the 4th of July. So I have to learn to separate the two, something I am not very good at, but I'm working on it.

Birthdays are for the very young and much older; the middle years just don't really count. You might get a card. I just yesterday made plans to travel and visit my Mom for her 80th birthday; but the now 20-something kids of my BFF will just get a card--although they continue to expect me to come up with presents and a whole day of feasting, etc. Not going to happen.

I still like National, secular holidays that have some meaning. 'Presidents Day,' Labor Day, and a few others are pretty meaningless. Independence Day is a great holiday, but here in the West it just isn't done like the Upper Midwest, which just makes me sad. The city I live in currently just shoots off some fireworks in the evening; the town I lived in previously in the UP starts at 8AM with a reading of the Declaration of Independence downtown (an over 150 year old tradition), throws a pretty good parade at 10:30, a community picnic/party and tops it off with fireworks at dusk (which in the Northern latitudes is about 11PM). That makes it a day to remember!

Memorial Day seems to be all about selling mattresses (how disappointing), Veteran's Day is practically ignored. Both of these days have lost their meaning, although I'm grateful that the little country cemetery where we buried my baby brother (a Navy veteran) holds a brief service every Memorial Day and decorates the Veteran's graves with flags. Nice to see in an out of the way place, so small even the all powerful Google doesn't identify it, even though the first known burial there dates from 1845...

The greeting card invented days (Grandparent's Day, Boss' Day, Sofa Care Day, etc.) are just irritating.

And Valentine's Day sucks, besides being stupid.

 

[Zeno Lorea]

I like some and don't take part in others, but the paradigm is to live and let live. Atheists in Morocco campaign for things like the right not to fast during Ramadan, but there is no "War on Ramadan" just like there is no "War on Christmas" in the USA. We celebrate a typical European Christmas here, a secular feast full of religious context. The locals are respectful. I don't think it's a good idea to stone each other's parades, Ulster-style.

 

[rareboy]

^ But you DO make a Turkey dinner, and you do spend Christmas with relatives... I was not asking about your "inner self's feeling" about it (Now The Garg would say that I post these threads only to make fun of people ).

I only wanted to know how many people live those days as just another day, or as a mere day off work.

Pretty weak sauce if you think that your sneering response somehow is making fun of my inner feelings.

I just told you what the holidays mean to me. Thanksgiving is just an excuse for turkey and Christmas a chance to meet up with family.
These two things tell you nothing about my 'inner feelings' about the holidays mentioned. I ignore the rest.

As usual you are determined to start larding your poorly phrased original question with some interpretations that only mean something to you...and nothing to us.

 

[MakeDigitalLove]

It’s a means to have off and get together with people one usually doesn’t get to see a lot during the rest of the year because of life, work and all that.

I don’t really celebrate any holiday for the actual holiday anymore unless it’s Halloween.