Opus 2025-325: It’s Party Time

I constantly hear people ranking on the tendency of Americans to take every special day and turn it into a party.  It expresses itself in many ways.

Take for instance, the way in which we have taken sacred moments like memorial day and move them to a Monday.  Why?  Is there some kind of sacredness about Mondays?  No.  Moving the observation to Monday means that we now have a three day weekend in which to party and recover from the party.  Think of all the holidays we celebrate on Monday.  Others I’m sure will eventually be moved if they endure as holidays.  It is part of the evolution of red letter days.

The major exceptions would be the most significant holidays. two of those are celebrations of Christians:  Christmas and Easter.  The other that comes to mind is the Fourth of July.  These all are celebrated with parties, which is a part of the tradition.

I think about the Christmas holidays.  They are days celebrating  what could be interpreted as depressing moments or at least great struggles.  If you’ve ever been around a baby being born, you know that it is not a time to have a party.  I wasn’t partying when my first was born.  All I was doing was having a cup of coffee.  I’m still hearing about my cavalier attitude.  I’ve heard of women who, as they’re approaching the moment of delivery, declare that they are not going to have his baby and they are going to back out of this whole project.  That attitude changes dramatically when the baby is placed in their arms, and from that point on there is great celebration.  Noticed that we don’t celebrate the labor.  We celebrate the delivery.  Great pain becomes a time of celebration.

Or take a look at Easter.  This is the day the Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus from the grave.  He went to the grave from the cross.  He went to the cross from a time of great torture.  Then came the breakout.  At first disciples hid in their upper room and cried it out, “Woe is me.”  Eventually the celebration emerged and has endured through this day.  Yes, we commemorate good Friday,  but we celebrate the resurrection.

July 4 is the same way.  The great bloodshed had not been started at that point, but we don’t celebrate those days.  We celebrate the Declaration and recognition of freedom.  It is an American tradition that is rooted in Christian tradition.  We didn’t have pessimistic view, rooted in the fact that we have read the book and we know who wins.

So put on the hotdogs, shoot off the fireworks, enjoy your family and celebrate.  The optimistic expectation of the future is part of the American tradition.