Strange Holidays

[onejayhawk]

Sunday will be 5 May a,k,a, Cinco de Mayo. Here is a portion of wiki

In the United States, Cinco de Mayo has taken on a significance beyond that in Mexico. More popularly celebrated in the United States than Mexico, the date has become associated with the celebration of Mexican-American culture. These celebrations began in California, where they have been observed annually since 1863. The day gained nationwide popularity in the 1980s thanks especially to advertising campaigns by beer and wine companies. Today, Cinco de Mayo generates beer sales on par with the Super Bowl.​

So, a Mexican inspired beerfest.

What's strange where you live?

J

 

[rah]

May the 4th. Every year, it just sounds more stupid.though.

 

[civvver]

Ha we're celebrating cinco on may the 4th since it's saturday. Guess I'll wear a sombrero over my darth vader mask.

St patricks day is weird, again just a party holiday that has completely forgotten its roots. People of Irish descent go nuts over it though as a cultural day, everyone else treats it as a party.

Halloween I don't find weird but I find the popularity and fanfare for it odd. It's bigger than christmas for a lot of people. I usually end up going to more haloween parties than christmas parties which just seems odd. Christmas in my view should always be the mother of all american holidays, secular or religious version whichever you ascribe to.

 

[Ferocitus]

We get a holiday for a horse race.
Sadly, although Melbourne has the largest Greek population in Australia and has (or had) the largest Greek population of any city in the World outside Greece, the horses do not drag corpses of Trojans.

 

[BenitoChavez]

One of the companies I've worked with got Hunting Day off which kind of blows my mind.

They also got Election Day off which should be a national holiday in the US in my opinion.

 

[Gori the Grey]

The Roman Catholic calendar has a feast day for St. Blaise, and on it they bless people's throats, which has always seemed to me a little random. I' mean, by all means, if it's a comfort to people with throat related illnesses. But what about people with ailments in other parts of their bodies?

 

[Farm Boy]

You may prefer Saint Servatius?

 

[Ferocitus]

The Roman Catholic calendar has a feast day for St. Blaise, and on it they bless people's throats, which has always seemed to me a little random. I' mean, by all means, if it's a comfort to people with throat related illnesses. But what about people with ailments in other parts of their bodies.

Gorgon Jesus reaches the parts others can't reach (or shouldn't)!

 

[civvver]

The Roman Catholic calendar has a feast day for St. Blaise, and on it they bless people's throats, which has always seemed to me a little random. I' mean, by all means, if it's a comfort to people with throat related illnesses. But what about people with ailments in other parts of their bodies.

They have feast days for everything man, most people don't celebrate them or even know what they are.

There's even a saint of tv, which makes no sense because this saint lived before tv was invented. But she was sick and bedridden but apparently saw a vision of mass on her bedroom wall just like a tv picture, so the pope declared her saint of tv posthumously.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clare_of_Assisi

Pope Pius XII designated Clare as the patron saint of television in 1958 on the basis that when she was too ill to attend Mass, she had reportedly been able to see and hear it on the wall of her room.

 

[AmazonQueen]

Our strangest holidays are Burns Night when Scotsmen and golf club members wear kilts, drink whisky, eat haggis and recite To a Mouse or Tam o'Shanter, and Guy Fawkes Night when we celebrate the foiling of a plot to blow up parliament and the king by having children make a dummy or "Guy" representing a Catholic conspirator, send them out with their guy begging for pennies, then put the guy on top of a big pile of wood which is set alight, and set off some fireworks.

 

[Lexicus]

The Americans have this one called "Christmas" which is supposedly about the birth of Jesus Christ, the savior of all mankind, but appears to be centered around a ritual called "consumption" and the celebration of the holiday appears to primarily involve purchasing things.

 

[AmazonQueen]

 

[Timsup2nothin]

My amusement with holidays comes from being in prison. In the United States Bureau of Prisons there are many times throughout the day that the inmates get counted. During the workday you get counted at your job, or some designated location for you. Groundskeepers all have to report back to the grounds building, etc. At night you get counted at your bunk, probably while you are in it. But the official count happens every day at four o'clock. No laying down, stand up by your bunk, two cops counting independently...make sure everyone is here. Happens at the same time in every BoP facility in the nation, 364 days a year. It happens on Christmas. It happens on Thanksgiving. Cinco de Mayo, St Patricks Day, Monday through Friday and Saturdays and Sundays, rain or shine. The one day it gets off schedule is obviously the greatest USian holiday; Super Bowl Sunday.

 

[Gori the Grey]

You may prefer Saint Servatius?

foot troubles? mice and rats?

They have feast days for everything man

I know that. Throats just strikes me as on the really random end of things. I've got nothing against throats, mind you. Some of my best friends have throats. Just seems sort of out-of-the-blue. Again, unless one has a throat ailment. Then, of course, it's dead on.

 

[MaryKB]

The Roman Catholic calendar has a feast day for St. Blaise, and on it they bless people's throats, which has always seemed to me a little random. I' mean, by all means, if it's a comfort to people with throat related illnesses. But what about people with ailments in other parts of their bodies.

When you get the blessing, it includes "all ailments." Throats are called out specifically, because St Blaise is an ancient and very popular saint who's famous for saving young children who were choking on bones. And a lot of throat illnesses can be really nasty.

 

[Farm Boy]

Well, his feast is coming up on the 13th. Keeping your feet in mind.

The "patron saint of" has a wicked dark sense of empathy and turnabout to it, often enough. I started off wondering if Blaise had his throat ripped out but it was what Mary says. Then you get to the patron saint of wool combers and it's like "aahhh, those are the Catholics I know and love."

 

[Gori the Grey]

nd a lot of throat illnesses can be really nasty.

I read an essay by a guy who has throat cancer and he makes the point that the throat is the place in the human body where the largest number of systems converge. So that makes it feel less random, I guess.

Now I'm worried that I'll get throat cancer, for having taken St. Blaise lightly. Just for the record, I'm all for saving choking children. Go, St. Blaise!

Keeping your feet in mind.

When you find the patron saint of the big toe specifically, let me know. I stubbed mine a year ago and the bruise beneath the nail has only very gradually been working itself forward with each clipping.

Afterthought: If there were a St. Blaise University, their team could be the Blaze. And alumni could wear their St. Blaise Blaze blazers to the games.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Halloween I don't find weird but I find the popularity and fanfare for it odd. It's bigger than christmas for a lot of people.

Some people here put up Halloween lights on their houses and balconies. They're orange.

 

[FriendlyFire]

We get a holiday for a horse race.
Sadly, although Melbourne has the largest Greek population in Australia and has (or had) the largest Greek population of any city in the World outside Greece, the horses do not drag corpses of Trojans.

No its not a Public holiday, as we dont get a day off from working
It is more like an major sporting event like the US Superbowl finals where the entire country pretends that the national sport of Australia is horse racing

I like the Japanese golden week holidays, where the found some random emperors birthdays and string together a weeks worth in order to stimulate Japanese people to spend money and stop working themselves to death.
It was pretty successful, though Japan may want to look at re-branding some of the holidays into something meaningful rather then making them about some dead emperor.

 

[Bugfatty300]

St Blaise is an ancient and very popular saint who's famous for saving young children who were choking on bones.

He'd have been a busy saint in these past few decades.