Naturally occurring holidays like the equinoxes and solstices?
And in temperate climates, the first day of spring and Harvest feasts, marked in different cultures in different natural ways.
The first day of spring is the equinox.
Au contraire, nature is quite ignorant of the astronomical equinox.
For nature, things like the Cherry blossoms, the blooming of the magnolia tree and the awakening of the Bumble bee are the ways nature indicates when Spring has started.
Harvest season and autumn are more typically defined by brown leaves, ripe pumpkins and ripe cider apples.
The first day of the naturally occuring spring, occuring naturally at a set number of days after the solstice.
You can recognize it from the skybox changing color.: looks out the window in the upper Midwest:
Darn. My version must be glitched.
You have a divide by cucumber error. Reinstall your universe and exerting should sort itself out.
equinoxes
There’s a holiday for horses???
Count me in!
No no - equinoxes
Those little furry things they have in the desert.
Chupacabra?
Gesundheit
Cacti?
Get out of here with your science!
I actually like these ones the best. My family used to have cool solstice gatherings with some friends. There was always a lemon poppyseed cake, and lots of candles.
Equinoxes and solstices are natural, the holidays/celebrations are created by us
True. I’ve find the Easter Bunny in the wild, last spring .
Best free chocolate ever.
If green you can actually eat them as a survival tactic.
To be fair, I find all of them equally stupid. Only ones I like are those that give a free day at work, and only for that reason.
Heh yea same, I don’t really care if it’s Leif Erikson Day or Give Mr. Krabs All Your Money Day, I just need to know if it’s a day off or not LMAO
Though some are fun, like Valentine’s Day often serves as a perfect excuse to have a date night with my SO (though we often tend to actually do it a couple days after or before to avoid everyone else doing Valentine’s Day date nights lolol (unless there’s a good deal ofc))
(unless there’s a good deal ofc)
There is not. Handing out discounts on one of the biggest consumersim-fueled dates in the year is just not maximizing profit and hence not fit for capitalistic environment.
In the civilised world, it’s not called a holiday unless you get a day off work
What if they come with blowing shit up? (we Statesians love our holidays)
February 14th is my birthday so of course I hate Valentine’s Day, I can’t hang out with my friends 'cause they’re hanging with their girlfriends, and if I’m in a relationship I have to go buy flowers and stuff the day of my birthday instead of just chilling and playing videogames which I honestly prefer. And don’t get me started on people assuming I like everything heart shaped and stuff…
If these two events were a separate thing I’d probably be OK with Valentine’s Day TBH.
I just decided your birthday is June 5, if you want to use it
I’ll accept it but you’ll have to send me a happy birthday message.
My grandpa used to break up with my grandma to avoid having to buy gifts for her, then get back together after lol
You sure he was actually your grandpa? Cause if I go back nine months from your parent’s birthday…
Smart guy.
What do you mean, it’s right there in the wild.
I mean the astrological holidays are just kinda there
Everybody celebrates the trisolar syzygy, whether they want to or not.
Made up CORPORATE holiday, just like Sweetest Day. We don’t even get it off!
You don’t need a day to tell that special someone how you feel, just do it!
I love you, @fartswithanaccent, ever since I saw you call out Sweetest Day
Aw shucks lol
Kinda a false equivalency, no? There’s a lot more history and tradition steeped in something like Christmas/Yule than Valentine’s Day, unless you’re suggesting we should call it a feast day in honor of the St Valentine or w/e.
You can celebrate some holidays in a traditional, non-commercialized manner. There’s not really a way to celebrate Valentine’s Day without consumerism.
Edit: As many are trying to point out, yes you can show your love to your SO without consumerism. You should be doing it everyday. If anyone has any ideas on how to go above and beyond to demonstrate your commitment to a person without going out/giving a gift/dressing especially fancy, I’m all ears.
I can think of quite a few ways to show love w my S.O. without consumerism.
Also, I don’t see any false equivalence, just because it’s been around longer doesn’t make Christmass any less made up.
There’s a clear difference between the traditions behind Christmas/Yule and the purely capitalism-driven Valentine’s Day sales event.
There’s a clear difference between the longstanding traditions behind Christmas/Yule and the capitalism-driven Valentine’s Day sales event. And we all know it.
Yes, like jolly old Santa Claus dressed up in his red and white suit as popularized by… Coca Cola in the ‘30s. You’re right, Christmas is totally different than Valentine’s Day.
It was celebrated for hundreds (or even thousands) of years before coke existed. Valentines day wasn’t.
Tell you what, how about you go google “The Feast of St. Valentine” and then we’ll pick this conversation back up. Sound good?
Hey, sounds good. Firstly I’d like to say there’s no real need to be so snarky. Even if we disagree, we should be able to have an engaging chat online without being rude. I don’t think anything I said was rude in that way, and if it seemed so I apologize. I’m easygoing, but if you want to convince people of your perspective, they might not always want to listen to what you have to say if you treat them like idiots.
Secondly, I did Google it. And according to that, around 500AD Valentines day was originally established to honor the Saint, and then over the middle ages evolved into a more general celebration of romance. So, I’ll give it to you that it wasn’t just recently invented by Hallmark.
However, I still maintain that I was correct. Obviously Christmas is now a nightmare of capitalism too, but a Christmas/Yule/Saturnalia/whatever celebration is both older, more steeped in real tradition, and has more meaning than the modern concept of Valentines, which is literally just about selling cards and flowers and jewelry. But I guess that’s subjective.
Secondly, I did Google it. And according to that, around 500AD Valentines day was originally established to honor the Saint
Yes. So your claim that Christmas has been “celebrated for hundreds (or even thousands) of years before coke existed. Valentine’s Day wasn’t.” is incorrect. We’re done here.
Wanna know how I know you didn’t read that? Because it doesn’t disagree with me. Coca Cola popularized the modern depiction of Santa Claus.
One might therefore fairly grant Coca-Cola some credit for cementing the modern image of Santa Claus in the public consciousness, as in an era before the advent of television, before color motion pictures became common, and before the widespread use of color in newspapers, Coca-Cola’s magazine advertisements, billboards, and point-of-sale store displays were for many Americans their primary exposure to the modern Santa Claus image. But at best what Coca-Cola popularized was an image they borrowed, not one they created.
Notice how I didn’t say they created it, nor did I say they invented it? I said they popularized it.
The basic point was that all holidays are made up. To suggest that xmass is less of a cash grab consumer fest than valentine’s day is insane.
You dont see valentine’s day advertised in January, around here xmass starts the day after Halloween.
I don’t think Christmas is less of a cash grab per se, just that there’s at least some spirit under it, while (modern) VDay seems to be pretty purely consumerist
Don’t be so cynical, and the value you put on tradition is an entirely personal thing. Valentines day has been celebrated for hundreds of years as well so it’s by definition a tradition.
We spread out days throughout the year to put emphasis on the people who are dear to us, ofcourse we should show them every single day, but it’s not a bad thing to highlight a day of the year.
And since you’ve decided it’s only about consumerism, let me give you a few ways to go above and beyond for you partner without having to resort to consumerism:
- Learning a skill related to your SO
- Revisiting a place or activity you enjoyed together, maybe throw in a well prepared picnic
- Growing your own flowers in advance
- Cooking a meal which is difficult and high effort to make
The amount of value placed in a day like today depends on relationship, but saying it’s only about consumerism is such a big cop-out.
Edit: As many are trying to point out,
Just to be clear, by “many” you mean two. Two people replied to you… now it’s three.
Hey do you want to believe in a world where your post gets more traction and more people comment, or do you wanna believe in a world where those two are the only ones who would comment on it going forward?
I disagree with your last sentence, but not the rest of the comment. Plenty of ways to celebrate your SO without spending. It’s easier to celebrate without consumerism than Christmas or New Years for that matter.
I would argue that you should be celebrating your SO daily, so for most of my relationships the only way to go beyond and make a day special is to involve gifts/going out.
Couldn’t you make the same argument for any holiday?
You can’t celebrate Christmas without gifts because you should be spending all your time with your family so getting together and spending time together doesn’t count.
Seems like you’re just redrawing the lines to protect your argument, all holidays can be celebrated in a fairly noncommercial way because the theme of them is basically “spend time together”.
I don’t know about you, but Yule is typically when I spend time with my extended family, who I do not see every day. We all bring a meal to a communal potluck, and spend time hanging out and catching up on how people have been doing for the past year. Probably the most consumerist part is that we put the same movie on the center TV every year to have in the background.
So no, I’d argue you can’t make the same argument for a lot of holidays.
we put the same movie on the center TV every year to have in the background.
Is it The Big Lebowski? If I had a big extended family I’d totally put that on.
Nah, it’s A Christmas Story because we’re a bunch of Indiana yokels, and the grandparents like how it reminds them of their childhood. I’ve always wanted to do like a Lord of the Rings marathon, but I don’t host so not my choice.
Fair enough then :)
Valentines day has a quiet a bit of history too though.
Some people believe that Valentine’s day only came to be because of lupercalia, witch was a festival.
Look, if people wanna start sacrificing goats again and doing feasts, I’m all in. Hell yea, sounds great. The problems I have with Valentine’s Day are with the commercialization of love, which is how it’s been celebrated for hundreds of years. If you wanna celebrate in a non-traditional way, I’ve no real beef with you, because you’re not really celebrating the problematic parts.
Oh I don’t really celebrate Valentine’s Day, I was just pointing out it has quite a bit of history. Though having a big feast in the middle of February sounds kinda fun I might start doing that.
Some other user mentioned going with their SO to a potluck with friends as their celebration, and that sounds like such a better way to celebrate than all our overcommercialized bullshit. I think our ancestors were right, big February feast is the way forward.
Me and my partner are going to a potluck with friends because our love should be shared with people we hold dear but that’s just us I guess.
At some point in history it was known as feast of Saint Valentines, so pot luck is probably a pretty solid way to celebrate.
Hey, that’s a cool way to celebrate, and technically the most traditional. It’s not the way people typically refer to Valentines Day, but I hope you can keep that tradition going.
On the other hand Lupercalia has a long standing history. Sacrifice a goat. (just getting some snaks together for the party). Run a race, good fun and competition. Consensual spanking with goat skin whips, good clean fun.
I refer to it as Singles Awareness Day. For the obvious reason.
Back in college it used to be “go to the Olive Garden alone and make the waitress uncomfortable” day.
Ah, the ol’ ‘Just how endless are the salad and bread https://www.mentalfloss.com/posts/are-olive-garden-breadsticks-really-unlimited?’ trick .
Too late, Corporate China reserved November 11 (because it’s all 1s) for that, and western corporations are starting to follow it too.
Awareness is why I’m drinking…
The solstices would like a word.
Lunar New Year too.
Everyone should get a day off just to eat chocolate and fuck.
I got to fuck chocolate and eat.
During summer festivals couples used to go to search for a mythical fern flower, that was only flowering during the summer solstice. Of course they went searching at night. If you found one, it was supposed to make you rich and successful. So in reality, it was just an excuse for couples / young people to go into the woods and fuck all night.
The celebrations also included: bathing, dancing, decorating with flowers, lighting fires, jumping through the fire and chasing away witches. People also got married. Sometimes they plowed the village roads, so a dude could find a “match” (i.e. get to plow someone else). They’d also figuratively roast people for being dicks / immoral.
Sounds like a good time!
Here we see the spawning grounds of the Pagan holidays, where a young holiday is learning to walk. But wait, in comes it’s natural predator the Christian holiday. The Holiday struggles for a bit, but it is in vain…
Happy Ishtar !
I mean happy Easter not the pagan orgy holiday represented by eggs and rabbits etc that we all participate in for some reason
