The joy of a celebration is more important than its origins
There are quite a plethora of holidays that happen throughout the year. This month alone, there are several that capture the nation’s attention. Many people already had the pleasure of celebrating the Chinese New Year (currently still going on) and to a much lesser extent, Groundhog Day.
Of course, Valentine’s Day, arguably the zenith of holidays during the month of February, is coming up on the 14th. And don’t forget about President’s Day three days later.
With all the special celebrations that happen during this month and throughout the year, a few issues surrounding the meaning of these holidays arise: Do the people who celebrate these holidays know the true origins of what they are celebrating? To what extent does their knowledge, or lack thereof, matter?
Photo courtesy of Creative Commons.
As the common expression goes, “knowledge is power.” Certainly, having the proper information surrounding the reason(s) a holiday exists, as well as its history, is paramount to a more accurate observance.
On the flip side, once someone understands the scope of where a holiday comes from, that person should have full range to deviate from these origins in the interest of social inclusion or the pursuit of happiness.
Any discussion tracing the evolution of holidays in February, for comparison’s sake, must first begin with Valentine’s Day. This is far and away the most popular holiday in the month for the country. Not only do more than half of Americans celebrate it, but the marketing and media coverage surrounding the day is virtually impossible to escape. So, how do the origins of this extensive holiday contrast with modern revelry?
The exact origins of the holiday traditionally called St. Valentine’s Day are not entirely known. The most widely accepted version of the day’s beginning and nomenclature is that around the year 270 when a Christian priest named Valentine was executed by the Roman Emperor Claudius for continuing to marry young men and their brides despite the emperor’s order for the men not to be married (he wanted more soldiers). The Catholic Church went on to induct the priest into sainthood (hence St. Valentine) and commemorate his martyrdom with a specific day.
It is also generally accepted that the placing of the day in mid-February had less to do with the date of Valentine’s death and far more to do with the church’s desire to displace the pagan celebration of Lupercalia that occurred during this time. This festival, celebrated in the Roman Empire, involved hitting women with the hides of sacrificed animals and having them shack up with men who drew their names from a jar. This celebration was eventually succeeded by St. Valentine’s Day, which resulted from the increased growth and power of the church.
During the middle ages, for reasons that are murky, the holiday came to be seen in Europe as a day of romance. After this, the day was further romanticized by William Shakespeare and other writers in various works. The holiday became a model for what it is today during the 18thcentury as the exchange of hand-written love notes and tokens came into style. Mass production took over in the 19thcentury, and the holiday of cards, candy, flowers and teddy bears continues to this day.
A certain number of people will point out that modern Valentine’s day was co-opted from pagan traditions, and that the roots of the holiday are much more somber than what the day has become. But people have every right to think about romance over executions, and bringing back the traditions of Lupercalia would most certainly be illegal.
Another very popular holiday for the month of February is the celebration of the Chinese New Year, which began Feb. 5 this year. This celebration, which takes place over 15 days and is based on lunar phases, retains its popularity here and abroad. It is accepted that this celebration is at least 3,800 years old; one would expect that its exact traditions have changed over the years.
The first wide-scale celebration of this holiday is thought to have taken place under the Shang Dynasty and was focused on religious observance. This included house cleaning, the sacrifice of food and paper icons to gods and ancestors, and the lighting of crackling fires to frighten evil spirits. The most important aspect of this celebration was the feasting that took place among extended family members.
This went on for some time. But like most traditions, Chinese New Year has undergone transformations, such as the Chinese Government’s transition to the Gregorian calendar in the early 20thcentury and the banishment of the holiday under the rule of Mao Zedong.
Today, the holiday doesn’t contain any religious significance for many of its participants. The present-day celebration of this festival in the U.S. is more of a community event, with extravagant parades and street fairs, among many other things.
Others would be right to point out that the Chinese New Year celebration is deeply rooted in family ties and Chinese religious tradition. People still can, and do, observe the holiday this way. Modern traditions are just more social.
While it is exceedingly important to understand the origins of why the holidays are celebrated, part of appreciating them is understanding that different groups of people can celebrate the same holiday based on their own customs. People should feel comfortable in pursuing the happiness of modern traditions, even if they feel like the origins are not relevant to their lives.
