The Way I See It: Holiday season set to begin
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After neatly spreading holidays out over the last 10 months, we are about to enter the intense holiday season. Late October, November and December have a lock on observances and celebrations.
Most of them have food involved. Some have drinks involved, still others weird dress codes. Some are "federal" holidays, meaning you will not get mail, be able to bank, go to school or get your newspaper.
First on the buffet of holidays is Halloween. Halloween isn't a real holiday of course, but don't tell that to the thousands of children who will be taking to the street costumed up to get as much sugar in their system as they possibly can. It's one of many special days where the consumption of food is one of the objectives.
Veterans Day happens less than two weeks later on Nov. 11. Honoring those who served in the military by showing gratitude, appreciation, and respect. It is a federal holiday, so no school or mail, but it is a workday for most Americans.
Thanksgiving falls this year on Nov 26. For four centuries Americans have gathered to give thanks for the harvest by running a turkey trot, eating too much turkey with all the trimmings, watching parades and dog shows on T.V. and falling asleep watching football. Some of those may be recent additions, but you get the point, for most it's a day to chill out and enjoy being family.
The holiday itself is a precursor to the next day, the unofficial holiday of Black Friday. It's a day that many take a vacation day to make a four-day weekend and then spend the day trying to get a good deal on stuff they probably don't need.
Black Friday is a precursor to the next holiday - Christmas, less than a month later we get together once again, this time to exchange the items we bought on Black Friday and to once again consume more food than any human should, and fall asleep watching football on T.V. Many will also attend church to celebrate the true meaning of Christmas.
A week later we have yet another holiday -- New Year's Eve and New Year's. I have never understood why we celebrate the day at all. The calendar is changing! O.K. It does that at the end of every month. I just think it's a little silly, people stay up too late to watch a ball drop marking a new year. A drop that for some reason is always one minute off from the extremely accurate and very synchronized cell phone network. On New Year's Day, many people are still trying to recover from a night of celebrating and end up, you guessed it, falling asleep watching football.
After New Year's however, things go dark for a while, no twinkling lights, no big meals. Sure, we have holidays celebrating civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., and the lives of the 45 men that have been presidents. We also have a few unofficial holidays. Valentine’s Day gives us a chance to refill our candy dishes and Groundhog Day gives us a chance to curse about the "predictions" of a small animal.
None of them ignited the collective spirit of the country. If last winter was any indication, it is likely just as well. If you will recall, we were all just trying to get through January without sliding off the road.
Art Smith is online manager of The Marietta Times and the Parkersburg News and Sentinel, he can be reached at asmith@newsandsentinel.com.