Visit the Photo Place

Holidays are out of control

Follow us on

We have holidays for two many occasions. Maybe Popeye's birthday is next. Spinach, anyone? By Jim Kundreskas

Date published: 8/27/2005

W E HAVE way too many holidays in this country, and some of them fall wide of the mark as far as how we should actually celebrate.

All right, what elderly observance is right around the corner?

No, it's not Labor Day, for this was a trick question.

"Elderly" was the big clue, for it's Grandparent's Day, and that happens the first Sunday after Labor Day, so it will be celebrated this year on Sept. 11.

Celebrated how? You might ask.

Well, according the Grandparent's Day History Web site I found, you're supposed to let grandparents show love for their children's children.

Just how many grandparents out there need any help at all in that department?

We're also encouraged to be nice to them. Come on. How many young kids don't like their Pop-Pop and Nanna? We need a national holiday for this? This celebration was started decades ago in West Virginia by then-Gov. Arch Moore. If memory serves me right, ol' Arch ended up serving hard time in the slammer on corruption charges. We should be honoring this guy? No; Grandparent's Day ought to be thrown out. I prefer to think of Sept. 11 today as Patriots Day anyway.

Federal holidays yet to be observed this year are Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. There's no problem with any of these except maybe Christmas.

The question is: Why only Christmas? And, coming up every spring, you can add in Easter. These days, it's so im- portant to be "politically cor- rect," and if we observe a Christmas holiday, what about Rosh Hashana, Kwanzaa, Chinese New Year, Yom Kippur, Hanukkah, Ramadan and lots of other sacred and hallowed occasions important to other cul-tures?

I'm serious. I don't have a clue how to do it, but we ought not to ignore the religious and cultural heritage of other people who live among us if we're going to be making such a big deal every year with the Christian holiday of Christmas.

That's just a thought.

Date published: 8/27/2005