America has ruined the holidays

By Elizabeth Casella, Managing Editor

Holidays such as Valentine’s Day, Sweetest Day, St. Patrick’s Day and even Thanksgiving at this point have lost their true meaning. America simply has taken the true meaning of the holidays and has made it about what American’s love best, money.
The true meaning of holidays is lost in the glitz and glam of sales in stores or the pressure of being commercialized. One feels if they don’t participate in the shopping and buying craze that they won’t fit in. In reality refraining from spending and observing the true meaning of actual holidays such as Christ­mas, Kwanza and Easter would be a much better use of time.
Valentine’s Day is a day originally meant to celebrate fertility as a Pagan festival. To­day it is about love and giving their sweetheart chocolates and gifts to show love and compassion. It has become a Hallmark holiday because it simply is about buying those Hallmark cards, chocolates and flowers because the best way to get to the heart of one’s true love is by spending the most amount of money possible. Sweetest Day isn’t even an actual holiday. Chocolate companies created it to make money during the slow season to keep revenue up.
St. Patrick’s Day is a mas­sive holiday to drink the day away and listen to Irish music or celebrate Irish heritage in a beer-induced craze. Origi­nally St. Patrick’s Day was a festival to celebrate and com­memorate Saint Patrick. It was a Christian feast day and acknowledges the arrival of Christianity in Ireland and also celebrates the heritage and culture of Ireland in gen­eral. The alcohol aspect has become so big due to the Lent­en restrictions being lifted for the day. Modern celebrations are criticized for the commercialization and fostering nega­tive stereotypes of the Irish.
Thanksgiving has even slow­ly become about everything but being thankful because of Black Friday corruption. Black Friday no longer starts on Fri­day. It starts Thursday around dusk. The Thanksgiving feast has become a lunchtime ac­cord surrounding the TV to watch football instead of a sit down meal to appreciate what everyone is thankful for and family time. Thanks­giving originat­ed as a har­vest festival. The Pilgrims had this first harvest in the new world and celebrated the event that Americans commonly call the “First Thanksgiving.” It was a three-day harvest full of prayer to thank God for things such as military victory and the end of drought.