“Holidaze” versus “Holy Days”; Learned Lesson Number Two

Halloween has come and gone, which means that we have been officially launched into the Holiday Season. I have a love/hate relationship with the Holidays. Well, maybe not hate, necessarily, but rather, fear. A love/fear relationship. This has to do with the stress and the cost that inevitably accompany the “major” Holidays. As anyone who has known me for more than 5 minutes can tell you, several of my children were born on Holidays, and I love to tell people this. I also like to pretend to blame this obviously genetic anomaly on my father, who was born on Christmas Day. He tells me it was not fun as a child to share his special day with The Whole Wide World, and for this reason I make the effort every year to give him a birthday present that is separate from his Christmas gift, and is also packaged in distinctly non-Christmas-themed wrapping paper. It’s the least I can do.

My kids are a little more fortunate, in that their personally-claimed Holidays are a bit more fun to share. Zach was born on the Fourth of July. Independence Day. Fireworks and barbeques, just for him, all his life. Breck was born on Thanksgiving, which means she only rarely has to share the day, and there is always a feast involved when she does. Ethan is perhaps the luckiest, having been born on Halloween, delivered by medical personnel in costume, who were having fun that day. This explains a lot about Ethan. He also got double candy every year while Trick-or-Treating, just by looking up with his big blue eyes and telling the candy-givers it was his birthday. Kylie was born on Pioneer Day, which might be considered a “secondary” Holiday, unless you live in Utah, or are a member of the LDS (Mormon) Church. My own memories of Pioneer Day, as a child living in Utah in the 1960’s, were that it was just as big a Holiday as the Fourth of July. There were parades, and we decorated our bicycle spokes with crepe paper. July was Holiday Month. Which is maybe why I had half of my children in that month, I don’t know. Sean and Jeremy were the rebels, being born on “non-holidays”. This actually makes a lot of sense if you know them.

Since the word “holiday” originates from “holy day”, I think it is important to be able to sift through the “haze” of the chaotic “Holidaze”, to the sacred part where the celebration originated. A holy day is a sacred day. Which is not to say that there should not be fun involved, where appropriate. Christmas should definitely be both sacred and fun. In fact, I maintain that “fun” is an extremely vital ingredient in a balanced life. Which makes it also a sacred thing. All of the days on which my children were born are holy days to me. Whether they are holidays or not.

Today is Veterans Day. When referring to what, in this culture, is known as the “Holiday Season”, it is the more “major” holidays, such as Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, and New Years’ Day, that people generally think of. Although Veterans’ Day falls within the “Holiday Season”, I think it sort of gets tossed aside and grouped (along with Memorial Day) in with the “secondary“ holidays, like Presidents’ Day and the like. A day off from school or work. A day to shop the sales. Unless you are a part of a military family, or have personally lost someone to the ravages of war, this holiday can slip through the cracks.

On this particular Veterans’ Day, I experienced directly the richness of character that a soldier brings home after having served. My sons’ roommate, Evan, served two tours in Iraq. Today he anticipated a need that I had and just stepped in and took care of it. This was not unusual, it is in his nature. I celebrate Veterans’ Day as a “Holy Day”; not just a holiday, but a day to commemorate those, living with us or beyond the veil, who make this choice to serve through sacrifice and then return home (either in this realm or the next) with a character that has been polished and refined by fire. What better Holiday to launch us into the Season?

This Holiday Season, set aside the stress and the chaos, (it’s tough, I know) and sit still long enough to be able to see through the haze to what is sacred. Identify what makes those days HOLY to you. Then celebrate them with those you love, through music, through worship, through fun, through gratitude. And through service. So, to all of you, I wish a Bounteous Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Hopeful New Year, and blessed days before, after and in between.