Holidays and Holy Days
Unlike many other Western Democracies, America has always had a fluid relationship between the sacred and the secular. Despite the so called separation of church and state, religious symbols are permitted on the occasional public property and God is on our money. Nowhere is this push and pull more evident in our national holidays. We close governments and business for Christmas and Easter, but rarely for Yom Kippur. In a diverse nation such as ours it might be tempting to expand this list, save for the fact that every day is religious holiday in some tradition and we would soon find ourselves permanently on vacation. So we pick and choose, mostly according to those holidays celebrated by the greatest number of people. It will be interesting to see if this changes as Islam continues to grow in our country and the world.
It is part of our civic religion to celebrate religious holidays as civic reminders of our deepest values. While our founders did not establish our republic as a Christian nation, we are clearly informed by Christian values. It is entirely fitting to recognize Christmas as a holiday when it reminds us of the hope of new life and Easter as a holiday when it calls us to believe in the resurrection of what we hold most dear. In this way, we honor the holiness of what these holidays are celebrated for. I, for one, would like to see us expand that list, to include Jewish and Muslim holy days as well.
Equally important to our national character are those secular holidays which carry for us deeper and more sacred meanings. Presidents Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and even the Fourth of July, call us to remember what we most cherish about our past; the resolve of our leaders, the fight for equality and the can-do spirit of anyone fortunate to call this home.
Several holidays strike me as peculiarly sacred in their secular context. The first is Thanksgiving, although shadowed by our eventual decimation of native peoples by our European ancestors, the impulse to remind ourselves of our fortune strikes me as a sort of collective prayer; we thank God and fortune for what allows us to grow and change the world. Originally, Mother’s Day was a call to mothers everywhere to speak out for peace. None other than Julia Ward Howe, the author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, wrote the original proclamation for a “Mother’s Day of Peace” following our bloody Civil War: “Arise then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts, whether your baptism be of water or of tears….Our husbands shall not come to us reeking of carnage for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience….” After repeated attempts, it wasn’t until 1914, in the midst of another great and bloody war, that President Woodrow Wilson reluctantly proclaimed a “Mother’s Day” on the second Sunday in May but without reference to its original pacifist intent. The meaning has evolved, noble as it is now, from a far more political foundation, to become sacred for us in a different way. It is altogether fitting that we celebrate the nurturing gifts of mothers.
Another such evolution is underway with Memorial Day. Memorial Day, originally called Decoration Day, is a day of remembrance for those who have died in our nation's service. It has been recognized as a holiday in one form or another since after the Civil War. Some of us bemoan the erosion of its original meaning, honoring those who have fallen in the line of duty to a three day weekend famous as the official start of summer and an excuse for barbeques. For many years, I have celebrated the Sunday before Memorial Day in a more expanded sense; taking an opportunity to remember those who have passed on and celebrating the lessons and sacrifices they made for all of us.
Regardless of how you feel about a holiday recognizing those who have died in war, it is still a holy day if we remember that those soldiers, like all those we have known but who are gone, left us better for their living. I can imagine Memorial Day being the counter point to Mother’s Day, originally a day to honor war’s fallen, just as Mother’s Day honored those who fought for peace. I can imagine Memorial Day evolving into a day when we remember and honor all those whose lives have ended, just as we honor mothers for the life they brought into the world.
We are blessed as Americans in so many ways. Let us not get caught up in what a holiday once was, but imagine what a holiday could be: A reminder of what is most Holy and Sacred in our lives, and a time to celebrate that holiness as a people.
With Grace and Grit, John
