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Memories of the 28th Century

Better Holiday

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Today is Labor Day, and I think that holidays are mostly a waste of time. I think that workers would be better off if they got another week or two of vacation time is stead of holidays.
Another problem with holidays is that they are dedicated to something, and not everyone likes that something or wants to honor it. Some holidays are dedicated to religious holidays, and here in the U.S.A. things that tend toward the establishment of religion are forbidden in the Constitution. That would throw out Christmas, Easter, and maybe some other days.
Another problem is that some holidays are celebrated on the wrong day. The fourth of July is the biggest offender on that count, because the second of July in 1776 was the day when the United States declared Independence. The fourth was when the printer delivered the printed copies of the Declaration. If we want to celebrate Independence Day, then we should do so on the right day, unless it is independence from sanity.
Another holiday that is on the wrong day is “Juneteenth. It is said to have been when some Yankee general told some gullible Black people in Galveston that they were free, based on the Emancipation Proclamation. But the Emancipation Proclamation had no legal standing; it was just a president using the “bully pulpit”. The slaves in most of the U.S.A. were freed on December 6, 1865, when the Thirteenth Amendment was ratified, but they had been freed in Massachusetts in the 1780’s, but most people forget about that.

Anyway, we would be better off scraping holidays and letting people take more time off.
But around this time of year, I am reminded of a day that would make a good match for Labor Day. In one of his novels, L. Sprague de Camp mention the natives of one planet, who were reptiloid, have an annual Intromission Day. Some reptiles have an annual day, when they engage in copulation. We humans are not limited that way, but we could take up the custom, especially since we have Labor Day here in the U.S.A. Intromission could be the first Friday in December. Friday is the day that is sacred to Frigga, the Anglo-Saxon version of Freya, the Norse Goddess of sexual activity, and the first Friday in December is about nine moths before Labor Day.


The Stones of Nomuru by L. Sprague de Camp

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