Why I Love Holidays (aside from the obvious)

Do you know what I love most of all about holidays? Just how completely ridiculous they are. I mean really, who came up with the idea to decorate a pine tree in baubles and leave it in the living room? Or to eat chocolate in the shape of rabbits? Or to dress up in scary costumes and go to people’s homes and demand that they give them candy?

Like I said, ridiculous. BUT that is what makes them so fun!

Take Tuesday for example. It was Melbourne Cup Day in Australia. Basically it’s a horse race for all of the Australians that don’t bet on horses and don’t particularly give two hoots about any of it. But on this one day we all wear fascinators, drink a lot, bet on horses, and then proceed to yell in excitement when the race comes on.

Holidays are the one time when even the grumpiest of adults joins in the fun and celebrate for no good reason other than that they can. As a country, sometimes even as a world, we throw up our hands and act like the most excitable of children.

And that is what I love the most. The sense of community. That unspoken agreement that on that day we are unrestrained by time and deadlines, that we are free to be happy and in love with life without the guilt that, sadly, so many people seem to feel.

I think that if the holidays weren’t kind of ridiculous; weren’t filled with glittering lights, strange traditions passed down through the ages, and food in odd shapes; that they wouldn’t be nearly as special. Because if the world can celebrate things like this with so much gusto? 

Well then maybe the world is not so bad after all.