happy belated thanksgiving everyone!

I spent my whole teaching-week talking about Thanksgiving and comparing American and Japanese holidays. I suddenly think there is something really commendable about Thanksgiving that's missing from every other day on the American calendar. It's a life-affirming holiday. It's a holiday that encourages America to feel a little bit connected to the world and the seasons.

Even if it is whitewashed in this whole "gratitude for god's blessings" bullshit, thanksgiving is really about the Harvest. It's about the bounty of the land, and about connecting our own well being to the well being of the surrounding environment. It's about food! That's the real stuff of life.

What about the other holidays? Well, looking at the calendar...

Jan 1 = celebrate a new calendar... and one cosmic cycle.
3rd monday of Jan = MLK Jr day. A great guy for sure. America could use more moral heroes.
3rd monday of Feb = President's day. WTF? Seriously? To celebrate our highest elected official?
Sometime in Mar or Apr = Easter (in most locales)
Last monday of May = mermorial day (war dead day)
4th of July = 4th of July (commemorating the start of a war)
First monday of Sept. = Labor Day. sweet. more of these.
2nd monday of October = Columbus day. there are a lot of things to say about that one.
Nov 11th = veterans day
4th thursday of Nov = Thanksgiving! yay!
Decmber 25 = Christmas

So, if your tally matches mine, we have 2 days for war and warmongering (5 if you count columbus, the presidents and independence day), 2 for "great men", and 2 christian holidays. The christian holidays it may be noted were intentionally moved from their presumed real dates in order to muscle out (or coincide with) millenia old earthy crunchy pagan holidays, and to replace them with anti-human anti-earth christian myths.

The J calendar has more holidays, but among them are "ocean day" "childrens day" "becoming an adult day" "respect for the elderly day" "green day" (to celebrate billy joe, trey and whatshisface) "(thanks for the) labor day" "sports day" and "culture day". Those are all real, day-offa-work holidays.

What a nice country.