Shifting holiday dates

 

One of the things that Pagans often struggle with is celebrating our holy days on the appropriate day.  While it is quite common for the main Christian days to be designated holidays (so that most people have them off of work), our holidays are not well understood or acknowledged.  Many other 'big' religions have highly recognized holidays, which may not be official days off work, but at least are understood by a great meany people as a day that someone might want to be off (like when requesting days off and expressing how much of a priority that particular day is).

I think we get into this headspace where we think that the official day is the only day we can make observances on, and that it's super bad to celebrate things on alternate days.  But it makes me wonder why we have so little flexibility in this idea, especially in a world that requires us to be completely inflexible in other ways (like on what days we have to work).

I've never been big on timing, even for personal stuff.  I don't care if we celebrate birthdays, anniversaries or holidays 'on the right day.'  For me, it's more about the essence of the holiday.  Sure, it's great to have special things done on your actual birthday, and having people wish you well is part of what makes that day special.  But if we want to go out for dinner or get together with friends, often it's better to do it on the weekend (or even a few weeks away).  And that is perfectly fine with me!  I love that it means we get to relax and enjoy the time, instead of trying to squeeze in a celebration when people have worked all day or have to get up early the next day.

I was reading about something recently called the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.  This act was designed to shift some official holidays to Mondays (something the travel industry was pushing for....more three day weekends means more people able to go places).  But it took days of remembrance (like Memorial day, Columbus day and Washington's birthday), and made the holidays on a set Monday (instead of the actual historical date of the occurrence).

And if you think about it, this kind of holiday shifting makes a lot of sense.  If we go back far enough (back before the 5 day standard work week), most people worked pretty much every day.  There wasn't a weekend that you got off, because the crops still needed tending, animals still needed taking care of, people needed to eat, and so on.  It's only because we developed enough prosperity to be able to take regular days off (and split the work between many people), that we have this concept of a weekend.

So previously, holidays might not even have been a full day off.  Some things would still have to be done, but maybe you would work extra the day before and the day after to be able to have the evening off and celebrate.  Since your 'work week' didn't have natural breaks, you could celebrate on any day and it wouldn't make a difference, so celebrating on the actual date made the most sense.

But now, we have natural breaks in our work week, and most people don't have the luxury of shifting their work to take a particular day off.  So instead, we shouldn't worry too much about shifting our holiday to a better time.

And we can always take a moment of acknowledgement on the actual day, and then do our 'big' celebration at a time that is more convenient to all involved.  I do this a lot with Sabbats, where I'll share a blessing or celebratory post online, but I may do my ritual on a day that I have more free time (which for me is inverted!  Most of the time weekends are my busy time, and it's weekdays where I can create space to do things).

I feel like we sometimes over-romanticize our holidays, in the sense that we want that perfect celebration.  We may want the big gathering with everyone in full regalia and all the trimmings, or maybe we crave time where we can sit on our own, in perfect privacy to just observe and be.  But whatever our dream is, when we have to compromise, it feels like we are compromising on our faith itself.  I kind of think the opposite.  I think that the more we are willing to shift, the more ways we are willing to work to make things work, the more dedication we are showing.

I would love to live in a world where everyone could have their sacred and personally important days off, but sadly we don't live in that world.  So instead, I think it is important to carve out time for the things we feel are vital to us.  And sometimes that means being willing to let go of this image of perfection and learning to embrace the adjustments we have made to make our observances fit into our lives (and the restrictions we have from the world at large).  Compromise isn't a form of giving up, it's a way of negotiating for what we want and need.