David, the soup peddler, had a second-night-of-pesach dinner last night, at which I was present. A very new-agey type of affair. Following are some ideas that cropped up during conversation:
- It used to be that Americans of any political stripe could make fun of the French and feel good about it. Since GW2, the right wing has co-opted this practice. Yet another reason to be anti-war: I resent the fact that I can’t feel good about ridiculing those cheese-eating surrender-monkeys anymore.
- Jewish holidays are a downer: “this is the day God didn’t kill the firstborn male child of each household”; “this is the day of atonement.” Jesus! The Christians did a much better job of co-opting the fun aspects of pagan holidays. Why don’t Jews have days for collecting brightly-colored eggs, decorating indoor trees, etc?
Eggs shmeggs. Christians don’t have any holiday that urges them to get totally wasted!
http://www.chabad.org/library/article.asp?AID=2814
If I had to choose between an easter egg hunt, or decorating a tree, or drinking to excess, I know which way I’m heading…
You undercut your argument by citing the Lubavitchers as a source.
And as to the drunk part, what do you think the egg nog is for at Christmas? To provide a rum substrate.
Um, Catholics don’t need holidays to inspire tippling. My uncle’s parish in rural Minnesota, St. Patrick’s, has a bar of the same name on the other side of the parking lot. Its seriously like a whole Irish-Catholic compound with a small church, cemetary, and pub surrounded by cornfields as far as the eye can see. I have numerous childhood memories of leaving Sunday mass and heading over to the tavern so the adults could have a few beers.
Here ya go: Sukkos (celebration of the harvest) and Simchas Torah (celebration of completing the reading of the Torah) are pretty happy stuff.
Aw crap … may I suggest a “text only” warning above the comment box. Anyhoo, here is the link I tried to give: http://www.torah.org/learning/yomtov/sukkos/
Sorry about that chip–fixed it.