Celebrations – The Lesser Recognized
The World English Dictionary provides 3 symbolism for celebration.
1. To rejoice in something; celebrating a success
2. To see or acknowledge: a birthday for example
3. To perform; a religious ceremony
The word has Latin roots, same as so many English words. It’s derived from celebrare, which means several, thronged or renowned. Appropriate, since most celebrations involve numerous people, a throng, as it were. Many celebrations are widely known, like Christmas, New Year’s Day and Thanksgiving.
You will find also much lesser known celebrations and I’d love to explore some of them here. I used to be really fascinated to witness what celebration might exist on my birthday, October 1st, and sure enough, Globe Vegetarian Day. Is catsup a veggie? This party was established by the North American Vegetarian Society in 1977 and later supported by International Vegetarian Union in 1978, in which, I suppose, conferred upon it worldwide status. The concept for the day would be to promote the joy, empathy (no animals killed) and life-enhancing possibilities of vegetarianism. I’m an omnivore personally, and was just a little miffed at the prospect of sharing my birthday with herbivores, but hey, could be worse. I’m still intent on having a two-inch thick, medium rare sirloin with the trimmings for my birthday dinner. I hope they won’t mind over there at the IVU. Let’s not tell them!
My mother’s birthday, bless her heart, is 9/11, so we will not touch that particular one.
My bro was born on August 19th. He shares his birthday with National Aviation Day, a genuine US Holiday by proclamation of President Franklin D. Roosevelt himself. The year, 1939! Now I am jealous! It is Orville Wright’s birthday too. You know, the first powered flight, Kitty Hawk. I had vegetables! During this date, we honour the successes of Orville & Wilbur Wright. Sometimes the achievements of other early aviation and space pioneers will also be recognized.
The Navajo Mountain Chant is a 9-day celebration marking the end of winter and the transition to spring. It includes chanting, arrow swallowing, and sand painting and culminates with dancing inside a circle of participants camouflaged as evergreens. It is said by tribal elders, the first circle of evergreens was 6 miles in diameter.
I wonder regarding the need of celebrations. Have they got a fundamental goal other than the superficial names of Birthday, National Aviation Day, etc. suggests? Perhaps, in the long run, all celebrations are actually a reaffirmation of life. An excuse to recognize that people are here or have been here and will be here. Celebrations are bookmarks in the endless pages of human existence. Always changing, evolving and providing the excuse for the socialization, companionship and human interaction that, I believe, could be the true basis for celebrations of all stripes.
Whether a birthday, celebrated in the close circle of family and friends or a National Aviation Day, encompassing a bigger circle of humanity whose usual desire and purpose draw them together and make an additional page in the thick book of life.
Joshua Georgette does a lot of article writing for Skylighter. Skylighter sells confetti cannons, punk sticks and saltpeter as well as a variety of other items.
This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 18th, 2010 at 6:59 am and is filed under watercolour art. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.