cross-posted from: https://retrofed.com/c/ask@piefed.social/p/2109773/what-are-your-ideas-for-public-holidays-that-can-be-celebrated-by-everybody
A lot of holidays are associated with religion and colonialism, but I think it would be a lot better if we had holidays that were universally recognised regardless of your beliefs.
Take my home country of Australia. You of course have the Christian originated holidays of Easter and Christmas, and Australia Day is awful (it’s pretty much celebrating the colonialism and slaughter of the indigenous peoples of Australia).
New Years should stay, it’s universally recognised for everybody using the Gregorian calendar, and memorial days for those who have died in war is also important to keep (like ANZAC day!), as well as the various independence days
Personally, I would propose the revival of the summer and winter solstices (the longest and shortest days of the year, reversed for the southern hemisphere), and May 8th as the new Australia Day (mate!)
What holidays do you think should be universally celebrated?
I have some ideas:
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first Friday of May
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fist Monday and Tuesday of June (long weekend! classic)
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last Friday of September
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first Monday of December
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Nothing can be celebrated by everyone. Even pizza isn’t universally liked and appreciated.
Everyone loves pizza.
It’s pineapple on pizza that we’re divided about.
Wyld Stallyns day
A day to remember that we must first be excellent to each other then we can party on, dude.
Once a year, for one glorious day, it’s “hunt a billionaire” day! Everybody gets the day off work and is allowed ONE tag (per individual). Any prizes’ estates are liquidated and awarded to a charity of the hunter’s choice.
I propose twelve holidays: 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, 4/4, 5/5, 6/6, 7/7, 8/8, 9/9, 10/10, 11/11, and 12/12.
Love it!
The 11th of November is Remembrance day (the whole minute of silence on the 11th minute, hour, day, and month thing was a big thing at my old school)
11/11 is also a big holiday in East Asia, Pocky Day in Japan, Peppero Day in Korea (both because of the resemblance to the tasty stick biscuits), and Singles Day in China (the 1s represent unmarried individuals), all three of which are huge shopping days for Asian malls (similar to Black Friday, but combined with the hyper consumerism of the Asian markets)
The 11th of November is Remembrance day (the whole minute of silence on the 11th minute, hour, day, and month thing was a big thing at my old school)
We have it already, at 11:11h, but not for remembrance, but it marks the begin of the carnival season
The solstices and equinoxes seem like a good natural choice. Various cultures past and present have celebrated them but since they’re natural events experienced by everyone they can be culturally neutral. They happen even independently of whatever calendar system you use and are important milestones of the year.
Never thought about it.
Maybe something for found families. We’re have so many traditional familial relationship days, but nothing for the family you made along the way. The friends who became brothers and sisters, and the kids you “adopted” along the way. Stuff like that.
Maybe a no-tech day. Call it Disconnect Day. Make it on a weekend so you’re not taking the piss outta bankers and such, and obviously exempt medicine, but everyone else is frowned upon for looking at any screen.
Crazy hair day
Especially with our looming climate apocalypse I think Arbor Day would be fun if it was reframed as a day for hanging out outside, doing volunteer work for local parks. Make it fun and educational
Similarly International Workers’ Day (or May Day) needs to be more seriously celebrated until we reach utopia status
I think we need more global holidays. Right now we have New Year’s and… I think that’s kind of it. April Fools’ Day had a bit of momentum at the start of the internet but I feel like it lost something as it got chewed up and digested by the corporations that control so much of the internet now.
Some ideas, off the top of my head:
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Friends’ Day: tell your friends you care about them. An opportunity to message someone you haven’t talked to in a while, just to let them know you still think about them. A time to meet up with your local friends too. I’ve had a few Friendsgiving get-togethers over the years and I find them highly preferable to the born-into-family version of Thanksgiving Day.
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Neighbor Day: Have a block party with the people who live around you, or get to know someone on the other side of the world. A time for the world to recognize that we’re all in this together so we might as well get to know each other.
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Big Problem Brainstorm: we can’t all focus on all the big problems all the time. I think it’s good that we all take breaks. But, I think we should have one day a year where we all take the day, pick a problem, and try to make it better. We don’t all have to work on the same thing, but we all pick something. Energy crisis, food crisis, housing crisis, environmental crisis, just pick a thing. Maybe you pick a problem and find out you like working on it, maybe you meet some people and decide to form a group to work on it long term. Maybe you don’t, and you just spend one day more than you would have thinking about how to make the world a little better. I think it would be cool.
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Carnival: I know we already have this one in parts of the world, but I think it would be cool if we all celebrated it all at the same time. Global Carnival. Sounds dope.
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People who don’t usually post day (better name TBD): Everyone who talks on the internet the other 364 days of the year just chills for a second and lets the rest of the world talk.
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Labor day (1 may) is the first that comes to mind. Days like mother’s day could work, but they’re always on sunday.
11 November and 2 September as the end of WW 1 & 2 would apply for most of the world, but maybe that would only encourage people to start new world wars in order to get more holidays.
Seems like a lot of work just to get a day off.
The ends of WWI and II depend on countries… and so does mother’s day.
And they should. Australia currently has the Easter spring festival in autumn
The end of the counties involvement depends on the country, the end of the war does not. For mother’s day there is an internationally recognized date with some countries using a different date.
Alive Day: can be celebrated any day and by anyone around the world, so long as they are living.
I just realised that while here in Spain almost all holidays are after one saint or another, I’ve never thought of them as religious holidays (outside of holy week). To me and most people I know it is just the name of the holiday or festival.
Labour day is celebrated by Australia by almost everyone taking it off. So there is that one.
I’m in favour of ditching the royal birthday for a friends and family day. Make it a Friday so we can shorten it to FFF ( sorry Factorio)
Definitely in favour of abandoning the celebration of some old monarch’s birthday.
What has that to do with holidays?
Oh, you don’t want a holiday where the publicly voted and most despised person in your city/country has to leave for 10 years?
Was it that hard to elaborate just a little?
No, that’s a terrible idea for a holiday
