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 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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.