Being Jewish is fun this time of year as, the holidays fast approach. Of course, when most non-Jews speak of the holidays they mean Thanksgiving Day, Xmas & New Year’s Day.
Jews already had their New Year’s celebration in early October, so that takes care of that and Xmas? Pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffttt! So, that leaves just Hanukkah and Thanksgiving Day, but since Hanukkah’s such a minor holiday, all that’s left is Thanksgiving Day, but before I gripe about Thanksgiving Day, let me bitch about Xmas for a spell.
This weekend was a rather busy one for me in terms of running errands and stuff, but no sooner did I enter a lot of the places I went to such as the supermarket, did I start hearing Xmas music and it’s not even close to Thanksgiving Day yet!
It makes me cringe that some retailers have no respect for other religions, other than those Xmas-loving lunatics, especially when it comes to retailers like Wal-Mart who bowed to pressure from some Christians who weren’t happy last year and boycotted them just because their employees didn’t wish their customers “Merry Christmas,” but wished everybody “Happy Holidays” instead.
This year it will be different though. In order to make everyone happy, Wal-Mart will wish “Merry Christmas” to everyone, including Jews & Muslims. Got to keep the Christians happy, I guess!
How insulting is that! But before you side with me totally, as most of you readers know I do collect and listen to Xmas music and I listen to it year-round, as I listen to Halloween-themed and Hanukkah-themed music too, plus a huge plethora of other holiday music too, still Xmas music tends to get overplayed a little too much by retailers everywhere I frequent like gas stations, supermarkets, dollar, thrift & department stores & bookstores.
Sometimes retailers get all token on us and play Hanukkah music for those who celebrate, but they need to; how else will we be fool enough to buy plastic or paper gifts that fall apart within weeks of buying it? Besides, they need our business, so they do what they have to in order to get us into their stores otherwise, they come crawling or slithering to get us in and in a way, that’s kind of cool!
Still, we have Thanksgiving Day to contend with and it’s certainly not one of my favorite holidays, as it can be a most frightening and scary experience for me, as witness to years’ past.
As I get older, I wonder what the holiday really means besides stuffing my face with turkey, eating pumpkin pie and telling everybody what I’m really thankful for.
The last two Thanksgiving Day holidays for me, were anything but normal for me, but this year promises to be much better as a couple of friends have already invited me to their apartment for a Thanksgiving Day meal that promises to be fun and relatively normal.
Thanksgiving Day can be quite stressful because people put so much pressure on themselves to please others and put on a miniature stage show, with all the shticks timed just so. Of course, the shticks can go wrong too; in fact they always do.
Holidays are holidays and just that. Take them as such and don’t try to kill yourself in the process; your friends, family and other relatives do understand. It’s just a meal, not a reality show!
And if you think the holidays are a bit much, do what I always do; relax and unplug.
It’s the best solution without going mad.
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