Every year statutory holidays are highlighted on the calendar, holidays that started off as dedicated days and now are regarded as opportunities.
How many of us paused to think of the contribution of the laboring person on Labor Day? How many of us turned out to salute the flag on Canada Day? How many of us thought kindly of Queen Victoria on Victoria Day? How many of us reflected on the meaning of Easter or Christmas or Thanksgiving?
After an extensive and scientific survey (results accurate within a plus or minus range of 24 percent), I’ve determined the following:
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1. Thanksgiving Day is set aside to eat turkey and all the trimmings. By eating turkey we are giving a boost to the producers who spent all summer fattening up poults they acquired first thing in the spring. This holiday is also an excuse to assemble the parents, the in-laws and out-laws to catch up on family gossip as turkey is being munched.
2. Christmas is when you get presents and is another opportunity to help the turkey producer.
3. Easter is when you assist the egg producer by eating eggs, both chicken and chocolate, and then try to keep the hyperactive kids from wrecking the house.
4. Victoria Day is when you open the cabin at the lake.
5. Labor Day is when you close the cabin at the lake.
6. Canada Day is when you reflect on how your slow-pitch team might beat the team from Hardisty.
This is why it is so tragic that big retailing corporations are ignoring the true meaning of statutory holidays and requiring so many of us to sell screw drivers and Campbell’s Soup on these sacred occasions.
Something must be done at once.
