Every Day Should Be a Holiday

I will be the first to admit I am not too big of a holiday-fellow. And my friends, tired of hearing me complain about the omnipresence of Christmas and the such, will be the first to confirm it. These past 292 days since I left home have been largely without holidays. My birthday was a couple days after I left home. I went to dinner in a Mexican restaurant and accidentally ordered a steak, my first beef in eight or nine years. The Fourth of July was greeted with a somewhat ironic celebration by the American Expats at CIMMYT where we tried to eat as stereotypically American as possible. Halloween and Thanksgiving were, of course, nothing in India. Christmas had a little cheer, but wasn't a real big celebration, just a larger meal than normal at the homestay I was at. New Years was celebrated with gusto, but with the large number of frightening Indian fireworks present, I did nothing to celebrate and instead hid in my room as war raged on outside. Today is Easter, but to walk around in Paris, you wouldn't know it. I saw a man eating a chocolate rabbit, but otherwise, nothing.

It's a bit odd to admit, but I am starting to miss holidays a bit. I tried to get into the holidays of where I have been. In Mexico, I found out how you should properly celebrate the Assumption of Mary - burn things you are wearing. In Thailand I walked into the King's Birthday celebration, and it was quite elephant filled, but it took me a good chunk of time to even figure out why there were so many animals in the streets (and I still wonder why so few people were watching them march about). I was in India during Diwali - the celebration of lights - but because those lights took the form of scary fireworks sometimes being hurled from rooftops towards me, I again hid in my hotel room. Along the way I have been around for many minor holidays, but with the obscene number of saints worshiped in Mexico and gods in India, it was hard to keep track of them and none seemed to have a clear message I could relate to.

I guess overall my trouble has been that without holidays I am having a hard time remembering what the date is. Those overly commercial days of celebration are good for that, and apparently in cultures worldwide, burning things...