coöpted culture holidays

[rone]

So St. Patrick's Day is when we pretend we care about Ireland by eating something nobody in Ireland eats, Cinco de Mayo is when we pretend we care about Mexico by drinking something nobody in Mexico drinks... what else is out there (not counting all the Pagan holidays the Christians swiped)?

Comments

Bastille Day

[(Anonymous)]

Bastille Day doesn't qualify with Cinco de Mayo and St PAtrick's Day in the sense that nobody actually does or eats anything unusual, but still: everywhere in the entire world it's called Bastille Day, and nobody in France calls it Bastille Day. It's just The Fourteenth of July.

Thib ;-)

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Ha! Good one.

Re: Bastille Day

[infrogmation.livejournal.com]

Bastille Day and Cinco de Mayo are the pro and anti French holidays. The Queen's birthday and the 4th of July are, I guess, the pro and anti English holidays. Here in New Orleans they are excuses to drink, as is any other event.

Re: Bastille Day

[lusercop.livejournal.com]

Here in England - I'd have trouble telling you when the Queen's birthday (official or real) was. I think this thread has summarised all the important ones, though. One thing that I've noted about all this fake irish crud from last night, is that I'm only aware of it having really happened in the last 2 or 3 years, and mainly as some kind of Guinness marketing campaign. I suppose the other one that gets celebrated in England is Burns Night (with Haggis and Whisky - not that I really need an excuse to drink a decent scotch!), but I don't think that's particularly widespread, and it may well be that all the people I know have a scottish connection.

(at this point I'm thinking of Bill Bailey when talking about the terrorism threat, and somehow he'd ended up imagining a world without cheese: "the Welsh national dish would be toast!")

Re: Bastille Day

[ptomblin-lj.livejournal.com]

In Canada one of the biggest drinking holidays of the year is Victoria Day. The birthday of a monarch who never visited Canada, and who is long dead. But it's a good convenient time to open up the cottage or go camping.

Re: Bastille Day

[(Anonymous)]

One of the two -- official or actual -- is April 21st. I know because that's my birthday too. I was in England at that time of year at least three times and so I'd wake up to a parading fanfare of guards in front of Buckingham Palace on television. I always thought it was quite cool even though it wasn't for me :-)

Thib ;-)

Re: Bastille Day

[richtermom.livejournal.com]

Actually, in Milwaukee, the City of Coopted Festivals, we do celebrate Bastille Days. It's a long weekend holiday where we block off some downtown streets and have a great big block party. Three music stages, a bunch of food vendors, lots of other booths, and it's all kicked off by a "Run for the Bastille" at night on the 14th.

We were established by guys named Vieau and Juneau and Marquette.

Re: Bastille Day

[(Anonymous)]

Holy cow.

Thib ;-)