Local Opinion: Holidays: To embrace and change

I am writing this on June 19. It was always an important family holiday because it was my Dad’s birthday. In the past few years I heard the word “Juneteenth” mentioned, but didn’t pay much attention to it. Until today. Sometimes we are oblivious to the obvious. The post office is closed today … now I want to find out what this “Juneteenth” is all about.

Shame on me. It’s a big deal. A day celebrating the end of slavery, the freedom for millions of Americans forcibly enslaved because of their color. Of course, it should be a national holiday, as big or bigger than any others that we honor.

It made me start thinking about US holidays in general. I went to the U. S. Commerce Dept. online. They are in charge of these things. I wanted to know all about our official holidays. June 19th is officially called Juneteenth National Independence Day. That full name is important. We should always use that full name, teach it in school, and let everybody know what it is all about.

Taking a look at the list of federal holidays is a real eye-opener. There are 10 total. March, April and August all lack holidays. I suppose the folks who decide those things figured that religious observances, Easter and Passover, took care of the spring months of March and April. Poor August gets left out altogether.

When I was a kid, we celebrated both Lincoln and Washington’s birthday. Then some wiseacre decided to put them together and call it President’s Day. Why? Maybe it would save money having only one holiday instead of two. But, who knows the meaning of “President?” Millard Filmore was President, we don’t want to honor him. The only thing I remember lately about President’s Day was that there were a lot of mattress sales. But, wait! According to the official Commerce Dept. list it is now called Washington’s Birthday! What? What happened to Abe? On every list from historians he is considered our best president. I think we ought to swap them out and make Lincoln’s Birthday a holiday on Feb. 12.

There have been a few name changes. Armistice Day became Veterans Day. Decoration Day became Memorial Day. Have there been any holidays removed? Not to my knowledge, but there is one that I would like to see wiped off the books.

That’s Columbus Day.

Proponents of this sham holiday claim two good reasons for keeping it. First to acknowledge that Columbus was first to discover America. Second to honor Italian-Americans. There is a load of poppycock. The first Europeans here were the Vikings, and they actually landed on North America 500 years earlier. Old Chris never got closer than islands in the Caribbean. And, he didn’t know where he was; on his deathbed he insisted he found Asia. Not only that, but what archaeologists have termed the Clovis people came over the land bridge up around Alaska and beat them all by about 13,000 years. Hence the indigenous people can just laugh about anybody discovering anything. But, even they came from somewhere else.

As far as honoring the Italian-Americans, that’s all well and good. Lovely folks, some are even my best friends. But, how about the Swedes, French, Nigerians, or the hundreds of other groups who make up our great country.

So, let’s ditch Columbus … that leaves August and October still available for business. It gives us something to ponder … and the more I think about it, that Swedish-American Day sounds pretty good. After all, where would we be without Abba or Ikea. And, I bet you didn’t know a Swedish-American guy invented the zipper. That’s good enough for me.