Consumer holidays

As Valentine’s Day neared its end, I found myself with a bowl of popcorn and some zombie killing video games and came to an official conclusion: holidays suck.

While some holidays have deep-rooted origins and religious traditions, many have been created specifically to boost consumerism. Whatever the original intent, our money-hungry society has conformed each one into a commercial holiday.

Valentine’s Day, for example, makes a huge deal out of sharing love with significant others, but really it’s about sharing your money with them.

Sure, a nice homemade meal and some alone time with your sweetie can be romantic, but let’s face it, most people want material goods. Whether it is truffles or diamonds, they want to see that you care about them enough to spend money on them.

But this isn’t just about Valentine’s Day. The mass market has completely consumed every holiday of the year.

We barely made it through Valentine’s Day before stores started selling four-leaf clovers and “Kiss me, I’m Irish!” pins. And before you know it we’ll be seeing colorful eggs and stuffed bunnies that have somehow come to represent Easter.

But the worst is Christmas. Here is a holiday supposedly based on the birth of Christ when there are significant doubts that he was even born in December. This holiday is not about Jesus. It is about gifts. It is about money and consumption, just like every other holiday.

While I am not denying the joys of opening presents or the delicious taste of chocolate, I can think of better ways to spend my money and my time.

So while the rest of you enjoy hunting for Easter eggs, I think I’ll just stick to hunting for zombies.