Today is Super Bowl Sunday. This day may be the most widely celebrated “unofficial” holiday in our current cultural moment here in America. Of course there are other holidays - lots of them. Some are the officially recognized type, where everyone gets the day off work, banks and govt. buildings are closed, etc., etc. - days like New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July. There are other days that are overtly religious, and so many people observe them that the government just sort of follows the will of the people, so to speak, rather than creating workplace conflict. Easter and Christmas come to mind here. There are also lots of other holidays that don’t effect civic and work life too much, but are still recognized and widely celebrated - days like Valentines Day and Mother’s Day and Halloween.
I keep using the word *holiday* do describe these days. By definition, a holiday is a “holy” day - a different day, “set apart” from the rest; that definition works well for all the days I mentioned above (including Super Bowl Sunday)
Well, Leviticus 23 is one of the defining passages regarding the LORD’s holidays. The Hebrew word used for those days is moedim, which means “appointed times”, and the implication is the same as our English word holiday - these are set-apart days, different than all the rest. A few of our American holidays are an answer to or something of a mashup between these Biblical holidays and other religious/cultural/historical factors. Some of these Bible holidays/moedim are more formal, some are pretty much celebrations. There’s prep work involved, and traditions to follow, and some of them could be seen as stressful and burdensome, in addition to any fun that would be had. Then again, some Super Bowl events could be described the same way š¤ - jeffrey
Today is Super Bowl Sunday. This day may be the most widely celebrated “unofficial” holiday in our current cultural moment here in America. Of course there are other holidays - lots of them. Some are the officially recognized type, where everyone gets the day off work, banks and govt. buildings are closed, etc., etc. - days like New Year’s Day and the Fourth of July. There are other days that are overtly religious, and so many people observe them that the government just sort of follows the will of the people, so to speak, rather than creating workplace conflict. Easter and Christmas come to mind here. There are also lots of other holidays that don’t effect civic and work life too much, but are still recognized and widely celebrated - days like Valentines Day and Mother’s Day and Halloween.
ReplyDeleteI keep using the word *holiday* do describe these days. By definition, a holiday is a “holy” day - a different day, “set apart” from the rest; that definition works well for all the days I mentioned above (including Super Bowl Sunday)
Well, Leviticus 23 is one of the defining passages regarding the LORD’s holidays. The Hebrew word used for those days is moedim, which means “appointed times”, and the implication is the same as our English word holiday - these are set-apart days, different than all the rest. A few of our American holidays are an answer to or something of a mashup between these Biblical holidays and other religious/cultural/historical factors.
Some of these Bible holidays/moedim are more formal, some are pretty much celebrations. There’s prep work involved, and traditions to follow, and some of them could be seen as stressful and burdensome, in addition to any fun that would be had. Then again, some Super Bowl events could be described the same way š¤
- jeffrey