Festival breakdown

I have been able to group holidays, or rather observance of special days, in six broad categories :
(no great insights here, just writing this post to organize some thoughts I had during DP break)

1. Cultural/Religious - Diwali, Christmas, Durga Puja, Thanksgiving etc
2. National/Memorial - Republic day, Independence day, Gandhi Jayanti
3. Scientific based - New year, New/No moon(is this a holiday), Harvest festivals
4. Personal - Birthday, anniversary
5. Consumerism based - Valentine's day, Mother's day, Friendship day etc
6. Modern/popular culture - April's Fool, Pi day(14th march), Star wars day(May the fourth) etc

Can you think of anything else? Leave comments.

Now for some analysis. Some questions we can ask are -

• Are these categories really different?

The first four seem largely separate. But Cultural(1), Consumerism(5) and modern culture(6) do have overlaps. A quick wikipedia search reveals Valentine's day was previously a christian holiday till 1969 when Pope Paul XVI deleted it. The 20th century has then on seen massive commercialization of the festival, extending from paper greeting cards to roses, chocolates and further to (to the dismay of competing smitten males) diamonds.

Mother's Day also has some antecedents in the worship of some goddess' related to motherhood, but the modern celebration in India, a wiki search reveals, is a rip of US's which was started by President Woodrow Wilson. It has been so commercialized that some refer to it as "Hallmark day".

Actually, scientific and cultural also overlap. Case in point specially the harvest festivals like Pongal, Chatt, Baisakhi, Thanksgiving. These are by nature products of the season cycle, but these events were so entwined with people's lives that they have become something more.

• Are any of these celebrations dangerous and should be discouraged?

I don't know. I guess someone having read some previous posts would expect me to cry out and say 'Religion' but I don't think so. Religious events are celebrated with the most gusto around the world, and are great for getting children into the societal fabric. Some particular customs I can always oppose, which might have made sense in some day and age but have no significance now, but everything evolves.

• How have the old holidays evolved?

With mega dozes of consumerism. Think diamonds, think booze, think Ekta Kapoor's soaps, think designer kurtas etc etc.

• What I think should be encouraged?

More scientific ones please, just due to the fact of being purely secular. As a bonus, any extraterrestrials we encounter can automatically be imbibed in.

• National holidays or Religious Holidays?

National holidays generally celebrate some majorly goody stuff, like independence or establishment of a republic. On the other hand, inside a nation, I think an individual individualizes more with his religion and would consider (1) more special.