Essay About Holidays

1086 Words3 Pages

Holidays are a celebration and an enjoyment of festivities. Although they are a commonality across the world, holidays differ between countries and cultures. But, what many do not realize is that holidays are ultimately ideology driven, that is that the group that celebrates these holidays follows a certain set of ideas and beliefs. Whether the ideology is religion based, or politically based, all holidays are centered around ideologies.

Countries all have their own distinct holidays, although some can be seen as equivalents, all are still run by ideology. Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa are all seen as equivalent holidays even though they are celebrated differently, and celebrate different things. The ideology behind Christmas is that it …show more content…

The Chinese New Year is fifteen days long and each day involves a different custom based off of a different ideology such as cleaning your house will wipe away the bad luck of the preceding year. Halloween although originating in Ireland, was carried to other countries and is now often seen as an equivalent to the popular Day of the Dead Celebration in Mexico. Although, Day of the Dead is about celebrating dead loved ones, the act of dressing up in costumes happens in both celebrations. Halloween follows the ideology that children dress up in costumes and go collect candy from people’s houses whereas day of the dead is centered around the ideology that for one night dead loved ones can be reunited with their families. Easter and the popular Jewish holiday Passover are often seen as the same thing because they fall around the same thing and both celebrate spring. All around the world countries celebrate independence days that are on different days but they all represent relatively the same thing. But, different countries hold different ideologies for their independence days. For …show more content…

But the reality of the matter is that religion is still a prominent authority in society and the world. Just with holidays alone, what religion you are deems what holidays you celebrate because of religious ideology. Even though Hanukkah, and Christmas are seen as the same, they are different celebrations for different religions, and are also based off of different sets of ideologies. One of the most important holidays for people who are Jewish is Yom Kippur or Day of Atonement which is a holiday that strictly Jewish people celebrate. Ramadan which is a whole month of fasting, because fasting is one of the five pillars of Islam, is a holiday that only Muslim people partake in. Even if you don’t practice Christianity or Catholicism chances are you still celebrate Christmas and Easter which are religious holidays. No one really gets the opportunity to choose which holidays that they want to celebrate because there are already set holidays for people to celebrate based on their religion and what area of the world that they live in. A lot of people do not get to form their own basis of beliefs because one is already chosen for them by their parents or location. Although many countries have the freedom of choice, many people do not exercise that freedom on holidays. Many holidays are celebrated around the world, and all of them follow a different set of ideologies. Some ideologies may be religious, political,

Open Document