Ethnic Holidays

With St. Patrick's Day celebrations going on it's time for me to reflect on the concept of ethnic holidays. Not religious holidays, national holidays, historical holidays, just those that are tied to which ethnic group one is born. Are they a good way to remain tied to one's background or a chauvinistic display of alleged superiority? Well, maybe they are both or somewhere in between, and maybe it depends on who is celebrating. Some people take such holidays very seriously while others of the ethnic group see it as an opportunity to drink and eat too much. They care little about the reasons they celebrate.
Here are just a few of the ethnic holidays widely celebrated in the U.S. that impact many in the country, not just members of the ethnic group involved.
* Cinco de Mayo- The Mexican national holiday. Restaurants have Mexican food specials and some schools celebrate, but unless one lives in a city with a large Mexican population this is more of an insulted event. One things is sure. At least half of the celebrants are illegal immigrants waving Mexican flags.
* St. Patrick's Day- I have a small amount of Irish "blood" (from my mother's side) so I was raised to acknowledge this one. The Irish like to drink and are outgoing, so any St. Patrick Day parade is a must for anyone regardless of whether he or she is Irish. These people are friendly, know how to have fun and always buy plenty of free drinks and food.
* St. Joseph's Day- The Italian Sicilian holiday. can you say "Mafia"? Hehe Just kidding. but the Mafia did originate in Sicily and some of the local Sicilian Americans I see in the St. Joseph's Parade look like Don Corlione.
* Tet Day- The Vietnamese community in New Orleans is fairly large, so there are quite a few activities for everyone to participate in Tet Day. What I like nest is to girl watch at these. Those lovely Vietnamese girls always look especially beautiful and they even smile on Tet Day (Too much smiling is discouraged by some Vietnamese moms because it interferes with study time)
* Kwanza- This one gets a week, right around Christmas and was invented by an American of African descent in the late 1970's or early 1980's. It is supposed to honor "African pride". So black Americans dress up like tribal Africans, eat American food and have a big identity rises while doing it.
* October Fest- Most of my (questionable) background is German, so I know a good deal about this one. It is actually a holiday celebrated in September (but it ends in early October), illustrative of the confusing of Germans and their propensity to invade even the months of the calendar. Most of the time the October Fest activity is a drunken party with accordions playing, people doing the "chicken dance" and fat men with breath smelling of too much sauerkraut. Hmmmmmm Maybe that's why I try to hide my German background.
* Purim- This is a Jewish holiday and I know little about it because Jewish holidays are generally celebrated privately. My understanding is that the Biblical Esther is celebrated for saving all the Jews in Israel from being slaughtered. Unfortunately, some Muslims today are still trying to achieve that goal and Esther should be reincarnated to save Israel. because Israeli/Jewish holidays are somber ones, I see no reason to celebrate this one.
* Canada Day- The Canadian version of the Fourth of July is almost unrecognized by Americans and by people in the rest of the world. That's probably because Canada is almost invisible to the rest of mankind. Maybe they should make Canada Day one in which Canadians actually do something more constructive with themselves except their criticizing Americans.
There are many more celebrated here and in truth I think it a bit silly to wave one's ethnic background as if a flag. Does it really matter what our ethnic background is? Not for me. I prefer to be Irish on St. Patrick's Day, Chinese on Chinese New Year Day, or Polish when they celebrate the Polish National Day (I like those Polish sausages). As for the rest of the year, just call me a member of the human ethnic group, The ethnic labels are far less important than that one.