What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

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thedoc
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by thedoc »

Noax wrote:
thedoc wrote:I would say Groundhog Day since they started calling him Punxsutawney Phil when it used to be Punxsutawney Pete, and stupid people would argue with me about the name.
Why did the day become stupid when they switched to Phil? It implies it wasn't stupid when it was Pete.

I may have taken out Pete. I was on the highway just going into PA from ML right around there and saw him, and knew he was going to bolt right in front of me. Having another vehicle close to my right and one behind, I never broke speed and it is the largest thing I've ever killed to date.
OK, Pete was actually before my time, so maybe it wasn't him specifically, but his great-nephew or something.
Sorry, I didn't mean it became stupid when they changed the name, it has always been stupid, I was just making the point that people now, couldn't remember how it was when it started.
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Noax
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by Noax »

thedoc wrote:Sorry, I didn't mean it became stupid when they changed the name, it has always been stupid, I was just making the point that people now, couldn't remember how it was when it started.
There are plenty of stupid things going on, and once in a while one of them inexplicably goes viral enough to become a fixture in the culture. Groundhog day seems to be a symbol of Spring like nothing else, and something else might have been there instead if the groundhog day thing had never taken off. One town had a local tradition and somehow the rest of the country decided to tune into that one each year. Not sure if I can think of another holiday that has a specific place to celebrate it. Oh sure, there are holidays to mark some historic event, best celebrated at the site of said event, but the groundhog thing is a place without a specific event that took place there long ago. Maybe there was one...
Walker
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by Walker »

Cinco de Mayo

(for a host of reasons)

Second place isn’t even close.
bobevenson
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by bobevenson »

Walker wrote:Cinco de Mayo

(for a host of reasons)

Second place isn’t even close.
Please, any holiday that's devoted to drinking beer and hard liquor cannot be called stupid!
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Necromancer
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by Necromancer »

Labour day for the pregnant? Oooh nooo! :)
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Harbal
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by Harbal »

thedoc wrote: Because I was a lot smarter than they were,
I didn't realise such creatures existed.
thedoc
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by thedoc »

Noax wrote:
thedoc wrote:Sorry, I didn't mean it became stupid when they changed the name, it has always been stupid, I was just making the point that people now, couldn't remember how it was when it started.
There are plenty of stupid things going on, and once in a while one of them inexplicably goes viral enough to become a fixture in the culture. Groundhog day seems to be a symbol of Spring like nothing else, and something else might have been there instead if the groundhog day thing had never taken off. One town had a local tradition and somehow the rest of the country decided to tune into that one each year. Not sure if I can think of another holiday that has a specific place to celebrate it. Oh sure, there are holidays to mark some historic event, best celebrated at the site of said event, but the groundhog thing is a place without a specific event that took place there long ago. Maybe there was one...
Actually "groundhog day" was widely accepted by farmers who believed in the prediction. It's wide acceptance is part of the reason it caught on.

Groundhog day is just one of many ways that people used to look to for predictions of the weather and change of the seasons. Once my father found a wasp nest in the fall that was built close to the ground and said it indicated that there wasn't going to be much snow that year. I don't remember how much snow we got that year, so I don't know if it was accurate or not.
commonsense
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by commonsense »

I'll take a chance on stirring up a hornets nest here, she nnmmmand nominate Easter for the stupidest holiday around. Wait, wait, hear me out!

What strikes me about Easter is it's absence of reason in favor of reliance on faith. I say this not to put down Easter or faith. I just think that Easter provides an interesting way to view the conflict of mindless faith v analytical thinking. Either one may prove to be the better, however Easter requires quite the suspension of critical thinking compared to all the other holidays I know of in the U.S.
thedoc
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by thedoc »

commonsense wrote:I'll take a chance on stirring up a hornets nest here, she nnmmmand nominate Easter for the stupidest holiday around. Wait, wait, hear me out!

What strikes me about Easter is it's absence of reason in favor of reliance on faith. I say this not to put down Easter or faith. I just think that Easter provides an interesting way to view the conflict of mindless faith v analytical thinking. Either one may prove to be the better, however Easter requires quite the suspension of critical thinking compared to all the other holidays I know of in the U.S.
Last evening I watched a PBS program about the crucifixion of Jesus and the most common statement was that it didn't make sense, but they were considering everything from a materialistic point of view. The producers and writers ignored the possibility of divine intervention and tried to explain everything away based on temporal factors, they even devised a new timeline based on 6 months rather than 4 days.
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by bobevenson »

thedoc wrote:The producers and writers ignored the possibility of divine intervention and tried to explain everything away based on temporal factors.
Perhaps you might want to reconsider my proclaimed divine inspiration, guidance and intervention.
thedoc
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by thedoc »

bobevenson wrote:
thedoc wrote:The producers and writers ignored the possibility of divine intervention and tried to explain everything away based on temporal factors.
Perhaps you might want to reconsider my proclaimed divine inspiration, guidance and intervention.
Not really, so far you have made no statement about the crucifixion, so there is nothing to reconsider.
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Harbal
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by Harbal »

thedoc wrote:
Not really, so far you have made no statement about the crucifixion, so there is nothing to reconsider.
He's missing the point altogether, doc, he hasn't even mentioned chocolate eggs or hot X buns.
bobevenson
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by bobevenson »

thedoc wrote:
bobevenson wrote:
thedoc wrote:The producers and writers ignored the possibility of divine intervention and tried to explain everything away based on temporal factors.
Perhaps you might want to reconsider my proclaimed divine inspiration, guidance and intervention.
Not really, so far you have made no statement about the crucifixion, so there is nothing to reconsider.
What's that got to do with being a prophet?
thedoc
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Re: What's the stupidest holiday around in your country?

Post by thedoc »

bobevenson wrote:
thedoc wrote:
bobevenson wrote: Perhaps you might want to reconsider my proclaimed divine inspiration, guidance and intervention.
Not really, so far you have made no statement about the crucifixion, so there is nothing to reconsider.
What's that got to do with being a prophet?
None at all, which is how much of a prophet you are. If you were a prophet you would have known that.
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