Production Statement and Introduction

Think about the major holidays that you celebrate yearly. What are the images and traditions that come to mind? For Christmas, many Americans would say Santa, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, gift giving, Black Friday sales, and candy canes. For Easter, one might think of the Easter bunny, painted eggs, hollow chocolate bunnies, and Peeps. For Valentine’s Day, the usual response is hearts, Cupid, cards and flowers, and red roses. For St. Patrick’s Day, common associations are leprechauns, four leaf clovers, drinking, and wearing green.

One can’t argue that all these do describe normal symbols with which these holidays are associated with. But do these items truly capture what these holidays are about? In your answer, would you recognize the true meaning of these holidays? What the American culture tends to forget is that all these holidays were originally celebrated as Christian holidays with specific religious backgrounds and meanings. For example, Christmas is meant to celebrate the birth of Christ, making Jesus the true religious symbol of the holiday. Easter commemorates the resurrection of Christ and calls to remembrance His crucifixion and death. Valentine’s Day commemorates St. Valentine and his unrelenting dedication to marrying young Romans during the third century. St. Patrick’s Day celebrates St. Patrick, the man who Christianized the Irish people during the fifth century.

The truth is that a majority of Americans, including those who celebrate these holidays, do not know these religious associations. We were certainly surprised in our findings to discover that holidays such as Saint Patrick’s and Valentine’s Day were started to memorialize two Catholic saints. We were also surprised to see that many holidays even had a history prior to their religious celebration, with different traditions that were adopted by the Catholic church upon recognizing the day as a “Christian” holiday. Through our research we realized that many factors, both religious and secular, contributed to the creation of the holidays, and many other factors since their creation have also played a role in their gradual secularization.  So, one can’t be too critical of the secular representations of these holidays and the Americans who associate these holidays with non-religious aspects. It’s not uncommon in a media-centered culture such as ours to simply recognize the commercial characters and symbols with which a holiday is most often depicted.  They are easier to use when it comes to commercializing and the need for present-purchasing and giving, mostly in the case of Christmas.  Stores can use these more secularized symbols to sell their materials as they are not as denominational to the specific religion, in this case Christian.  But is it wrong that these holidays are now being celebrated by people who have no concept of what the holiday is meant to represent? For example, it is common today for people who are do not associate themselves with a specific denomination of Christianity, and even people who are not religious at all, to celebrate many or all of these holidays, clearly without recognizing their religious meanings. They have become overwhelmed with the commercial symbols, which are constantly present in our media and at public locations.  The holidays themselves have inherently become secularized over the years due to factors such as the increasingly valued commercialization in our society. Although Americans celebrate these holidays, many do not pay due respect to the Christian backgrounds which these major holidays all share.

According to a Gallup poll conducted in 2004, while approximately 84% of Americans identify with some denomination of Christianity, 96% say that they celebrate Christmas. This statistic shows how Christmas is celebrated by many non-Christians as well as Christians, and therefore no longer corresponds with its traditional Christian roots as closely.  But is this necessarily bad? One might argue that our nation, being a “melting-pot” of cultures, needs these holidays to be secularized, so that more of our population is able to enjoy them without having to pay respects to the Christian religion.  But what about those who are Christian, and still fail to fully recognize what these holidays symbolize? Are material goods and artificial themes ruining these holidays, when they were originally intended to exemplify Christian values and morals?

Our goal in researching this topic and delving more into the history of these holidays was to understand how and why these holidays have begun to lose their religious context and what effects this has had on the American public’s individual “representations” of these different holidays. We wanted to understand how these holidays developed from their origins and how they have eventually become what they are today.  Will this trend continue as time progresses?  We’re curious to know that answer.