The Fog of Hallmark Holidays or Why Mother’s Day Shouldn’t be a Day but Everyday

​In the hangover from Father’s Day, where whisky distillers and restaurants count their cash, one wonders what corporate madman created this series of imaginary obligations.  Much loathed by the reasonable and especially introverted populations, such now seem to be noticed only if not celebrated, or at least not enthusiastically enough.  Perhaps a better approach is to honor all we respect in our thoughts and actions and toss such corporate rubbish in the dustbin.

Authentic Holidays, like Kwanzaa, are Ingrained in the Cultural Fabric Unlike Hallmark Holidays

Few Americans haven’t fidgeted, waiting for an hour in line, to take Mom or Dad out to dinner on their designated day, or suffered through a horrid hour with a pompous and incompetent boss for a gratuitous and often obsequious lunch on Boss’s Day.  As these holidays proliferate the question often isn’t the joy they create but the misery they incur as the unremembered feel even more lonely and disheveled than before they occurred.  They seem to be something to be dreaded, and an unnecessary tax on resources as well as a diminution of authentic affection.

A Hallmark holiday is a holiday created or promoted primarily to make money on things sold as part of its observance, such as greeting cards, beer, balloons, candy, and various other consumer goods. The name comes from Hallmark Cards, an old American company, that reaps the cash from such ersatz events through sales of sentimental cards and other items like balloons, fruit sculpture flowers, cakes, and sweets.

​Such holidays range from the relatively innocuous such as Mother’s Day, to the irritating, like Boss’s Day, to the cloyingly sweet Sweetest Day. The term is not always a pejorative of Hallmark but often rather all the industries who promote and profit, such as the National Football League, from these phony celebrations.

The Widely Reviled Boss's Day is Where Underpaid Employees Celebrate the Highest Paid Person in the Group to Curry Favor

Actual holidays such as Kwanzaa, Independence Day, Memorial Day, or Thanksgiving, are deeply rooted in American or religious traditions, and are federal holidays.  Such range from occasions calling for strong drink to enjoyable events for at least some of those people involved.
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The ‘Hallmark holidays’ list:

• Valentine's Day.
• Super Bowl Sunday, a Bacchanalian unofficial national holiday created to celebrate a gladiator sport.
• Nurse’s Day.
• Mother's Day.
• Father's Day.
• Grandparents Day.
• National Son's Day.
• National Daughter's Day.
• Sweetest Day.
• Ferris Wheel Day.
• St. Patrick’s Day.
• Tax Day.
• Doctor’s Day.
• Boss's Day.
• Administrative Professionals' Day. 
• Earth Day.
• Teacher Appreciation Day.
• Clergy Appreciation Day.
• Armed Forces Day.
• Graduation Day.
• Friendship Day.

The Next Frontier is the Hallmark Month

Aside from the well-known term Hallmark holiday, there is another time set-aside trend, and that’s the month designations.  Those on the moral highroad have seized these months as they purport to aim to honor ethnic, sexual, and racial subpopulations.  Yet one is prone to wonder how much good National Disability Employment Awareness Month does for disabled people, or if it’s just a poster for the Human Resources professional to tape in the lunchroom.  A federal law strengthening equal access requirements for disabled people would be undoubtedly much more effective, although the human resources professional might have to scramble for replacement corporate propaganda.

​As of now, these Hallmark months include:

• January - None.
• February - African American History Month.
• March - National Women’s History Month and Irish-American Heritage Month.
• April- March 13 to April 15 is National Deaf History Month.
• May - Asian Pacific American Heritage, Older Americans Month, and Jewish American Heritage Month.
• June - Gay Lesbian Pride Month.
• July - None.
• August  None.
• September - National Hispanic-Latino Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15).
• October - National Disability Employment Awareness Month and National Italian American Heritage Month.
• November - National American Indian Heritage Month.
• December – None.

Perhaps thoughtful people might seize the as-yet unmonikered months January, July, August, and December, and name them before more book clubs fill their required monthly reading lists with culturally relevant required reading. 
Possible nominations include:

• Military-Industrial Complex Month.
• Excess Corporate Profits Month.
• American Empire History Month.
• Health Insurance Company Month.

​The real lesson is honoring people is a daily action not an annual event, and it seems impossible to point at much, if any, net benefit from days or months designated by others, often for their own profit, in an antidemocratic process.