segmenting the holidays

Americans have segmented the holiday product line as any other (restaurants or television channels, say). A day for giving thanks, a day for exchanging gifts with family, a day for partying with friends, a day for jubilant self-congradulation, a day for rememberance.

It's much more efficient that way. Wasn't the old practice of saint days (or Athenian gods) like that too? Each focused on the task at hand.

Of all weeks in the year, the end of the harvest period is near optimal for such an emotion. (Last falls heavy flooding had leached the calcium out of the soil, and my garden lacked its regular inputs. The tomatoes were small and wrinkly. The bell peppers didn't flower till September throwing off the whole project schedule. "Don't blame us. We did our job," one could hear the bees as the diligently buzzed around their business.)