Hallmark holiday
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Hallmark holiday is a disparaging term used to describe a holiday that exists primarily for commercial purposes, rather than to commemorate a truly significant religious or secular event. The name comes from Hallmark cards, a company that presumably benefits from such manufactured events.
Examples of holidays that have been called as "Hallmark holidays" include Secretary's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, and Sweetest Day. Valentine's Day is likewise often cited as a holiday that has been co-opted by commercial interests to the point where it has been reduced in status to a "Hallmark holiday", though it does have a longer historic legacy than most.
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[edit] List of Hallmark holidays
The following holidays are often identified as Hallmark holidays:
- Administrative Professionals' Day (previously known as Secretary's Day), an unofficial secular holiday observed on the last Wednesday of April to recognize the work of clerical employees such as administrative assistants, receptionists, paralegals, etc.
- Boss's Day, a United States secular holiday celebrated on October 16 that has traditionally been a day for employees to thank their superiors for being kind and fair throughout the year.
- Children's Day, a holiday in many countries around the world to honor children.
- Father's Day, a primarily secular holiday inaugurated in the early 20th century to complement Mother's Day in celebrating fatherhood and parenting by males.
- International Friendship Day, an international annual holiday to celebrate friendship.
- National Grandparents' Day, a United States secular holiday celebrated on the first Sunday after Labor Day that has traditionally been used to honor both grandparents and their relationships with their grandchildren.
- Mother's Day, a holiday honoring mothers, celebrated (on various days) in many places around the world.
- Sweetest Day, a holiday celebrated in part of the United States as an "occasion which offers all of us an opportunity to remember not only the sick, aged and orphaned, but also friends, relatives and associates whose helpfulness and kindness we have enjoyed."
- Valentine's Day, the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, often anonymously.
- White Day, a festival that was created by a concentrated marketing effort in Japan, and is celebrated one month after Valentine's Day.
[edit] References in popular culture
- The Simpsons episode 5F09, "Trash of the Titans", the retail corporations create a new holiday called "Love Day" which the Simpson family adopts without question.
[edit] References
[edit] Further reading
- Linda Mooney and Sarah Brabant (1998). "Off the Rack: Store Bought Emotions and the Presentation of Self". Electronic Journal of Sociology 3 (4).
- Leigh Eric Schmidt (December 1991). "The Commercialization of the Calendar: American Holidays and the Culture of Consumption, 1870-1930". Journal of American History 78 (3): 887–916. DOI:10.2307/2078795.
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