HOLIDAYS
1
Lesson 18
SOC 86 – Popular Culture
Robert Wonser
HOLIDAYS AND
RITUALS
Holidays and rituals both generally serve the same
basic role as holidays in society
Holidays are defined as days on which custom or
the law dictates a suspension of general business
activity in order to commemorate or celebrate a
particular event
2
• The rituals associated with holidays reaffirm communal
bonds (while undermining others);
• Concerned with the normative dimensions of society
(because they all reinforce some values);
• Dramatic (they employ narratives, displays, or 3d
theater-like performance)
DURKHEIM FUNCTIONAL
APPROACH ON HOLIDAYS
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A) profane (secular), routine daily life—
instrumental activities (work and chores)—tend
to weaken the shared beliefs and social bonds
and enhance centrifugal individualism
B) rituals provide a major mechanism for the recreation of a society in which members worship
the same objects and share experiences that
help form and sustain deep emotional bonds
among the members
C) the specific elements of rituals, as well as the
objects worshiped or celebrated have no
intrinsic value or meaning
Weekdays are dedicated to work and
commerce, people tend to abandon their
commitment to shared values and
communities  during holidays these shared
values and commitments are reaffirmed
When holidays deteriorate, so do moral and
social order
Rituals/holidays correlate negatively with social
disintegration (excessive individualism)
For Durkheim, holidays are socializing events;
they reinforce shared beliefs that foster social
integration
4
MORE DURKHEIM
EXPANDING ON
DURKHEIM
Different holidays play different societal
roles
Not all holidays are integrate (that is bring
people together)
• Recommitment holidays are those that use
narratives, drama, and ceremonies to directly
enforce commitments to shared beliefs
• Tension management holidays fulfill this role
indirectly by releasing tensions that result from
the close adherence to beliefs
5
Two types of holidays:
RECOMMITMENT
HOLIDAYS
Most familiar
What Durkheim had in mind
6
• Ex: Easter, resurrection of Christ, joy
and fulfillment of redemption and the
rebirth and reaffirmation of faith
• Ex: Passover, focus on a narrative
openly dedicated to socialization
(esp of children)
• Etzioni, 2004
TENSION MANAGEMENT
HOLIDAYS
Expected to serve social integration
indirectly and therefore pose a higher
risk of malfunction
7
• Ex: New year’s Eve, Mardi Gras
During these holidays, mores that are
upheld the rest of the year are
suspended to allow for indulgence, and
some forms of behavior usually
considered asocial, and hence
disintegrative, are temporarily accepted
Since there is residual alienation to all
commitments the tension must be
released through these tension
management holidays to enhance
socialization and resocialization
Ex: Bachelor and bachelorette parties are
temporally bound by the wedding date
itself (yet may be the cause of tension
rather than its relief)
8
Tension managements holidays that set
clear time limits are expected to be more
integrative than those who do not
DECLINE OF TENSION
MANAGEMENT HOLIDAYS
Used to be more prevalent in the 18th and 19th centuries
(many holidays today were this way, Christmas
included)
The decline of rowdy celebrations is the result of a
decreasing willingness of the middle class to
tolerate“routine rowdiness as a form of cathartic
release among the lower orders, especially lowerclass men”
Victorian influence: holidays were becoming
“domestic occasions”
↓ of carnivalesque celebrations came the ↑ of home
and family centered celebrations such as
Thanksgiving
From “Carnivalesque” to
“child-centered”
Contemporary American
holidays focus on the
innocence of the
“wondrous child” which
was unrecognizable from
the rowdy celebrations of
the nation’s past
Compared to the 1850s one
finds that tension
management holidays
have declined and
reinforcement style have
increased
CHILD CENTERED
Holiday’s rituals were invented by adults to evoke in
their offspring the wonder of childhood innocence,
very often expressed through gift giving
Traditional gift giving established and maintained
bonds between unequals.
Giving to inferiors displayed power, reinforced
dependency but also harmony
Early gifts included candy, fruits, nuts and fancy bibles.
11
The thread running through this Victorian
nationalization of holidays and the present
commercialized holiday is the celebration of the
“wondrous child” in the modern holiday.
THE PRIVATIZATION
OF HOLIDAYS
Child centered focus led to the
privatization of holidays.
Celebrated in one’s home with one’s
family centered around children, not
the community.
Individualism rose between 1960 and
1990 in American society, the same
years holidays have become less
public.
12
The increased nature of the holidays
becoming privatized may likely have
the effect of declining integration in
society
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF
THE HOLIDAY CYCLE
What is the social significance of the
particular sequence in which holidays are
arranged? That is, why were some
ritualized and not others?
Holidays focused on children, like Christmas
are preceded and followed by festivities
built around aggressive, sexual, adult
themes (e.g. Christmas is preceded by
office parties and followed by New Year’s
Eve)
13
Recommitment and tension management
holidays tend to alternate
Holidays tend to lag rather than lead societal change,
and the more they lag the more hinder rather than
advance societal integration.
The greater the sectorial lag, the more tension one
would expect between the groups involved
Women’s roles in holidays seem to have been akin to
their roles in other parts of the socialization and
moral reinforcement institutional infrastructure
Women have been charged with prepping the
celebratory meals, shopping for gifts, promoting the
holiday spirit and so on
Holidays sanctified the middle class woman as the
queen of the home and underscored the
importance of displaying status and wealth in
making the occasion memorable.
14
GENDER AND
HOLIDAYS
Since the 1960s women’s roles have
begun to be recast however they
still lag behind other changes in
society.
Regression toward traditional mores
during holidays
Even in households where women
work outside the home and
husbands assume some household
and childcare responsibilities,
women still do a disproportionate
share of the inviting, planning and
preparing, cooking and serving of
holiday meals; above all women
are expected to ensure the warm
glow of the holiday spirit
15
Changing Women’s
Roles?
Celtic New Year’s Celebration originally called Samhain
(‘Summer’s End’)
October 31: when Druids warded off the hostile ghosts of
the recently dead by opening their doors, offering
bonfires and gifts of food to these returning dead
Later dressed as ghosts themselves to shield themselves
from the ghosts’ mischief
The Celtic lunar calendar consisted of 13 months of 28
days each - plus one extra day to make 365 days.
This extra day is October 31st, the day between the old
year and the new year, a sort of ‘time between times’
when the curtain between the physical and
supernatural worlds was drawn aside, allowing dead
ancestors and supernatural beings (the so-called ‘faery
folk,’ so beloved to the traditions of Celtic countries) to
cross over and visit the world of mortals.
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Halloween’s Origins
HALLOWEEN
IN THE U.S.
1930s and 1940s when Halloween becomes
infantilized
Rowdy Halloween behavior became
unacceptable to elites
In the 40s and 50s Halloween costumes were of
spiritual or social outcasts (ghosts, witches,
hobos and pirates) reminding householders of
traditional fears of the unknown and recent
social upheavals of the Depression. This soon
gave way to Disney and other popular
culture costumes
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So it was passed down to children in “cute”
ways, like trick-or-treating
Parents often feel safer taking their children to the mall
for trick-or-treating than letting them visit their
neighbors… decline of community trust
What about razor blades in candy apples?
Example of moral panic (and used as a case-in-point
about how morally lax our society has become) and
urban legend
Most reports of tampering alleged tampering with no
follow up reports or arrests or physical harm to
anyone.
Discovery of adulterated treats = praise and
recognition (for kids and adults alike)
When there is rarely trouble it isn’t an anonymous
sadist but a loved one
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HALLOWEEN IN THE
U.S.
Opposed by theologians was spread not by popular
practice but by the decisions of public leaders
Originally a Yankee holiday celebrated only in the North
Became a national holiday after the Civil War
Used to be celebrated at different days nationwide
depending on the governor at the time
Created by educated professionals and ‘Americanizers’
who recognized the conflicting allegiances of the
masses and the need to make them into loyal citizens
1939: Used to be last week in November until President
Roosevelt pushed it to the second to last week in
November to allow for more shopping time before
Christmas (in hopes of pulling the U.S. out of the
Depression).
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THANKSGIVING
THANKSGIVING
TRADITIONS
1. THE GIVING OF THE JOB ADVICE
Teenagers are given a ritual status shift to the adult part of the
family, not only through the move from the kids' table to the
grownup table, but also through the career counseling
spontaneously offered by aunts, uncles, and anyone else with
wisdom to share.
Oh no! I forgot to put the evaporated milk in the pumpkin pie! As
the authors of the Thanksgiving study state, "since there is no
written liturgy to insure exact replication each year, sometimes
things are forgotten." In the ritual pattern, the forgetting is
followed by lamentation, reassurance, acceptance, and the
restoration of comfortable stability. It reinforces the themes of
abundance (we've got plenty even if not everything works out)
and family togetherness (we can overcome obstacles).
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2. THE FORGETTING OF THE INGREDIENT
3. THE TELLING OF DISASTER STORIES OF THANKSGIVINGS PAST
Remember that time we fried a turkey and burned the house
down? Another way to reinforce the theme of family
togetherness is to retell the stories of things that have gone
wrong at Thanksgiving and then laugh about them. This ritual
can turn ugly, however, if not everyone has gotten to the point
where they find the disaster stories funny.
Transfer a store-bought pie crust to a bigger pan, filling out the
extra space with pieces of another store-bought pie crust, and
it's not quite so pre-manufactured anymore. Put pineapple
chunks in the Jello, and it becomes something done "our way."
The theme of the importance of the "homemade" emerges in
the ritual of slightly changing the convenience foods to make
them less convenient.
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4. THE REAPPROPRIATION OF THE STORE-BOUGHT ITEMS
5. THE PET'S MEAL
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The pet is fed special food while everyone
looks on and takes photos. This ritual
enacts the theme of inclusion also
involved in the inviting of those with
"nowhere else to go.”
6. THE PUTTING AWAY OF THE LEFTOVERS
In some cultures, feasts are followed by a ritual destruction of the surplus. At
Thanksgiving the Puritan value of frugality is embodied in the wrapping
and packing up of all the leftovers. Even in households in which cooking
from scratch is rare, the turkey carcass may be saved for soup. No such
concern for waste is exhibited toward the packaging, which does not
come from "a labor of love" and is simply thrown away.
7. THE WALKING
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After the eating and the groaning and the belly patting, someone will
suggest a walk and a group will form to take a stroll. Sometimes the
walkers will simply do laps around the house, but they often head out into
the world to get some air. There is usually no destination involved, just a
desire to move and feel the satisfied quietness of abundance — and to
make some room for dessert.
CHRISTMAS
Divided early Americans between
celebrants of the traditional pattern
and Puritan opponents of those rituals
In the South and middle regions where
Puritans didn’t dominate it was a postharvest season of drinking, eating and
frolicking lasting from mid-December
to the first Monday after New Year’s
Day.
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Puritans banned it in New England.
Christmas‘ Festivities
Mumming, or wassailing where groups of youths
begged from door to door for food and drink and
sang and toasted their benefactors
Some intruded into homes wearing masks, shouts and
swords.
Slaves were allowed to mum in North Carolina and
elsewhere
Powerful and wealthy were expected (often extorted)
to share their bounty
Recognized the importance of these “safety valves”
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Christmas was a masculine outdoor holiday rather than
a feminine domestic one
Christmas‘ Origins in
the US
•Nativity story wasn’t taught in New England until the
1850s
•It was only between 1837 and 1890 that individual
states recognized Christmas as a legal holiday in the
U.S.
•Christmas revelries became more confrontational
and disruptive when youth and the poor became
further alienated and alien to the rich in the large
towns
•Elites called for a new holiday to unify the nation
26
•They decided to build a sentimental holiday around
the celebration of family rather than community,
shifting the “patron-client exchange” to a parent-child
bond
CHRISTMAS
27
Spread by popular middle class magazines,
German Christmas trees in the 1830s, English
Christmas cards in the 1840s, Dutch cookies and
new carols published in the 1870s and the
exchange of gifts between family members
No longer were children seen as servants upon
who Christmas boxes were obligingly bestowed
but as unique individuals whose parents happily
showered with gifts
The offspring represented the family and helped
confirm it as a harmonious unit set apart from
the public world of class differences
SANTA CLAUS, COMMERCIALISM
INCARNATE!
Used to shield the gifting process from “materialism”
and commercialism
Disguised the indulgence of parents from children (and
to some extent, parents themselves) as well as the
commercial origins of store-bought gifts
Modern Christmas and commercialization appeared
simultaneously. Never was there a pure Christmas of
charity and simple family traditions
• Ex: dept store windows, Coca-Cola Santa, ornate
Christmas cards, Bing Crosby’s “White Christmas”
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Spending has always been a part of the modern
sentimental holiday and yesterday’s tawdry
commercialization of Christmas becomes today’s
venerated traditions
OUR NEWEST HOLIDAY:
BLACK FRIDAY
$12.3 billion was the overall
brick-and-mortar store
sales for Thanksgiving and
Black Friday 2013 - up 2.3%
from 2012
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$1.964 billion was the overall
online sales for
Thanksgiving and Black
Friday - up over 18.5%
from 2012
Why do we participate
in this madness?
The average 2013 Black Friday online order was $135.27 that’s up 2.2% year-over-year
Black Friday online mentions peaked at 11am CST
Walmart dominated in Black Friday mentions, with 77.5%
of the voice
Mobile sales: reached 21.8% of total online sales - that’s
an increase of nearly 43% from last year
How do you pay? PayPal reported a 121% increase in
global mobile payments compared to Black Friday
2012
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24.9% of all online traffic on Black Friday came from
smartphones - that compares to tablets at 14.2%
New ‘holydays’
The first Buy Nothing Day was organized in Canada in
September 1992 "as a day for society to examine
the issue of over-consumption." In 1997, it was
moved to the Friday after American Thanksgiving,
also called "Black Friday", which is one of the ten
busiest shopping days in the United States.
31
Buy Nothing Day (BND) is an international day of
protest against consumerism. In North America, Buy
Nothing Day is held on the Friday after U.S.
Thanksgiving. Buy Nothing Day was founded in
Vancouver by artist Ted Dave[3] and subsequently
promoted by Adbusters magazine, based in
Canada.
COMMERCIALIZATION
OF HOLIDAYS
Nothing new.
We’re a capitalist society, it follows our
holidays (“holy days”) would reflect that
through commercialization
Though communal rituals, mass produced
objects acquire social and personal
meanings
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HOLIDAYS TODAY
• Create a counter to the class-based
exchanges and conflicts of traditional
celebrations
• Helps with modern nostalgia and the
release of tensions, no longer through
“excess” but of childhood
“innocence”
• Child focused holiday also meshes with
consumerism
35
Child-focused holiday served social and
cultural needs:
HOLIDAYS TODAY
According to historian John Gillis,
Holidays can be edited (even new ones
manufactured as in the case of Kwanza reflecting
the rise of multiculturalism and the Black middle
class) as long as they either reflect changes in
values and power relations within a society or
advance thee changes without moving too far
from evolving trends
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American holidays, rituals and myths are lagging
behind reality—that is, they represent a distorted
view of a society that is long gone, especially the
notion that there was and ought to be one
“traditional” kind of family.