When is Your Holiday?

What do holidays mean to you? Do you think of time with family and friends? Do you think of overtime or time off?  Do you look forward to celebrating? Do you enjoy the decorations that go with the season or are you annoyed by the hullaballoo? Holidays mean different things to different people, but everyone enjoys a holiday when they have something to celebrate.  Christians look forward to Christmas and Easter because of what it means to our faith (His birth and resurrection), as well as the good food and fellowship that comes with the season. Romantics everywhere look forward to Valentine’s Day so they can have another excuse to show love to their sweetheart. I’m sure there are even people who celebrate Arbor Day. The more you love the reason for the holiday, the happier you are to celebrate it!  So, when is your holiday?

Everyone needs a holiday from time to time, so why do we settle in only celebrating the holidays that the calendar tells us to celebrate? Why do we feel compelled to celebrate only on days that society celebrates? Sure, we have birthdays and anniversaries that we don’t share with everyone else in the world, but why do we have to stop there? Why can’t we celebrate the first warm day of the season or the first lightning bug sighting of the year? As a couple, create your own holiday. Make it as random or as significant as you want, but hold onto it as a sacred holiday in your relationship – even taking the day off of work. You can choose the date carefully, whimsically pick a date out of the air, or you can even put dates in a hat and draw one out… whatever works for you both. Also decide what you want to celebrate on that day. Do you want to celebrate flowers? Automatic transmissions? The season opener to your favorite reality show? Celebrate whatever you want, but center it on your relationship and celebrate it every year. Holiday traditions from our ancestors are good to carry on; yet, it is also good to make new traditions in our family lines.

Sometimes life seems dull and empty because we don’t take time to celebrate. God even thinks it is important to celebrate:

“Beginning in the spring, the seven Jewish feasts are: Passover, 
Feast of Unleavened Bread, Feast of First fruits, Feast of Weeks, 
Feast of Trumpets, The Day of Atonement and The Feast of
Tabernacles. The Jewish feasts are closely related to Israel’s 
spring and fall harvests and agricultural seasons. They were to
remind the Israelites each year of God’s ongoing protection and 
provision.” (from http://www.gotquestions.org/Jewish-festivals.html)

The happiest people in the world are the ones who count their blessings and don’t focus on what they don’t have. Celebrations give us a chance to embody our thankfulness. How can you focus on what you don’t have if you are busily planning to celebrate what you do have? If you want, you can even create more than one personal holiday in your relationship. Just be sure to remember it year after year, even if what you choose to celebrate changes.

So, sit down with your significant other and begin brainstorming holiday ideas. When would you like to celebrate? What would you like to do to celebrate? New restaurants? Old, favorite restaurants? Movies? Horseback riding? Bungee Jumping? Staying inside? Does it involve bacon? It’s your day: plan it, look forward to it, and celebrate it!

We’d love to hear what holiday you and your boyfriend/girlfriend, fiancée, or spouse have created – please comment below!

When’s your day and what do you celebrate?