CHRISTMAS AND OTHER HOLIDAYS
A landing place for residents of many nations, the United States is the country of the chosen homeland, of a land capable of relentlessly assimilating people of all origins, while retaining anachronistic racial discrimination involving precisely those who are the custodians of the most ancient traditions of the Country, natives and blacks, whose heritage is rich in dances and warrior songs, blues and spirituals, the former linked to the great period of the conquest, of the expansion to the West, the latter to the tragedy of slavery in the Southern States. they essentially reflect an overflowing taste for the imaginative, for the colossal, for the love of fraternization in a vital impulse that has become a model of rampant imitation. Christmas is the great rite of the American Confederation. The first colonizers, Quakers and Puritans, did not celebrate it with great celebrations, but the large German immigration and the emergence of Catholicism made Christmas the most festive day of the whole year: it would be better to say that the celebrations go from eve to New Year’s. In Washington, the president turns on the lights of a large Christmas tree behind the White House, in the center of an avenue of fir trees decorated by the embassies of all the countries represented in the capital. In thousands of American public gardens, gigantic Christmas trees sparkle with colored light bulbs. In New Mexico the Indian, Spanish and American rites overlap for the occasion and Christmas becomes the feast of luminarias. The Christmas period ends with the New Year’s Eve dinner. In California there are numerous flower festivals, during which groups of beautiful girls pass on garlanded floats: the Pasadena rose tournament is typical. In Philadelphia, on the other hand, the beautiful girls are replaced with masks, as in a noisy carnival day. Parades in the United States are certainly not uncommon; the one organized every four years, on January 20, triumphs over all. The president, elected in November of the previous year, goes, on that date, to take an oath on the Bible in front of the Capitol. And again with parades the anniversaries of the birth of the great protagonists of American history are celebrated: in the South that of General Robert Lee (January 19), in the North that of Lincoln (February 13).
According to Thereligionfaqs, the day of the birth of the father of the homeland, General Washington (February 22), is a holiday for all states and a holiday in every school. Another very popular holiday throughout the country is that of Valentine’s Day (February 14), dedicated to lovers, in which young people exchange valentines, special occasion cards with an affectionate (sometimes even joking) character and symbolic gifts. Carnival is another reason for celebration. Famous among all is that of New Orleans, organized by the Krewes, associations that throughout the year are involved in studying new floats and organizing the forty-nine processions that take place around the city in the light of splendid torchlight processions in an ever new way. No less impressive are the Easter celebrations, especially that of New Salem, in which the members of the sect of the “Moravian Brothers” spend the whole night in prayer at their church. As the sun rises, the shepherd, who has remained to look at the sky from the top of the bell tower, shouts that Christ is risen. The ceremony has also become a tradition of Protestants. In Tucson, Christianized Yaqui Indians organize a real sacred representation during the week of the Passion and Easter day is reserved for the baptism of converts. The same happens in Talpa, New Mexico, this time the protagonists of the Pueblos Indians.
THE GREAT CIVIL SOLEMNITIES AND SPORT
With pagan and religious feasts, great civil solemnities are also very celebrated. On May 30, Memorial Day, the dead and the fallen are remembered, while the first Sunday in June is dedicated to Shut-in Day (the day of the “inmates”) with visits to the sick and subscriptions to hospitals. America, with initiatives of all kinds, philanthropic, patriotic, consumerist, is the home of celebrations; just remember June 14 as Flag Day, not to mention Independence Day which is celebrated on July 4th with parades in the streets, fireworks, patriotic songs and music. But there are many other celebrations that Americans of every state have in common on holidays, such as Labor Day (Labor Day), the first Monday in September, or as the day of citizenship (September 17) in which, with a solemn ceremony, American citizenship is granted to foreigners (I am an American Day). America could not forget October 12, the day on which Columbus concluded his great voyage. The Columbus Day is the great feast of America, especially the Italians of America. Another particularly celebrated recurrence is the one that takes place on the days of the Saints and the Dead, Halloween, in which the deceased seem to return to earth in a tragic masquerade: disguised as skeletons, ghosts, witches, devils, the boys go from house to house at night to ask for offers, accompanying the visits with the famous phrase ” Treat or Trick ? ” (“trick or treat?”). The party ends with allegorical floats, masks, clown parades, etc. The Treat or Trick has taken on an increasingly symbolic and also philanthropic aspect over time. Thanksgiving Day deserves a separate placeo Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November), perhaps the most heartfelt holiday by Americans, celebrating an event in 1621, when the Massachusetts pioneers thanked God for their first harvest. Frequently, the recurrences are accompanied by songs and dances: at the historical appointments the square dance, the oldest quadrille of the West and the old South is dusted off, ring-games are again danced in a circle, of English origin, and above all the old cowboy motifs are sung. ยง The love of Americans for competition and for meetings is then manifested above all in sport, widespread in all States and present in many disciplines, among the most practiced baseball, although boxing and American football also have a great following, athletics, swimming and basketball. Outdoor sports range from simple jogging, also practiced in the cities by a large number of amateurs, to extreme sports such as bungee jumping or rafting. Much appreciated, particularly in Oregon, southern Utah, Arizona, Montana and of course Texas, is horse riding with the classic western ride or with the bareback one. Born on American soil, and then exported all over the world, there are also “board” sports: surfing, windsurfing and, since the end of the nineties, kitesurfing. TheFurthermore, skateboarding is one of the few sports that has also managed to become a lifestyle among young people, influencing meeting places, clothing and music. In winter version, the board is used for snowboarding, practiced since the Eighties as an alternative to skiing. Also for snow lovers, among the relatively young sports, and still not very widespread, there is skijoring, or the practice that consists in skiing pulled by horses or dogs. Fishing is also an important sporting activity, at least for American mythology: it is practiced in different types, from deep sea fishing in Florida to salmon fishing in Alaska.
