What are good anarchist holidays? What is the purpose of a holiday in your life?

Question

so much of holiday practices (as i see my friends and i engage them) is (sometimes left-over) stuff from family.
Of course i am an anti-social person, so my perspective is ... off, but i wonder what other people think about this topic.

i love the idea of making a bigger deal about intentional dates (based on anarchist history, for example) and personal ones (like birthdays).

what about you?

Comments

Anti-social?
You, who has given so much to this forum, and others?

You just prefer the company of people like, um, those here... (ok, i intended that as a compliment.)

Answer 1

Holidays are good times to connect with friends and family. May day, April Fools, Devil's Night are good examples of conventional holidays. I also add in Bureflux from Discordian faith and Buy Nothing day. These would all be good holidays to celebrate as anarchists.

Answer 2

Another answer would be finding figures or. events relevant to anarchists in general and more specifically and call for a general holiday to observe a date relevant to the figure or event (birthday, death, high point of event etc.). Some days are possibly days of protest or demonstration while others call for potlucks and picnic and still others are days of pranks or other silliness, as examples.

Answer 3

Some ideas...

1) 11 November (1887) death of the Haymarket Martyrs

2) May 2 (1886) Haymarket Riot

3) July 17 (1936) Spanish Revolution

4) 18 March (1871) First Day Paris Commune

5) 28 May (1871) End of Bloody Week--Paris Commune

I try to at least remember these days and the men and women who fought and died and rotted in the prisons of the State for making them happen. I can only hope we get just one last day to celebrate--the end of civilization. I think that would call for fireworks.

Comments

You've made a better start than most of us.  (Though if we took a day off for every murder committed by the Civilised State, we'd have a thousand days off every year.)

The Second of May appeals, especially if applied one minute after midnight of the day the compliant labor unions prance through the streets.

The End of Civilisation day should be very popular.  I propose that it be celebrated the day before the local National holiday (July 3 in U.S.).  When the corporate sponsored fireworks displays have been assembled but not used yet.  :)

Answer 4

I'd like to see the Day of the Youth Combatant spread from Chile to everywhere, real quick.

Holidays can be a form of inspiration or at least reminder to do some things you wouldn't normally do in everyday practice. Existing holidays can be subverted or reconstructed in various ways; the Fourth of July is usually an excuse for some anti-patriotic pranking in America, and now New Year's Eve is a kind of designated holiday of prisoner support (or attacks on prisons).

I think an important idea is to make a (collective, communal, or public) action or practice out of a holiday rather than a simple personal rememberance.

Answer 5

My most recent "holiday" was last weekend, at the Tolpuddle Martyrs festival.  It couldn't have gotten off to a worse start.  My Dad had died the week before and his funeral was on the first day of the festival.  This not only meant that I was feeling incredibly low but also that we missed the shuttle bus, which we later found was the only public transport there.  We ended up walking (with tent, sleeping bags, etc.) on the grass verge of a motorway in the baking heat (it's been a hot summer here this year) for several miles.  By this stage I was hot, sweaty, tired, annoyed, and miserable.

Things quickly picked up when some fellow festival goers pulled up alongside us and offered us a lift the rest of the way.  We'd assumed that we were getting close but it turned out we had only gotten half way at most.  Once there the gentleman on one side helped us to pitch our tent while the couple on the other side made us a drink.  This attitude was commonplace, everybody was happy to help anybody they thought could use help.

The festival itself was wonderful, full of people fighting for causes they believe in, with discussion of the issues involved and the potential methods to solve them.  From anarchists to anti-frackers, hunt saboteurs to women's rights activists, everybody wanted to make a positive difference to the world and discussed ways to work together to achieve common objectives.  The solidary, co-operation, and friendliness on display really lifted my spirits.  I started the weekend dejected and miserable and ended it feeling reinvigorated and ready for another year of struggle.

You can keep your five-star hotels and luxury resorts, I'll take a tent in a field full of socialists any day.

Comments

As the person who downvoted this couldn't be be bothered to give a reason I will do it for them:

Downvoted for not being a post-leftist.

Edit: that also goes for the person who downvoted while I wrote this comment.

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what you are calling holiday (british usage) is usually called vacation in the u.s.
what i was referring to in my question are recurring days of celebration that multiple people engage in at the same time, like thanksgiving, july 4th, etc.
you probably could've picked that up from context.

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Ah right. It seems rather obvious now you've said it.

If you wish to delete this answer (or make it a comment) please feel free.

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just to be clear (perhaps 8 months too late, sigh), people can make their own answers into comments. moderator action is not needed.
just go into edit and there's a handy box to check to convert answer to comment.

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Four downvotes seems a little pissy.
Especially for a half decent story.  Do days mean what someone else says they do, or what we make of them?

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he didn't answer the question.
he didn't (apparently) read the question (at least not carefully). he jumped to a whiny conclusion about the downvotes, and then he didn't make his post a comment but asked a moderator to do it.

yea, those things together call for my downvote, regardless of other people's...
but it is a fine story, i agree.