Made-Up Holidays

Of course, they all are.  Made-up, I mean.  Every day the sun rises and sets (or sets and rises, for you members of the tribe).  If a given day is special-er than another, it's because some member of the priestly or ruling caste decided to scam the peasants a bit with another reason to pay up on the tribute.

The longer it's been since the day was specialed, the more acceptable we find it.  So, Christmas outranks Thanksgiving, which outranks Mother's Day, which outranks Secretaries' Administrative Professionals' Day.  YMMV.

Anyway, they all outrank this:

Prime Day is a holiday declared by Amazon, for Amazon.  For 33 hours in the middle of July, Prime membership gets you all kinds of iffy deals.  The Wirecutter, which I love, buys into this wholeheartedly.  Which I guess is suitable: Amazon affiliate links are their entire business model.  I wonder how the NYTimes likes owning a business that is so wrapped up in Amazon.  Anyway.  I guess the merchant class now makes up our holidays, being that the priestly and the royal are not in quite such high regard anymore.

And no, I am not at all immune.  Thanksgiving and Christmas are my two most favorite days.  And though I want nothing to do with my actual birthday, Thanksgiving works as that for me, too.  So Turkey Day gets a double-dip of my esteem.