Good day!  It is Sunday, October 7 and there are only 79 days until Christmas.  Have you finished shopping yet?  Today is the birthday of Caesar Rodney, John Cougar Mellencamp and Yo-Yo Ma.  In 1780, on this day, the British were defeated by the American militia near Kings Mountain, SC, “American Bandstand” premiered in 1957 and, in 1985, Lynette Woodward was chosen as the first woman on the Harlem Globetrotters.  Today is Grandparents Day in Massachusetts.  Tomorrow is Missouri Day (guess where) and Child Health Day, Universal Children’s Day.

Grandparents Day, Juneteenth Day and Admission Day are just some of the holidays that are celebrated in the different states throughout the year.  It is interesting to note that not all holidays fall on a specific date.  Some states celebrate their own Arbor Day in various months.  Some holidays are based on a time of month like the third Thursday or the second Sunday or the fourth Friday.  I have always wondered about that.  If you are celebrating a particular historic moment, why not use the actual date?  Generally, the event happened on March 10, not on the second Monday in March.  History books do not say that Washington crossed the Delaware on the fourth Tuesday of December.  It was done on the night of December 25-26.

I understand the national holidays.  They are not celebrated on the actual day because then we would not be able to have three day weekends.  Let’s face it – it is not important to remember George Washington or Abraham Lincoln, because their birthdays do not always fall on a Friday or Monday.  It is easier to just have President’s Day on a Monday and have the day off.  Interesting to note that, except for government offices, most businesses don’t take that day off.  I think each state should have its own holiday, preferably in August, because there are no holidays in that month.  We could have “Hey!  It’s New Jersey Day.”  The slogan could be “We’re off and we’re down the shore.  Don’t bother us.”

Why don’t we go completely crazy and move other holidays.  How about, instead of the 4^th of July, we have Independence Day on the first Monday in July?  We could move Christmas to the last Monday in December and call it the Holiday Celebration (especially since saying Merry Christmas has become offensive).  New Year’s Day presents a problem, but I am sure we can figure something out.  Maybe we could move it to the first Monday in January and call it New Beginning Day (please note the sarcastic tone in this paragraph)!

Speaking of holidays, on October 8 we celebrate a real man’s holiday.  We celebrate Columbus Day!  This is a day celebrating a man who sailed off and did not land in the place where he was originally going and then came back without the stuff he went out for.  How many husbands does that sound like?  If you were to ask my wife, she would tell you that Queen Isabella should have given him a list and made sure he had some idea of where he was headed before he left.  What makes it even better is that he went to the wrong place a second time.  But this time when he returned without the goods, he was thrown in prison.  How many wives agree with that?

So men, there is hope.  Some day, a couple hundred years from now, there may be a holiday named for you because you went out to the grocery store for milk and eggs, but ended up at Home Depot and came back with a cordless drill, two boxes of screws and electrical tape.  It could be on the second Monday in August.  Or not.