Why do holidays exist? For the same reason as festivals, ceremonies, and souvenirs: To increase demand for hard-to-make stuff. This helps artisans at the cutting edge make a living. They are the innovators. Helping them advances technology. Our celebration of Independence Day, for example, creates demand for fireworks, firecrackers, and American flags.
hm, costume manufacturers would certainly be up a creek if they didn’t have halloween, and people talk about hallmark holidays created to sell cards, so that makes intuitive sense.
i guess another idea that leaps to mind is that holidays are a time when people are more likely to be focusing on a certain seemingly culturally valuable narratives or sets of ideas.
i’m reminded of how muslims have to pray five times a day and have ramadan once a lunar year presumably effectively reminding them of their muslim values.
with the fourth of july there’s a nice overlap of the commercial ends of holiday’s and the end of reminding people of american values, given american free-market friendliness.
True, not hard to make any more.