Grief & healing: The next holiday

When you think of it, it’s never very long before another holiday rolls around.

Basically there is a holiday every month. Sometimes there two in the same month. If you make a list of all the holidays, it’s a long list!

There are of course all the official national holidays like Memorial Day, Labor Day, Presidents Day, etc. And then there are many religious and ethnic ones.

Holidays are a big part of our culture and social life.

Some holidays are fixed dates, such as New Year’s Day, and are celebrated on the exact day. Some move around, like Easter. And others have an exact date but are celebrated on Monday to create a long weekend.

The next holiday coming up is St. Patrick’s Day on March 17. Locally, the Dundee St. Patrick’s Day will be celebrated on March 15 — a Saturday so it’s on the weekend when families are free to go to it. People of all ages will be there. It’s attended by hundreds of people in the area, not just the Irish!

Baheej and I attended for years, and enjoyed the delicious corned beef and cabbage at Rosie O’Hare’s Public House, where the parade starts. It is always great fun. We would get there early to get a good seat by the window where we could watch from inside.

A feature of holidays is that often what started as a religious or ethnic holiday gets adopted and celebrated by a wide spectrum of people. St. Patrick’s Day is a good example of this.

The point is: Holidays should be celebrated and they provide a great opportunity to be part of the community. St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated all over the country and covered widely by national and local TV networks.

So let’s celebrate — even if only via TV and deli corned beef or corned beef hash!

• Susan Anderson-Khleif of Sleepy Hollow has a doctorate in family sociology from Harvard, taught at Wellesley College and is a retired Motorola executive. Contact her at sakhleif@aol.com.