“Move over, July Fourth! You’ve had your turn.” So begins a column in the Greenfield Recorder by Daniel Cantor Yalowitz, written for the nation’s 250th birthday, and aimed at every other date people mark in their lives.
Yalowitz, who holds an Ed.D. and is an intercultural and developmental psychologist, writes a regular column for the paper. He says he is not dismissing the holiday. He wants readers to turn to “other significant dates, people, and events to recognize.”
Why people celebrate
His starting point is that “life is made more sacred” because people can celebrate themselves and others at turning points. Everyone has daily challenges, conflicts, awkward moments and frustrations, he says, and those are “normal, natural, and part and parcel of the human condition.” People also have the inborn potential for joy and achievement, and celebration is how they set those moments apart.
He finds something freeing in it. Finishing something, in his telling, lifts “the burdens of waiting, hoping, sweating it out, and simply not knowing.” Rituals remind people how much time, effort, resiliency and focus it takes to get “over the line.” They often involve food, music, dance, written messages and applause.
Not every celebration is loud. Some happen privately, he writes, “in the quiet and dark of night,” with a rush of delight at something that has happened to a loved one or to oneself. When the occasion belongs to someone else, he adds, celebrating takes humility: giving primary attention to the person being honored.
Rituals and small moments
Yalowitz draws on his own faith. In Judaism, he notes, people say blessings when they notice a first, such as the first flower in bloom, the start of a day or each Friday shabbat. Other traditions have their own versions.
Then there are the unplanned ones: a high five for a job well done, a pat on the back after a basket, a big smile when a child rides a bike for the first time or reads a page.
He closes by asking what readers are most looking forward to celebrating, about what, with whom, when, how and where.
