Last month, I began a series in celebration of self-love. In every professional or extra-curricular setting in which introductions are inevitable, a fun fact usually accompanies the required speaking material. My go-to fun fact anymore is my list-making. My introduction usually goes something like this:
"Hi everyone! Thanks for being here, I'm really excited for today. My name is Gabby Barber. I'm a sophomore biochemistry major at Oklahoma State University, and a fun fact about me is that I have lists for everything that go out to, like, 10."
Isn't that so fun? It's a fast and easy way to open up with something that's, on a more serious note, incredibly special and beneficial to me.
That being said, I am excited to write my second list of favorites: holidays! Before you read further on, though, go ahead and give my first part some love - it gives more background on my list-making in the first place and focuses on movies.
1. H a l l o w e e n (October 31st)
Absolutely stunning Halloween decorations
How can you say it isn't exhilarating to look forward to a specific day that only occurs 0.27% of the time? I support anyone whose beliefs or prior traumas prevent them for celebrating Halloween or any other holiday, but I love basking in the warmth and excitement that this spooky celebration elicits for me.
Not only is this day a great day to dress up and decorate the house, it is a celebration of everything the world ridicules otherwise. Strangers being nice to one another, looking abnormal, thinking about death, dark entertainment, and, of course, goths. Iconic synth and industrial band Ministry hits the nail on the head with their song, "Everyday is Halloween," when they sing about society's hypocritical obsession with degrading the avant-garde, but Halloween is the one day where nobody cares.
Halloween is an homage to the oddballs in a world that wants them to be normal the rest of the time. For us black sheep, though, our idiosyncrasies are not Halloween decorations, it is not a taste in film or clothes, it is who we are. Therefore, every day is Halloween. Here is my favorite version of the song, taken from a Ministry tribute album.
2. Thanksgiving (4th Thursday of November)
A pumpkin patch is the perfect setting to celebrate fall
My friend, Sydney McDaniel
This ranking is all about family. I was 100% the girl who cried when she got her first period or started shaving her legs because she didn't want to grow up. If I'm being honest, growing up still sometimes makes me feel nostalgic in the bad way, if you've ever experienced that.
Thanksgiving, though, is a beautiful day to unite my family and be small again. I love catching up with everyone, and I love sharing all of this love over delicious plates of food filled with tradition and fall spices. This why Thanksgiving takes the silver medal, where my second favorite season is in full swing with a chill in the air and leaves on the ground.
3. Easter (1st Sunday after the ecclesiastical full moon that occurs on or soonest after March 21st, whatever that means)
An Easter hike to Jed Johnson Tower in the Oklahoma Wichita Mountains
Felesha Barber (my mom, the Almighty Bean)
I have always loved Easter, although my sources of passion have evolved over the years.
Initially, I loved Easter because it reminded me of my birthday and my favorite season, Spring. The Easter Bunny loved bringing my older brother and I Easter baskets with chocolate and confetti (and I'm a sucker for wicker baskets), reminiscent of birthday presents. And with my birthday being in mid-April, it's always been my dream to have my birthday fall on Easter. It hasn't happened, yet, but... a girl can dream.
Then, when I started to fall in love with fashion as a tool for confidence and self-expression, I loved all things pastel (oh how the tables turn). The colors associated with Easter filled me with visual excitement and adoration. Who know a holiday could be so beautiful??
Moving on to high school, when I discovered Animal Collective, whom I could write a separate article series about, I got even more excited about Easter. So far, rabbits represented Easter and Alice in Wonderland, but now they also represented an Animal Collective song and, therefore, almost all parts of my personal interests. It's like the holiday was made for me.
Except it wasn't - it was made for Jesus. Even the root of Easter is beautiful! As an evangelical Christian, a day to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the eternal salvation and spiritual connection that ensued is overwhelmingly joyful. What a spectacular day.
4. Christmas (December 25th)
The Barber-Johnson family celebrating Christmas 2019 in Mexico
A benevolent stranger
I'm happy to say that Christmas is now my fourth favorite holiday. It used to be lower on the list by at least a magnitude of 2, for I associated it with a pool of negative feelings. Ever since the latter half of high school, I have experienced winter-induced seasonal depression, officially known as seasonal affective disorder. Because, in my case and many others, the cold season sets off the seasonal sadness, I started to resent Christmas for being nestled in the midst of my annual funk.
Additionally, I always had a weird feeling after Christmas. It was awkward and off-putting to spend months building up excitement for Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas just to have it end the moment Christmas is over like a national emotional drop. Sure, New Year's is still there, but it is certainly several notches lower on cultural obsession (not mine!). So as I got older, which was already challenging (see holiday 2), the holiday spirit faded and dulled.
Consequently, it became easier to just hate Christmas, especially after my grandpa passed away and wasn't at our celebrations anymore.
That is, until 2019. That year, my family decided we needed a paradigm shift on what's supposed to be the jolliest day of the year. We went on a Christmas cruise that was so fun and special that it seemed to remedy my grinch-like attitudes. I hope the trend sustains beyond this Christmas!
5. Groundhog Day (February 2nd)
A groundhog
I don't really know what to say for this one. I can not explain what it is about Groundhog Day that makes me so happy, but I f r e a k i n g love Groundhog Day.
This special day, celebrated every year on February 2, has an accompanying ceremony in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. The city's eponymous Phil is the man of the hour who is supposed to tell us how the weather will be over the next six weeks. These ceremonies are lavish and old-fashioned in the best way. Perhaps it's this all-in-good-fun nature of the day that explains why I love it so dearly.
Renaissance festivals share a similar sentiment, don't they? Who knows. All I know is that Groundhog Day has every right to be my fifth favorite holiday and I don't expect it to go down in status any time soon.
6. My boyfriend and I's anniversary (January 23rd)
My boyfriend and I celebrating our 1-hand-year-aversary
Our waiter at Oklahoma City's The Melting Pot
As much as I would love to boast myself as a strong, independent woman who don't need no man, geez louise, I love my boyfriend. I don't think this article or the public is the place to get all mushy-gushy, so I will just say this day being ranked where it is says a lot, and I will leave it at that.
7. New Year's Eve (December 31st)
Happy New Year!
Notice how this ranking is for New Year's Eve, not New Year's. Day. I'm in the party pooper class that believes New Year's resolutions are useless, for one 24-hour period does not change anything about our lives. But I guess it's all in the symbolism, isn't it?
It is also fun to have some semblance of national unity. In an era where the internet and cable or streaming make it impossible for everyone to be on the same page, it's nice to feel connected to everyone else in the world anticipating another period around the Sun.
I always had a soft spot for NYE. As a child, when my now-late grandfather lived in Nevada, my family would make vlogs for him every New Year's. It was a huge tradition: we'd have homemade sausage biscuits for breakfast, go to a local park and feed some ducks, have lunch at Braum's, and see a movie.
Although we stopped this tradition a couple years after my grandpa passed, a new tradition came in to focus on the preceding day.
For the last few years, my best friends and our boyfriends have gathered together to play board games and count down to the new midnight, a tradition I hope we maintain despite moving away for school.
8. St. Patrick's Day (March 17th)
Irish green beer
St. Patrick's Day, which also happens to be my parents' wedding anniversary, is a fun day of teasing and cultural celebration of the Irish, of which I share some ancestry. I love the ties between song and dance of the Irish with that of renaissance festivals, which makes this day even better. Growing up, I loved hearing stories of the leprechaun's pot of gold at the end of every rainbow, and I loved Disney's St. Patty's movies. Now, it's just a fun and nostalgic day to look forward to.
Thank you for sticking around to learn about my favorite holidays. Until the next list!!
-Gabby
