All Hallow's Month

Ahh, 'tis November when I get that one week around Thanksgiving when I don't have to rake leaves or shovel snow. As I look at my wall calendar, I see that November is bookended by two celebrations for Christian Saints. All Saints Day on the 1st and St. Andrew's Day on the 30th. All Saints Day seems quirky. I searched on-line for "list of saint feast days" and found that every single day of the year has at least one Saint commemorated. You would think that a full year would catch them all, but no, we have All Saints Day just in case we missed some along the way.

Maybe that makes sense. It might be nice to have a few more "catch-all" holidays, because I would fall into all of them. I'd like to have an "All Employees Bonus Day." I hate when year-end bonus time comes around and the payroll department starts with the fat cats at the top.

"Here's ten million for you, ten million for you, and ten million for you. Oh, would you look at that! No more bonus money. Looks like the rest of you, the drones, will just have to hang your heads in shame and drive home slowly in your Hyundai's."

I'm reminded of a tense exchange during my university days. A classmate of mine, Edwin Samsonite, and I were working together on a project for Business Ethics 102: Manipulation and Greed. It was March 17, and out of the azure Eddie says to me sharply, "What's the deal with Saint Patrick's Day, anyway? I don't even know who Saint Patrick was. I'm neither Catholic nor Irish. And I don't look good in green. Why do I need to celebrate a day for him?"

"You don't have to celebrate anything today, you know," I replied.

"I know, but I have Scandinavian ancestry. How come we don't get a day for one of our saints? It's not like there's a 'Thor's Day'."

"Oh, really?" I asked. "Then what comes between Wednesday and Friday?"

"Thurs..." Eddie stopped dead in his speech, pondering.

"Think on that," I said.