{"id":61049,"date":"2023-12-09T01:25:47","date_gmt":"2023-12-09T06:25:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=61049"},"modified":"2023-12-06T09:35:12","modified_gmt":"2023-12-06T14:35:12","slug":"holidays-or-holy-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/2023\/12\/09\/holidays-or-holy-days\/","title":{"rendered":"Holidays or Holy Days"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><a href=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2023\/12\/thumbnail_20180129_182929-1.jpeg\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-61028\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2023\/12\/thumbnail_20180129_182929-1.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The very term holiday is in fact a mash up of the words holy day.\u00a0 But what has happened to our holy days is they have been over-run with commercialism, cartoon characters,\u00a0 and frankly a brief spurt of compassion for our fellow human beings who are less fortunate than we are, especially those in war torn places like Ukraine or Gaza or Israel.\u00a0 In reflecting on this situation I\u2019ve written various Christmas poems, and here is the shortest among them\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>Holidays are hollow<\/p>\n<p>Unless they\u2019re hallowed well,<\/p>\n<p>For holidays are holy days<\/p>\n<p>The time for truth to tell.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s time to spare<\/p>\n<p>Time to waste<\/p>\n<p>Time to make amends<\/p>\n<p>Time to do most anything<\/p>\n<p>Even make new friends<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Holidays, a good time<\/p>\n<p>For writing poetry<\/p>\n<p>A silent, subtle indolence<\/p>\n<p>Inspires creativity.<\/p>\n<p>In short, holidays are a very good time for a person to take stock of his or her life.\u00a0 What exactly have you done in life that matters, what is of eternal significance,\u00a0 what actually glorified God and edified your fellow human beings?\u00a0 It\u2019s a fair question.\u00a0 Christmas reminds us that there are things of eternal worth and merit giving one\u2019s life to.\u00a0 \u00a0And of course poetry is the sound of the soul, striving to articulate the deeper things.<\/p>\n<p>Think on this.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The very term holiday is in fact a mash up of the words holy day.\u00a0 But what has happened to our holy days is they have been over-run with commercialism, cartoon characters,\u00a0 and frankly a brief spurt of compassion for our fellow human beings who are less fortunate than we are, especially those in war [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":91,"featured_media":61010,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-61049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Holidays or Holy Days<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The very term holiday is in fact a mash up of the words holy day.\u00a0 But what has happened to our holy days is they have been over-run with commercialism,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Holidays or Holy Days\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The very term holiday is in fact a mash up of the words holy day.\u00a0 But what has happened to our holy days is they have been over-run with commercialism,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/bibleandculture\/?p=61049\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Bible and Culture\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-12-09T06:25:47+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-12-06T14:35:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/55\/2023\/12\/thumbnail_20150124_083002.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"360\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ben Witherington\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta 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