Days of Rest and High Holidays

[Rev. Ed C]

Now, here's something that's been prancing around the back of my mind for a little while, and I think it's about time for a new Inquiry.

Days of Rest and High Holidays, something that's no stranger to other religious/philosophical bodies, and something we've dabbled in.

I think there are two lines of thought to this:

1)  We force in as many holidays as we can, for the hell of it.

2)  We don't have any holidays, because we can make any day a holiday.

Classically me, I say let's take a little from both schools of thought, whilst leaning to less is more

At the moment we have The Day of the Dude on the 6th of March each year.  This is to mark of the original cinematic release of The Big Lebowski, part of our original inspiration, but is really a fairly arbitrary date when we get down to it.  It's mostly about kicking back and slacking off and getting together with other dudes where possible.  I think this is a great idea for holiday and I've successfully celebrated it two years in a row, although only once on 6th of March itself, but like I say, the date is fairly arbitrary.

Of course, arbitrary dates are right up our alley, because any excuse is a good excuse for a rest, and we enjoy the freedom to do as we please, hence why there are no dictated dates for days of rest, we make them when we can.  Much like a dedicated prayer time when/where you can, we have dedicated rest times, whenever we need them and can take them.  Dictating enforced holidays and festivals is a bit anti-dude really.  As such, TDotD is perfect, as it's all about the casualness, so it's like a ?whatever? holiday.

Two years ago I had my first article published for the Dudespaper, Christmas, The Season of the Dude?, about how many of the principals of this hodgepodge holiday speak to our dudely nature.  I think there are many aspects of this time of year we can all dig, and seeing as it's something we can share with so many others, it's a good thing.  Keeps us from separatist actions

Other suggestions for holidays I've not been so keen on.  This season we seem to have Kerabotsmas, a Lebowskiist parody which has never been fleshed out, and Summer Slowstice, another parody which has fallen into obscurity.  I'd say these are unnecessary holidays and hold only a novelty value, seeing as nothing of note has been attached to them.

I'm not sure what significant events can be marked for us.  I mean, we can take plenty of events in history as landmarks of Dudeist achievement, but isn't it perhaps an effort to pick them out and force them into holidays shapes?

Perhaps, as I once suggested, the Buddhist method would be good to take.  They celebrate not only the birth of notable figures, but the death as well.  So, perhaps a calender of Great Dudes in History's birthdays and deathdays should be drawn up.  A schedule of great days when we can celebrate the arrival of great Dudes, and to give them a good sendoff into the ?Big Easy?.  Not that we need an excuse to raise a glass of whatnot, but, hey, sometimes it makes a nice change to have one

What are everyone else's opinions on our holidays, those we have and those we might benefit from, a GDiH Birth/Death calender, and the whole idea of Dudely holidays and days of rest?

[DigitalBuddha]

Rev., your comments bring to mind the works of Joseph Campbell's "The Power of Myth." I believe that Dudeism, though based on a myth, contains within it's play many deep human truths. TBL is a true myth worthy of the likes of other works wrote about by Campbell.



The Power Of Myth - The Heros Adventure (then again, what's a hero?) - Part 1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhU99yaOcjw

[Rev. Ed C]

Rev., your comments bring to mind the works of Joseph Campbell's "The Power of Myth."

That DVD's still on my Amazon list... well reminded!

[Rev. RJ Dudemiester]

Rev., your comments bring to mind the works of Joseph Campbell's "The Power of Myth."

That DVD's still on my Amazon list... well reminded!

If you have NetFlix, there are a couple good Campbell documentaries!