Nihilo sanctum estne?

Is nothing sacred?

I think of that line, from the movie Rushmore when thinking about holidays.  I wonder, is Veteran's Day the only pure American holiday?  I mean, sure, other countries have their own version of a Remembrance Day that's set apart to reflect on and honor those who died in wars.  And Veteran's Day, like all other holidays, has become an excuse to have a sale, to have a day off or get paid time and half. 

Lemme 'splain.
- Christmas.  Oh, it's only the most conflated capitalist holiday of the year.  You don't even have to be Christian to celebrate it.  And Jesus wasn't even born in December.

- Thanksgiving.  Once it was my favorite holiday of the year.  But what does it really celebrate? Genocide, or the start of the exploitation and marginalization of the people native to the Americas.

-  Fourth of July.  See: above.

- Memorial Day/Labor Day: The former comes close to Veteran's day but it's overshadowed by the fact that it's become the unofficial start of summer; the latter it's counterpart, the end of summer.

Veteran's day was once Armistice Day, the day that WWI ended, on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.  Obviously this year was much more special because it's the eleventh year of the new milleneum and omg-the-ultimate-day-to-make-a-wish-blah-blah-blah.  So, in that sense, the 'true meaning of Veteran's day' was overshadowed.  But I still maintain that this day is still sacred.  But at the same time it's nice that this day was a nice day, that thousands died so that we could take freedom for granted.  So I suppose I am still of two minds about this topic...