Does anybody know where holidays came from?

Answer 1

thanksgiving is actually a sanitized version of what really happened on that date---there WAS no friendly feast between the pilgrims and the native americans--it was a massacre of native peoples by the explorers. easter was a spring ritual of the druids. mother's day was a marketing gimmick to boost sales by hallmark cards, fourth of july came from our break from british rule.

Answer 2

That is a many faceted question.

First, communal celebrations are ubiquitous but fixed date ones require a calendar. They are extentions of the calendar, in part.

They are often religious in purpose, but some, like Catholic Holy Days of Obligation served two purposes. First, they guaranteed that important passages in scripture would be heard by everyone, such as the nativity story, the annunciation by the angel Gabriel and the Easter story. Second, it protected the weakest from destructive exploitation by forbidding work to what were essentially slave owners on about 59 or so days per year.

Some are purely civil commemorations to bring a society together around its communal symbols. This aspect is quite new actually and is from the creation of secular governments.

Some are promoted by individuals around concepts that people think should be honored, such as mother's day.

Answer 3

Every holiday has a history. You can use any good encyclopedia and look up any holiday and it will give you the origins. Most so-called "Christian" holidays though, if that is the ones you are referring to, are from pagan sources, meaning not Christian or biblical. Look them up and if you want more details, let me know and I can help you out. sincerely, Bonnie