Holidays and Other Disasters

by John G. Rodwan Jr.

Holidays and Other Disasters considers the major U.S. holidays–Easter, Christmas, Opening Day, etc.–from an atheist’s perspective. It examines explicitly religious holidays, those that have a definite if not always acknowledged religious thrust (Valentine’s Day, Thanksgiving) and secular holidays that had religious elements added on (like Labor Day) by way of personal stories, usually the author’s own. Where other people have especially revealing holiday stories, as is the case with Jack Johnson (the first black heavyweight champion) and the Fourth of July, novelist Salman Rushdie and Valentine’s Day or labor leader Eugene V. Debs and Labor Day, Rodwan tell theirs. Of course, holidays aren’t about religion alone, and Holidays and Other Disasters doesn’t look narrowly at them as pageants of piety. Rather, the book considers the various issues holidays raise, including race and class, and discusses other forms of expressive activity, such as literature, music and sports, along with religion and holiday rituals.

184 pages, Paperback

First published November 13, 2013

About the author

John G. Rodwan, Jr., is the author of Fighters & Writers (Mongrel Empire Press, 2010), a collection of pugilistic literary essays. His writing has been published by The American Interest, The Mailer Review, Blood and Thunder, Spot Literary Magazine, The Nevada Review, The Oregonian, Philip Roth Studies, Palimpsest, Free Inquiry, The Humanist and Secular World. He was raised in Detroit, Michigan, and in 2011, after fifteen years during which he lived in Geneva, Switzerland; Brooklyn, New York; and Portland, Oregon, he returned to his hometown

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book's summary states that it considers major US holidays from an atheist's perspective, but it really doesn't do that.

This is a collection of anecdotes, some personal, some not, which SOMETIMES have something to do with a holiday (however passing that relationship is). Salman Rushdie's personal relationship to Feb. 14th, it being the day the fatwa was declared against him, really has nothing to do with atheists' relationship to that holiday or the holiday itself.

Likewise, the author's relationship with a particular priest at his Catholic school is a section that has nothing to do with any holiday (and there are numerous similar sections). The book states early on that its audience is not the believers, yet spends time documenting contradictions in the Bible.

This book was so random and generally uninteresting. There was nothing that made me want to keep reading. Maybe if I'd just decided I was an atheist it would have been more interesting, but even then I think Rodwan would have an uphill battle.

I also believe that in assuming Thanksgiving immediately invokes thanking a creator, he's overlooking the real meaning of the event - being thankful for other humans' kindness. Pilgrims may have thanked god for their luck, but that doesn't take away from the truth.

Rodwan feels you can't pick and choose what parts of a holiday to celebrate. I'm not sure why he cares or is trying to convince atheists not to have a god-free Christmas but to abandon family traditions and memories altogether.

Personally, I don't need atheists pressuring me about how to celebrate, just like I don't need Christians doing it, and frankly, Rodwan barely elaborates on the subject, given that it's supposed to be what the book was about. He spends more pages talking about 9/11 and the opening day of baseball season than Easter and Christmas. Rodwan's sections about parades honoring specific nationalities had me bristling. He reacts negatively against that partitioning, but he's also not part of a marginalized group and his privilege in that respect shows in his comments.