Tomorrow is the Finnish Independence Day. I’ve never been very nationalistic, but the recent right-wing surgence in Finland has made the whole thing distasteful for me. Don’t get me wrong. I do love many aspects of this country, but there are certain powerful elements in our society, like probably most societies right now, which are trying to destroy those things, like our educational system.

With that in mind and remembering that I am a pretty strong introvert, I don’t really want to take part in any way in our Independence Day.

I’m not a big fan of other Holidays. Many of them are religious, at least traditionally, and I don’t like that. Christmas just feels forced to me. Easter is just a bunch of pagan traditions with a thin veneer of CHristianity. Then we have the Finnish-slash-Scandinavian ones like Vappu or Walpurgis Night and Juhannus or Midsummer. These are traditional days for drinking in Finland and since I don’t drink, I tend to stay away from them. There are other public holidays, but they aren’t really for me either. I used to go to Vappu parties back when I was a student and also some time after, because it was a thing to do, but I would always leave early. Those masses just weren’t for me.

The question is, are those holidays and celebrations in some way important to us? Of course, there’s the sense of community, but as an introvert, that isn’t that important to me. Anything else? Maybe. So, if I don’t take part in the usual celebrations and holidays, should I still have my own?

Well, here’s some ideas.

Here’s one I practically celebrate already. The Good, The Bad and the Ugly is my favorite film. It was originally released on 23rd of December, 1966. For quite some time now, I’ve taken the time to watch it on that specific night. Sometimes someone has joined me, but usually I’ve done it alone. I get some food that’s outside of my usual diet and enjoy its magnifigance in my own living room. Since I don’t usually work on this day, this is pretty much everything I do, except maybe watch a few more films, often in the same vein.

So, what else. Maybe I should consider something else a celebration. So, how about Magic Prereleases. They happen four times a year, but its always sort of like the rebirth of the game, in a way, because the new sets always bring something new to the game, at least in the certain formats. Kind of like Easter is just a new version of a pagan holiday for when life was reborn annually. Maybe having this celebration four times a year is a bit too much.

Now, if I could come up with the right days to celebrate the other important things in my life, such as science, and there’s good candidate for that for 14th of March, which is celebrated by some people as Pi day, or Gravmass, the birthday of Isaac Newton on 25th of Decemeber, I would be all set and I could leave all the usual celebrations behind.

Large parts of our life happen internationally anyway. Not everyone celebrates everything the same way anyway. For example, the Scandinavian Magic GP last year was on Midsummer Day, which is a huge deal in Finland, Sweden and Baltics, or most of the people in the region. This was because people at WotC didn’t know this, because everywhere else its not a big deal. So, shouldn’t I just let go of the schedule altogether and celebrate whatever I want whenever I feel like it… or I can fit it into my schedule.