Tis the Season for Consuming

As important it is to remind our parents how much we appreciate them, I am very cynical against the idea of "mother's day" and "father's day". It wasn't until this mother's day, while at my job at Harvest Moon restaurant I witnessed a line of people going out the door, eager for the day's "mother's day special", that I realized just how big of a marketing scheme these special "holidays" are. Yes, it's nice, even important, to have a special day dedicated to the parental figures in our lives. But that's not what mother's and father's day means anymore. The message marketers send to us is that we must buy something in order to show our appreciation. And sure, buying nice things for our moms and dads is a good way to show appreciation. But when the entire theme in a store for May is revolving around one Sunday in that month...that is when things begin to get out of hand. We live in a consumer society, and when marketers get any excuse to market their product, they jump on it. Mother's and father's day becomes less of a day to ponder why we appreciate these parental figures so much, but what can we buy to demonstrate this appreciation. These days are good representations of our consuming society and its connection with all holidays - Easter, Christmas. It's not about why we celebrate the holiday but what we can do to celebrate it. And our progressing consuming attitudes are playing right into the hands of marketers.