The Netherlands celebrates carnival. What is carnival? I asked the same thing. I asked many locals what the holiday consisted of. It is quite funny because no one could really describe to me WHY they celebrated it, instead they discussed HOW they celebrated it. You are suppose to dress up in a crazy outfit. By crazy I mean, colorful clown clothes or any Halloween costume. At first I thought maybe this was their Halloween but there was no candy involved. The holiday was centered around alcohol.
Each year they pick a prince for carnival. I thought this was very interesting and I was eager to ask how did they did they select the prince? One taxi answered: they choose someone who can drink the most. Therefore, the prince was someone who could financially afford to drink more, the riches young man of the Netherlands. Despite not knowing what the holiday was celebrated for, I dressed up. I spent the day watching parades and throwing confetti at locals. I loved the holiday and I enjoyed it.
However, it made me wonder about American holidays. Why did we celebrate Halloween? Why did we celebrate Fourth of July? Can we describe how we celebrate this holiday more than we can describe why we celebrate this holiday? Which holidays revolve around alcohol? Is there any holidays that don’t?