e138. Holiday Tradition and Ritual in the Time of COVID

It’s the holiday season. In the United States we just celebrated Thanksgiving, and in the coming weeks that will be followed by Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Years, Pancha Ganapati, Yule, Festivus, Saturnalia, Slackernalia and probably 1000 other winter holidays that get celebrated somewhere around the world. These holidays are often commemorated by coming together with family or religious partitioners and having some sort of ritual celebration with tremendous amounts of food and maybe presents. Also, we often watch football after them (at least in America, football accompanies a LOT of winter holidays). But this year, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the prospect of holidays is significantly less safe than it normally is. With much of the world in global lockdown, family celebrations aren’t possible. Or… they shouldn’t be… but oddly enough, more than any other aspect of COVID since the pandemic began, the holidays seems to be the one thing that many people are unwilling to give up. On this week’s episode, Wayne, Katya, Mav and Hannah discuss the cultural history and significance of winter holidays, why they are so important to us, and why so many people are willing to risk the dangers of breaking quarantine just to stick to their holiday traditions. Listen and let us know your thoughts in the comments. Voxpop Thanksgiving Gallery: Citations and Links: * This episode’s Call for Comments* Smoking a turkey with a beer can recipe by Joshua Bo...