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Holy Day for Civic Religion
Studying religion in the academy, you start to see things differently. You play amateur social anthropologist in religious services, to the annoyance of your friends. You analyze, to a fault, religious activity. And you see religious activities in parts of life most people consider irreligious. For example, I can't see this -- "soaring overhead, the windows of a skyscraper were lit up to spell VOTE and the roof of the iconic John Hancock tower glowed red, white and blue" -- as anything but a gigantic Christmas tree.
I study, in particular, civic religion, and today is our civic Feast of All Saints and Easter, Eid and Rosh Hashanah all rolled up into one. We are obliged to vote today, as the skyscrapers, every page of the paper, and a dozen campus-wide e-mails remind us. My mother tells the story of her ex-patriot friend who on Election Day would deck his house in red, white, and blue bunting, invite his neighbors over, and celebrate the festival, no matter who was slated to win. Sometimes one needs the distance to remember why we celebrate after all, what a really contested election looks like. So whether or not you just celebrated a Holy Day, come celebrate with us.
I'm off to vote. Happy Election Day!
By
Michael Pomeranz
|
November 4, 2008; 10:05 AM ET
| Category:
Lox et Veritas
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Posted by: mae | November 5, 2008 1:33 PM
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No doubt about it, voting is an act of faith. We know that our little vote will not matter and yet we feel compelled to do it. After we have voted we feel spiritually uplifted. When the president is elected we put aside our doubts and behave as though we have faith. This is a joyous occasion.