This answer is a continuation from last week's question:
 

Dear Rev. Know-It-All,

How long has January 1st been a Holy Day of Obligation? Is this just to keep people from having too much fun on New Years Eve, or is it a form of repentance for hangovers?

Yours sincerely, 

Barb O’Kue

Just a word about holy days of obligation: You gotta admire the Jews. On Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah, even if they are not very observant, they tend to go to the schul (synagogue, if you prefer) according to the law of Moses.

The attitude is, "Go ahead and fire me. It's the holy days! I'm not coming in to work." In my experience Orthodox Jews tend to be poor because they won't work on Shabbat, that is Friday night to Saturday night, or on the important holy days.

We Catholics only observe six holy days, plus Sundays. The local bishops figure out what the holy days of obligation are in a given area. For instance, in England at one point there were 33 holy days! We in the States only have six (6), though ten (10) are common elsewhere.

If every Catholic in America said, "Today is the feast of the Ascension, I'm not coming in to work. Fire me!" that would mean a fifth of the American work force would be out and the country would grind to a halt. What is happening is quite the opposite. We are beginning to work even on Christmas.  Biggy Mart is open just so you can get that last minute Super-Wonker Remote Control Simulated Soldier Doll so Junior won't have a tantrum.

In the Middle Ages the church declared certain days and times of the year sacred so the peasants couldn't be forced to work and the lord of the manor couldn't declare war on the next castle over. We are now in the process of wussing totally (that means giving in like spineless cowards) and we peasants are enslaved once again by the lords of the manors who want us to make money for them whether it is Christmas or Easter or whatever!

Wouldn't it be nice if all Catholics went on strike on Holy Days? I mean a real strike.  Refuse to exchange money at all. If you take Grandma to that nice Christmas buffet at "Chez Glitz" chances are the people waiting on you and washing your dishes are your fellow Catholics of Hispanic origin whom you are making wage slaves in order to celebrate your special treat for Grandma. (But, we've always gone to Chez Glitz on Christmas! It just wouldn't seem like Christmas! Oh, grow up! Be a Catholic for a change!)

Where was I? If your brother or sister in the Lord were to say, "No, Señor Boss, I want to go to church with my family this Easter." Well, you can imagine how much longer you brother in the Lord would have a job at Chez Glitz. If one fifth of the nation, the Catholic fifth, simply refused to spend money on a Holy Day of Obligation, I suspect the rest of the country would follow suit.

So, arise, fellow wage slaves! Celebrate the feast of the Circumcision of the Lord or the feast of Mary, the Mother of God. and all the other holy days by not spending money! Bring a sandwich to work if you have to work on a Holy Day but consecrate the day to the Lord by not spending any money. Fill up the gas tank the day before, or better still don't drive at all. Give the toll booth workers and the pot hole fillers a break.  If we all did that and got a few of our Protestant friends to do the same, things would change pretty fast. Oh what a glorious dream.

Yours sincerely,

Rev. Know-It-All
 

Editorial Note:
this question regards Q&A
Why do we have to go to church on New Years? --- Part 1
published on February 24, 2008