Thank you for the explanation. No offense intended, but to the uninitiated the motivation sounds very similar to the old Soviet propaganda pushing the visitation of Stalin's taxidermied corpse. I guess even atheists feel a need to celebrate holy days for their saints. It must be universal.
No problem! Sadly there are some Objectivists who treat the philosophy almost like a religion -- certainly ironic. We at The Atlas Society understand that critical thinking means just that, thinking critically. Thus we don't assume that Rand said the last word on everything.
Concerning celebrations and holy days, check out my piece on "Secular Spirituality" at this link:
http://www.objectivistcenter.org/ct-1835-secular_spirit.aspx
One of the avenues that Rand did help open -- and I which more Objectivists and non-Objectivists alike would explore it -- is that meaning and significance in life comes from ourselves and our nature as creatures with a rational capacity and free will. We create meaning. Let me know what you think.
Cheers!