I accept his points but I've never understood why St. Patrick’s Day, Valentine's Day or Santa Claus have remained. With so many protestant's in this country,as he says, why do they like catholic saint days and traditions. It was bound to happen that these days would turn to secular days. He must be catholic.
None of these guys were Catholic. They all lived in a church that did not recognize the supremacy of the Bishop of Rome.
Valentine and Nicolaus were Greek, and followed the Bishop of Constantinople.
Patrick was a Briton, and a Bishop of the Celtic Church in Ireland, which never recognized the Pope. In fact, it could be argued that Western Europe owes more to the Celtic Church than it does to Rome.
Good Grief...the reasons are in this order:
Beer, candy, merchandising...
If you haven't noticed, the holidays are just excuses to buy stuff..
My family spends the month of December in prayer, fasting and observing Advent. Not shopping. That's the Christian holiday of Christmas.
Advertisers spend December is some orgy of newspaper blitz screaming about BUY BUY BUY....Big difference between the secular holidays and religious observance.