Today is Celebration Day when we are asked to remember the people we’ve loved and lost. My first reaction to the idea, was a groan. Really? Who needs another dedicated day? There are already more of them than there are days in the year, so some have to share. I’ve never taken any notice of Mothers’ Day, or Fathers’ Day, (and neither, sadly, have my children), let alone Potato Day, Upcycling (what’s that?) Day, Black Cow Day, or International Pisco Sour Day. There’s even a Love Conquers All Day, for heaven’s sake.
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Ameer Kotecha
The Blob is already getting ready to take down Reform
But I’ve come round. When someone important to us, who inspired or helped us, or whom we greatly loved, dies, we mourn them painfully for a period – and then stop talking about them altogether. Of course, that period of uncontrollable sudden tears and night-time misery, and later the weeks of joylessness, must be gone through. But after the tears, surely we shouldn’t mentally seal the beloved in a box and bury them. There’s relief and happiness in talking about them, in sharing old stories, laughing again at their idiosyncrasies, remembering why we loved them. It keeps them alive to us. But in our modern crammed lives we don’t often do that, and maybe Celebration Day will remind us that it is a fun thing to do.
