Dragaros wrote:
I respectfully disagree.
But calling it national moon day lumps it in with the national sprinkled donut days and national groom your poodle days. It wasn't something that existed until a short while ago. Nixon created national moon landing day, but they took the 'landing' out of it. All these dumb national days are obvious what they're about but moon day begs the question 'what is it actually about'? Unfortunately american school systems are off in July and the only holiday anyone celebrates in the summer is Forth of July. Kids were't forced to make Moon projects for school and write Moon essays and share Moon Pie on the day we should celebrate man's landing on the Moon. They took the importance of the day and stripped it from the title. You know today is national vanilla ice cream day? And tomorrow is national Amelia Earhart day, national counsins day, national drive-thru day, national tequila day and national thermal engineer day? Do you think more people will be excited to celebrate the role Amelia played in forwarding the not only flight but woman's role in exploring the world, or tequila? Amelia, the Moon, the meaning behind celebrating them is lost because of this craze about celebrating everything. Drive-thrus? Do we have to celebrate that?
I celebrate the moon every night. I take a good minute or two to stop what I'm doing and find it and stare at it. It was next to Jupiter the other night and will be next to Saturn the next. It's a gorgeous waxing Moon. (By the way, Mars is in opposition so it will outshine any star and Jupiter in the next week. Look for a bright orange dot rising in the south east as the sun sets. It's the most brightest since 2003 and maybe the brightest for a very long while.) Anyway, I understand what 'national moon day' is suppose to be about and I know all too well what it meant for generations and will mean for generations to come.
I agree with you that having a day to reflect on the scientific and political and human importance of the event is something we should all take time to do. I even agree with the astronomers and scientists who want to make the public aware of an entire day celebrating what the moon has meant for furthering science and man's next step into exploring the solar system. I'm just upset that as someone who has spent his life studying and observing the moon and stars and the planets as a hobby just heard for the very first time that there's a day to celebrate all of that and it's on the same level of importance as lolli-pops. Sigh, why do I get all riled up on the semantics of things? Must be my INTP.