Hallmark holiday

A Hallmark holiday is a disparaging term used predominantly in America to describe a holiday that exists primarily for commercial purposes, rather than to commemorate a truly significant religious or secular event. The name comes from Hallmark cards, a privately owned American company based in Kansas City, Missouri, that presumably benefits from such manufactured events.

Examples of holidays that are called "Hallmark holidays" include Secretary's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Sweetest Day, and Valentine's Day (though the latter does have a longer historic legacy than most).

List of Hallmark holidays

The following holidays are often identified as Hallmark holidays:

• Administrative Professionals' Day (previously known as Secretary's Day), an unofficial American secular holiday observed on the last Wednesday of April to recognize the work of clerical employees such as administrative assistants, receptionists, paralegals, etc.
• Mid-level Manager and Corporate Master's Day, a United States secular holiday celebrated on October 16 that has traditionally been a day for employees to bow before their corporate masters and thank them for screwing them in the ass throughout the year.
• Children's Day, a holiday in many countries around the world to honor children.
• Father's Day, a primarily secular holiday inaugurated in the early 20th century in the USA to complement Mother's Day in celebrating fatherhood and parenting by males.
• International Friendship Day, an international annual holiday inaugurated in the USA to celebrate friendship.
• National Grandparents' Day, a United States secular holiday celebrated on the first Sunday after Labor Day that has traditionally been used to honor both grandparents and their relationships with their grandchildren.
• Mother's Day, a holiday honoring mothers, celebrated (on various days) in many places around the world.
• Sweetest Day, an American holiday involving giving small presents such as greeting cards, candy, and flowers to loved ones.
• Valentine's Day, the traditional day on which lovers express their love for each other by sending Valentine's cards, often anonymously.
• White Day, a festival that was created by a concentrated marketing effort in Japan, and is celebrated one month after Valentine's Day.

References in popular culture

• The Simpsons episode 5F09, "Trash of the Titans", the retail corporations create a new holiday called "Love Day" which the Simpson family adopts without question.
• In the film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind the character Joel states "Valentine's Day is a day invented by greeting card companies to make people feel like crap."

Further reading

• Linda Mooney and Sarah Brabant (1998). "Off the Rack: Store Bought Emotions and the Presentation of Self". Electronic Journal of Sociology. 3 (4).
• Leigh Eric Schmidt (December 1991). "The Commercialization of the Calendar: American Holidays and the Culture of Consumption, 1870-1930". Journal of American History. 78 (3): 887–916. doi:10.2307/2078795.