Capitalism created holidays?

[R_P_A_S]

I was at work today and there was this guy from Scotland there and he saw me reading Lenin's Revolution and State. and he said "oh! neat you a commie eh?" I started to laugh and he introduce himself and told me how this shit system came from Scotland.

He said that two Scottish men back in 1700s or so started the cotton industry. He went on to tell me about the horrible working conditions for children and then he told me how Capitalism invented days off and then added holidays to control workers and take back their money. he went on and I couldn't really understand his thick accent. hehehe. but he sounded very passionate and well I wish I could had record him.

does anyone have any info on the early days and the history of "days off" and "Holiday breaks"

He mention how the employers held carnivals and field trips on "planned days off" just to take back the workers money.. sick shit.

[Demogorgon]

Originally posted by [email protected] 14, 2007 06:52 am
I was at work today and there was this guy from Scotland there and he saw me reading Lenin's Revolution and State. and he said "oh! neat you a commie eh?" I started to laugh and he introduce himself and told me how this shit system came from Scotland.

He said that two Scottish men back in 1700s or so started the cotton industry. He went on to tell me about the horrible working conditions for children and then he told me how Capitalism invented days off and then added holidays to control workers and take back their money. he went on and I couldn't really understand his thick accent. hehehe. but he sounded very passionate and well I wish I could had record him.

does anyone have any info on the early days and the history of "days off" and "Holiday breaks"

He mention how the employers held carnivals and field trips on "planned days off" just to take back the workers money.. sick shit.
Well hang on now, we may have our faults, but I don't think we Scots can be blamed for the entire capitalist system :lol:

Anyway holidays pre-date capitalism. In the early days of capitalism people enjoyed much fewer holidays than they had previously, because the factory owners were not exactly generous in that regard as you might imagine.

Obviously as time went on they had to concede mmore. People won't be trodden over forever.

[midnight marauder]

holidays in some form or another have existed for centuries. the modern conception of the holiday though, like the type we have in america, is an inverted type of holiday that comes directly from capitalism, despite its deep roots.

for example, in ancient egypt superstitious people would only work about one-fifth of thee days of the year, in athens there were about sixty days of festival anually, in rome there were over a hundred days where no judicial or other public business could be transacted, and in tarentum at its highest feast days outnumbered working days.

this is echoed in other societies with alternative types of economies, where the organisation of work was so varied and different that work time and leisure time where practically indistinguishable. holidays as we know them came about when there was a need for them. with the creation of the working class and the 11 hour work day came the necessity for people's health.

with the advent of the church, holy days were afforded throughout the year to both peasants and the nobility. eventually, holy days became holidays, and were afforded only to the ruling classes, as a time to get involved in external activities and take a break from doing nothing. elizabeth montagu wrote in 1849 of the resort town of bath, "Half of us come here to cure the bodily evils occasioned by laziness; the other half to remedy the mental disease of idleness and inoccupation." of course, this was never extended to the actual toilers for obvious reasons, as the ruling classes require workers, well, working, to support them. the idea of the activity filled holiday stayed, though, as tom hodgkinson writes: "It was essential, however, that the holidays be filled with activity. they were not for loafing, since, as we have seen, idleness breeds sedition."

so, while capitalism didn't create the holiday, it chagned it into what we think of it as today. as hodgkinson goes on to say, "If you compare this to the mere 8,000 people who, it is estimated, took holidays in the eighteenth century, it gives an idea of the massive expansion of the concept of the holiday as an organized collective pursuit, and of the commercialization of leisure."

the commercialization of leisure is another primary function of the holiday as we know it now. it's a chance to capitalize on all sorts of activities and traditions. you don't have to look hard to find someone willing to criticize xmas, valentines day, etc. because it's something that everyone already knows.

goverments and companies know this as well, and that's why countries today have their holidays legislated from above, because it's easier to control and it builds political capital and legitimacy. if fact, this describes the entire history of may day -- it's unpredictable holiday built from the bottom up and is thus seen as a "hotbed of sedition" by modern governments.

in a pamphlet from 1913, comrade boris reinstein writes that labor day, in contrast to may day (the "drilling day" for revolution), is a "sweetner" for the workers:


The American Labor Day, on the ocntrary, was a "gift" which the workers recieved fom their masters...A vampire, when he settles down upon the body of a sleeping person and sucks its blood, is known to fan the victim with his wings, to soothe the victim's pain, and to prevent him from waking up and driving the vampire away. So was the Labor Day created by the political agents of the American capitalists to fan the sleeping giant, the American working class, while the capitalists are sucking its blood...on that day the chains of wage-slavery are, figuratively speaking, taken off his limbs; he is made the hero of the day; his masters, the capitalists, stand before him in mock humility; their spokesmen in the press, pulpit and other their political platforms, overwhelm him with flattery; and the modern Silly Fool...throws out his chest and swells with pride. But, the day of mockery and of the Fool's Paradise are over, the masters -- who during this day are only slyly smiling -- break out into sardonic laughter -- though unheard by the slave -- clap the chains back on his limbs and he again hears only the crack of the whip of Hunger and Slavery.

nice figurative language, eh?

in any case, although holidays have existed all throughout human society, the holiday as we know it something that came about out of a necessity of capitalism, and is driven by capitalist enterprises, and is still in the process of evolving today. not that this is some sort of conspiracy, but governments and companies all know that holidays are a way to remain popular in the public eye and to retain their place on the top of the ladder in society.

there's a good chapter in a book called how to be idle by tom hodgkinson, who i quoted. there's a lot of good information in there about how holidays are created by goverments and companies, their purpose, and their effect on popular culture and the average person.

[dannydandy]

Originally posted by [email protected] 14, 2007 09:01 am
holy days became holidays
true... the word 'holiday' came from 'holy day'

so religion created holidays in teh first place, considering holidays were for people to stop work and attend religious rituals in the early societies.

[Dominicana_1965]

I wouldn't say Capitalism per say, but historically they were constructed by the ruling clique. Now the Bourgeoisie utilizes them with Capitalism in order to promote...unabated commerce, and not just profit but to maintain social policing. From "Valentine's Day" to "Christmas".

"Holidays" are indeed forms of Bourgeois celebrations, even birthdays were started as Bourgeois events for the rich, the proletarian rarely knew it. Especially among the slaves in which many of their birthdays were never recorded.