On the other hand, the holidays quanticle points out are “more successful” than the ones you bring up, in that they are holidays that have existed for longer and are celebrated by more people, so there is likely something going on where there is something strongly gained from making a holiday more earned.
That doesn’t follow. Traditions are self-perpetuating; the more entrenched a holiday is, the more momentum it has to keep being entrenched. Therefore, an old holiday tells us merely that it had something major going for it at some point in the past.
On the other hand, the holidays quanticle points out are “more successful” than the ones you bring up, in that they are holidays that have existed for longer and are celebrated by more people, so there is likely something going on where there is something strongly gained from making a holiday more earned.
That doesn’t follow. Traditions are self-perpetuating; the more entrenched a holiday is, the more momentum it has to keep being entrenched. Therefore, an old holiday tells us merely that it had something major going for it at some point in the past.