Abstract
Nature as Ernst conceived it yields nothing with out ceremony. The national holiday is one of ceremony’s vessels. Holidays are times set aside by custom or law to commemorate great events and their menor gods. They recur weekly, as in Sabbath observance, or, in the case of national life, annually, as in the celebration of the Fourth of July. In either case, holidays are “seedbeds of virtue” (Etzioni, 2001) that oppose the natural tendency to forget the past. The opening chapters of Deuteronomy provide the best examples. Moses has led his people to the Promised Land, but before they go to possess it he gives them a series of warnings. He knows that his people will soon live in a new world: cities, houses, vineyards, and olive groves in whose m aking they had no part.
Published Version
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