Columbus Day kicks off holiday season

Banks and post offices were closed Monday, and even the Folly Beach restaurant The Lost Dog closed an hour earlier than usual. What gives?

Turns out, Monday was Columbus Day, one of those under-the-radar holidays observed mainly by federal employees and some die-hard Italian-Americans. Columbus Day isn't a big holiday in most of South Carolina. There are few parades or speeches (unlike New York, where thousands line up for the annual Columbus Day Parade). School kids didn't get a break; they had classes. Perhaps the only thing newsworthy in the Lowcountry about the holiday was what was open for business and what was not.

Other federal holidays that may have you scratching your head for a moment as you walk back from your mailbox with no mail: President's Day, Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday and Veterans Day.

In fact, if you add up all the holidays and celebrations observed throughout the United States, there are only five months out of the year in which there are no working days off to celebrate or remember a person or event.

The Journal isn't complaining; there's nothing better than getting a day off when you live near the beach.

Still, many James Island residents weren't aware of the Columbus Day holiday. Except bank tellers and postmen. Drivers were seen circled the Central Park Road post office parking lot, wondering what was going on.

It's funny how a federally observed holiday can arrive quietly without many Americans being aware of it; especially when it comes just before Halloween, one of the most celebrated and publicized holidays of the year. (Halloween, of course, is not an observed federal holiday.)

For some, the same thing might happen next month when Veterans Day is celebrated Nov. 12, just 10 days before Thanksgiving, or Presidents Day to commemorate George Washington's and Abraham Lincoln's birthdays in February.

We're coming to that time of the year when Americans head into a whirlwind of celebrations. Paper turkeys and pilgrims are on sale before the Halloween candy is fully digested, and Christmas lights go up before the Thanksgiving turkey is finished off. And December brings bowl games, NFL playoffs and days of steady shopping.

When December is over, there is New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, more NFL playoffs and the Super Bowl.

And just two weeks after New Year's Day, we celebrate Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday.

As it turns out, Columbus Day is the real beginning of the holiday season — the beginning of the season of feasts, celebrations, sporting events and gift-giving. A day when no one has to give anyone anything, no traditional dinners are planned, no out-of-town family members are here to entertain, no costumes are donned. Enjoy those days. It won't be like that for long.