I
felt conflicted about this one at first. I am well aware that a
significant portion of my regular readership is Canadian (Hi, Cory!),
and there's not really anything here for people outside the United
States. But then I thought, what the heck, it's not like anyone
comments on the themed party ideas anyway. If I'm honest, I have to
admit that posting them at all is pure self-indulgent
self-congratulation on my part, the equivalent of standing on a table
and waving my arms and shouting “I found a thing that's like
another thing!” but with more and fancier words.
Anyway,
it's been a while.
So
tomorrow is Memorial Day in the U.S. It kind of snuck up on us,
didn't it? Or maybe it's just me. If you have some kind of shindig
arranged for your day off, now might be a little late to change those
plans. But if you're reading this in the morning, you do technically
have the entire rest of the day to tweak your decisions! Furthermore,
Memorial Day marks the start of the American cultural summer season,
which features patriotic holidays at regular intervals. One “U-S-A!”
day is pretty much like another when it comes to party decorations
and whatnot—you could apply these ideas to the Fourth of July or
Labor Day or even Flag Day.*
So say you're a Disneyland fan who wants to host a Memorial Day or
other patriotic holiday get-together, and as is your wont, you wish
to mix a little theme park in there. Obviously you're going to go
with some Main Street, USA flavor. Within the berm, Main Street and
American patriotism are practically synonymous. (Although the
thesaurus does list “Frontierland” under Related Words.)
This is no coincidence—unironic patriotism pretty much took its
current form during the time period represented by Main Street—the
last period, maybe, when Americans were still isolated and innocent
enough that they could be loudly patriotic without implied
belligerence or smugness toward any other countries? I don't want
this to get heavy, though, so let's just say that Main Street's brand
of wholesome, matter-of-fact national pride is what most people are
usually going for with these holidays. In short, this sort of theming
for this sort of party is perfectly natural, and if your guests don't
already know you're gaga for Disneyland, this won't necessarily be
what tips them off. (This may or may not be what you're hoping for.)
