Back when I was young, it seemed weird to be me that the Orthodox Christian calendar had a day for each saint. That's right. For every day of the year, there is a name day or event that corresponds somehow to the Orthodox tradition. Every day is an excuse to be a good christian.
Today in the western culture, things are not all that different. There is Mother's day, Father's day, Labor day heck there is even a Bingo day on December. I never celebrate these kind of occasions because there is something quite sinister about them that most people tend to overlook.
More or less it all comes down to marketing rather than appreciation. People have found an easy way out to superficially bond with their loved ones. Valentine's day? Pick up a card and a set of chocolates and you are set. Mother's day? Maybe some flowers will make up for all the time you have been neglecting her. Somehow the days have become more important than the people or events that we are supposed to appreciate. Holidays effectively replaced the actual values that we should embrace every day with a symbol that can be fulfilled with a small amount of money.
We effectively limited our relationships into commercial deals. We remember our mothers one time of the year, much like we have come to be good hearted people during Christmas. For every other day we forget they exist or we take them for granted. That special day though we get to be someone else and not our selves. We abide to a social contract that nobody really respects but everybody owes to do it.
It is truly fascinating how humans can lie to themselves without realizing how they hurt themselves in the process. We are fastening chains to our ankles without realizing it. We become obliged to events and people that should come to us naturally. Our values becomes symbols that end up representing nothing but an act of purchasing. One could opt out, our of respect for their mother, religion or special. The irony is that these people will be looked down upon by the real hypocrites.