THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, 24th DECEMBER, 1931. THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT.

Waipa Post, Volume 43, Issue 3392, 24 December 1931, Page 4

THE WAIPA POST. Printed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. THURSDAY, 24th DECEMBER, 1931. THE HOLIDAY SPIRIT.

IT would be a mistake to discuss the holiday spirit as if it were something that could be labelled specifically and packed into a small compass. It is something so volatile that it would be the dispair of the Socialist if the Socialist were not so certain of his ability to specify and to pack everything. All classes are represented among the holiday-mak-ers—the strict individualist who tends his roses, the co-operator who associates like with like, and the mass producer who enjoys himself according to pattern. The solidarity of the family finds its expression upon Christmas Day; the urge of independence disintegrates the family on Boxing Day. Christmas Day stands for conservatism and the settled order; Boxing Day stands for the new and progressive ideas which are reaching out unconsciously for a conservatism and a settled order of their own. The older ideas dominate Christmas Day and produce by their domination that restless feeling in search of something; new. : On the whole the workaway world fosters types while the holiday spirit fosters individuality. In the one, that which the individual desires is done according to his will. The holiday-maker, within certain prescribed limits, is primeval man<wandering freely with no restrictions other than that v of keeping off the grass and refraining from throwing empty bottles upon the sand. Even the family party is at heart anarchic. It is the unit of society, but it is itself composed of independent atoms. The head of it wonders whether the cost; can be afforded, and, '\yhile wondering, he spends something upon that which he wants .but does not, need. He flatters himself that he is the provider; he is placidly unconscious : of ythe. limitations of that which he provides. He forgathers with other fathers to relieve himself of the tedium of the family ' life that is his solace, and, he discusses things that would find no response, in interest from those with, whom he is! nominally- spending the; day. . The ;l wife who has company of"her husband as a righfcarid as a pleasure, finds her real enjoyment in j the society of other wives whom' she j has accidentally met!" The children regard the parents merely .as a means to an end, and eat with pleasure that which is provided ■; by those, who have carried the They (are the inost self-centred(pf^plfeasurfeiseekers ;■ they are more jftierested in 'one horse that pais- strayed>n to the beach than in the host of people who are there by superior right. They, have soinefthing in-common, but they have more numerous ideas that a?e their own; £s. "every parent knows who has watched a little girl build a sand castle and a little .boy wreck it. .All the members of the adolescent] group appear to have been turned out j in.thc same mould, but each is differ- - ent from the" others. : They have.!been brought together as much for. their \ dissimilarities of temperament as by j their identity of interest. They are j fortunate if they have arrived at unanimity even upon exclusion from or inclusion in their select circle. There are some whom others wish were away to make room for those who arc absent. Their sociality has in it many, elements of conflict thjrfc? lend spice-to the temporary association even while they are antagonistic to its" permanence. The seed.of,.disall such igatherliiigs,- but no one' wishes to eliminate the seed because, no one is conscious, of its presence. The group gathers for its'collective purpose and it disintegrates in obedience to the. impulses of its separate sections. li It atthe jokes which are general, but it really enjoys only the remarks that are particular.- There is strong; instinct if notjdeep philosophy in thepractice. ofrpairing off. . There may be the nearest approach to contentment in. that arrangement Which finds.company in two and a crowd in three or more. But anyone watches/the faces at a : dance• MKre ; 'Wt\nunsierical Vestricifio^^pp; B| one or; bgjk of- 'the parties' ■t-'thal not: been v HffiHfirn'i

gives rise to eternal conflict. The forces of attraction and repulsion are the material of many a " best seller," the author of which imagines that he is soaring in the empyrean when he is really on the beach with a holiday crowd or among the perspiring hundreds in a ballroom. The modern novelist has learned how to idealise the commonplace, and by judicious packing and labelling to sell it back to those who have provided him with it. There are fortunate or unfortunate people to whom a holiday is no change and who would not wish it otherwise. The holiday resort is not complete for them unless it has a wireless, a gramophone, and, of course, a telephone. That which is regarded as most desirable in a change is that which most closely follows all that to which the holiday-maker has been accustomed. The bridge set is packed with the evening clothes, and a place of change and rest is sought where the usual set is to be found doing all that which has been done many times before. Yet even here the spirit underlying the performance of ordered things is at least mildly rebellious. Conformity is expected, but it must not be dull conformity. The Americans lead in extravagance in the pursuit of pleasure because they have the largest proportion of the population in a financial position to pursue that which they pursue in a mental condition which is incapable of pursuing anything better. Riches in the United States have fallen upon people who did not always expect them and upon whom they have produced strange cerebal sensations. The American merely excels in this form of gaiety. He does not monopolise it. There is, however, nothing stereotyped about it, no patented pattern that wins fortunes for its inventors. All the social return for the money and the effort so lavishly expended has to be reaped in one year, because it will be superseded by something bigger and better in the next. Even "Yes, we have no bananas " had only a crowded hour of glorious life. It is the some in art as in the higher forms of social expression. Competition persists in the follies of the rich even as it persists in the simple pleasures of the poor.