Money-making holidays lose meaning

So it has started again: that time of year when we are mercilessly bombarded with insane advertising that compels us to accept that unless we spend hundreds of dollars on stuff that we don’t need, we will be missing out on the Best Christmas.

And this comes on top of several other just plain dumb

‘‘celebrations’’ like Halloween, Guy Fawkes and Black Friday, all of which are designed to simply empty our pockets.

All of these events should be a time to celebrate family togetherness, doing things that don’t cost anything but just give a space in our very busy lives to draw aside and enjoy the very special people who we are blessed to share our lives with.

Making thoughtful gifts for others, doing something special for those we love, thinking of ways to reach out and help less fortunate people in our community rather than help multi-mega-rich corporations get even more wealthy.

Maybe advertising for all of these ‘‘celebrations’’ should be bound by the same law as exists for Guy Fawkes: No advertising permitted outside of three days beforehand! Yeah right.

Mark Quinney Motupiko, November 2