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Escaping The Cultural Comfort Zone
It’s in our hands to question what we believe to be true
Saint days were still celebrated when I grew up where I grew up. The Catholic Church assigns each day of the year to a particular saint and if you happen to share that saint’s name, that gives you a reason to celebrate. In practice, it was like a second, slightly more subdued, birthday. I could choose to invite classmates over, and I would get presents from my parents and other close friends and family.
As the reader may imagine, there would be no reason for a child to question the idea of a second birthday. In my case, I enjoyed the additional fortune of having my birthday and saint’s day exactly six months apart, with summer and Christmas bridging the gap on either end. Even so, I couldn’t help but feel increasingly uncomfortable with the celebration on my path to becoming an adult. As I learned more about the world, I failed to explain the shenanigans to myself. Birthdays were strange enough, but I understood the need to express our joy at being alive after yet another trip around the Sun. However, the fact that I had the same name as a Catholic saint sounded rather absurd in comparison.
Nevertheless, it wasn’t until I moved countries that I dumped the practice altogether. Even over a decade later, when my mum still calls me to wish me a…