Earlier this weekend, I was reading an article online about expectations for the weekend box office. The article mentioned that Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was (which is today) had become something of a cash cow for movie theaters, because most students have the day off (including Jordan’s students).

At first, I didn’t think anything of it. It made sense to me that any long weekend would mean more money for movie theaters, because more people would be home from work and enjoying their days off. Well, then I read a wrap-up of the weekend box office this morning, citing new box office records for MLK weekend, and the whole thing just seemed a little cheap. I mean, isn’t the purpose of the day to remember a great civil rights leader from our nation’s history?

Honestly, though, I’ve never thought of it that way. I, like most people who still have to work on most federal holidays, just see it as another day that I don’t get my mail. And I feel the same way about Memorial Day and Labor Day, really, which are also money-making weekends for many industries.

So I guess I don’t really know how I feel about the commercialization of these holidays. I feel they should mean more to the people of this country than they do, but they don’t always mean more to me, either. And the fact that the holidays don’t mean much to me in the first place probably bothers me more than the commercialization of those holidays.

Does that bother you, or do you honor MLK Day and holidays like it?