Today I'm going to get up on a bit of a soapbox about cultural appropriation.

There is something I've seen many, many times over the years that has always bothered me greatly. I don't see much of it here, and for that I'm grateful, but it's worth pointing out anyway. There has been much discussion here over the years about cultural appropriation; often are the times that people from outside of the world of heathenry take elements of our culture out of the proper context and use it in whatever way they like. We cry foul when we see it, we beat our heads against the injustice of it all and try to shout some education into people about it. That's not what this is about...

This is about when it goes the other way, when we do it to other cultures. Specifically, the ridiculous notion of Einherjar Day. I'm talking about this today because I've seen it celebrated in place of either Memorial Day or Veterans Day. Here's the thing, people: these are already holidays. They have deep meaning to many people in America, and for Memorial Day many outside of America. The idea that heathens should feel the need to strip that meaning from those days in order to place our own on top of it is stupid at best, and merges into righteously offensive.

I don't need to say a lot on the subject, really... I just wanted to point out that these days have meaning, and to strip them of that for self serving ends is no better than any cultural appropriation that we rail against in others. These days are, in their own way, holy, so leave them alone. You don't need to slap a modern religious name on them to use them to honor our ancestors.