HUMBUG

This quote pretty much sums up my feelings about hen's nights, weddings, 21st birthdays, Christmas, Valentine's Day, and church:

"The most absurd customs and the most ridiculous ceremonies are everywhere excused by an appeal to the phrase, but that's the tradition. This is exactly what the Hottentots say when Europeans ask them why they eat grasshoppers and devour their body lice. That's the tradition, they explain." - Nicolas Chamfort, 1741 - 1794.

And this is how I feel about the opinions of people I might offend by being against said absurd customs:

"Other people's heads are too wretched a place for happiness to have its seat." - Arthur Schopenhauer, 1788 - 1860

Yes, I'm reading Status Anxiety by Alain de Botton, and I'm enjoying the 'Intelligent Misanthropy' section VERY MUCH INDEED.