What is your favorite holiday? Why is it your favorite?

My favourite holiday has changed 360 degrees. I remember those days of youth counting down the months, the weeks and then the days. Often to wake up at the crack of dawn on d day and feel an anti-climax. That would pass, overtaken by endless swimming, sunburn and freestyle eating. Travellers cheques were almost sacred, like rehearsing packing the suitcase and the overall sense of occasion. Just as months and days before the holiday were wished away so were months spent with photographs developed in the chemist and shown around.

The countdowns lost importance as holidays became more frequent generally in society. Bank cards replaced the travellers cheque. The camera phone recorded it all. Immediately. No waiting for the film to be developed or to be found catastrophically damaged.

Holiday separation dimmed as communication continued whilst on holiday. Photos shared, experiences narrated long before getting home.

Holidays like everything else became commodity.

My husband and I had family out in Dubai and had some amazing times out there before it ironically became too holiday orientated.

Probably the best 10 days of our lives was spent on a last minute holiday to Berlin in 2010.

Assuming another European city holiday would be just as good as Berlin we went to Rome the following year. And that turned out to be our last real holiday abroad.

Rome and the Vatican are marvellous but I think the holiday formula left us. The expense. The Facebook posts, the WhatsApp chats “having a wonderful time”. Quite simply we both felt we would rather be at home.

And that’s the 360 degree turn I never saw coming. Holidays now are synonymous with relaxing. Day trips, lunches out and less pressure all round. Less grand countdown holidays means less need to work to afford such trips. Which means less ‘selling your soul to the company store’ because if our needs are less we can ‘travel light’.

In the Bible ‘travelling light’ means releasing stress, trusting God for all your needs and focusing on the journey of faith rather than the material.

Maybe that’s why holidays were called holy days originally!