"In today's world nothing succeeds like a well-planned anniversary," observes William M. Johnston of the University of Massachusetts in his informative study, Celebrations: The Cult of Anniversaries in Europe and the United States Today. (Reviewed by me here.)
To which a Middle East hand might add: And nothing fails like an anniversary of an event few want to remember.
That was Egypt's experience in 2002, when the country conspicuously ignored the 50th anniversary of its self-styled revolution and the 25th since Anwar el-Sadat's trip to Jerusalem. Watch for a similar desultory mood when Iranians mourn the 25th since the Islamic revolution in early 2004. So much to forget! (September 30, 2003)
