With their unique pen and their own sensitivity, artists present to us their vision of the world around us. This week, we give carte blanche to Dany Turcotte.
Published at 9:00 a.m.
Dany Turcotte
Special collaboration
Every year, businesses and people with children’s hearts happily stretch the rubber band of what we call the holiday season. Merchants rub their hands in satisfaction until the spark sparks, which inevitably sets off an explosion of LED lights cheaps loaded with millions of Santa Clauses and artificial icicles. The “holiday season,” as it has grown, has become a third of the year, now stretching from October to January.
Leader of the “Christmas all year round” movement, Costco practically starts its “period” the day after Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day. For others, the start of the festivities is the day after Halloween, from one second past midnight, the crime scenes that this autumn festival imposes turn into scenes of an artificial North Pole. The garlands of pumpkin lights miraculously transform into fake icicles, and a hemorrhage of inflatable red-nosed reindeer and junk Santas comes to overwhelm all public places with its undrinkable cane happiness.
That said, a normal holiday season, from the beginning of December to the beginning of January, is quite pleasant and an important mark of time for Christians. This period sprinkles our imaginations with childhood memories and it is necessary. It allows families and friends to come together, take stock and say that we love each other or that, ultimately, we don’t love each other at all.
Couples often form and break during this time as well. The new spouse who ultimately failed the in-laws’ New Year’s Eve exam is another classic. Racist, misogynistic or homophobic jokes, in private, can always be endured, but freely thrown into the chaste ears of all, this is probably not what we call a gift. Once again, we put ourselves back on the romantic starting line and put our favorite dating app back into the water in the hope of better fishing.
It is also an intense emotional moment where the best and the worst can arise. From December 24 to January 2, it is the eye of the emotional storm. A time when everything is exacerbated, a person with easy happiness will see their joy thermometer fluctuate from 8 to 12 (on a scale of 10), while someone who suffers from a serotonin deficiency will experience an uncontrollable barometric dip. The black sheep will take great pleasure in bursting the bubble of the overly happy. Family flaws are suddenly put under the microscope and inevitably blow up in their members’ faces. A dice game of emotions that can land on both the light side and the dark side.
Yes, this holiday season is precious and necessary. It allows us to take stock of the state of our routes. It highlights our life choices and forces us to think about them. The big problem, for me, the self-proclaimed leader of the Grincheux, is the excessive commercialization of the event.
Can we preserve this time of rejoicing, but simply as it happens? A good concession would be to officially decree a specific time. Christmas events in Quebec are from 1is December to January 6. Any person or business caught installing a garland, ball or, worse, icicle lights would be subject to a week of community service. Seven days of volunteering at the Maison du Père, but not Christmas.
Every year, the insatiable industry of the old bearded man from Coca-Cola, which now serves more to remove rust from nails than to quench thirst, pushes people to the brink of the financial abyss. Faced with the hurricane of spending that is blowing with force, many find themselves in January with their pants down and a few dollars from declaring bankruptcy. It is imperative to give gifts to the people you love, this is another absurd obligation created by the industry. Everyone becomes a mage king and must offer gold, incense or myrrh. Furthermore, these gifts quickly become a comparative element of social origins. For a mother or father with a smaller RRSP, the pressure of gifts can quickly serve as fodder for their economic anxiety.
Far be it from me to muzzle the emotional dependents of little Santa Claus, but today, I dare to discreetly wave a little red and white flag to signify that there are also people who resist his charms. Let it be said, Christmas music does not have the same impact on everyone. If it strikes the chord of the childish imagination of some, it can also joyfully strike the biggest nerve of the cantankerous old people of the garland.
Yes, for some people, “it’s the most beautiful time of the year”, but for others, including me, it sounds more like “we’ll see you again on January 7”.
Who is Dany Turcotte?
- Originally from Saguenay, Dany Turcotte first became known as a comedian, within Blood Group, in the mid-1980s.
- After the dissolution of the group, he continued his humorous career alongside his accomplice Dominique Lévesque.
- From 2004 to 2021, he is Guy A. Lepage’s “jester” in Everyone is talking about it.
- He is the host of The little seduction from 2005 to 2017.
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