It has struck me in the past the way that modern holidays have taken the Catholic days of fast and abstinence and turned them into the most gluttonous displays of over-indulgence. It seems as if this must be more than mere coincidence, and looks more like deliberate targeting.
All-Hallows Eve and Christmas Eve, as you rightly note, have become just the opposite of what they were intended for, and preparation for Ash Wednesday has also turned into a bachanalian orgy.
