US holidays by tiers

[1995hoo]

I stopped getting Presidents' Day off in college. I had forgot the holiday even existed when one of my classmates asked a professor if we had it off.

It doesn't exist. The holiday in question is properly called Washington's Birthday.

[hbelkins]

A number of schools in my area had Presidents Day (or, as noted above, still legally called Washington's Birthday) scheduled off, but then had classes because of snow days earlier in the year. And then, a number of districts ended up canceling classes for the rest of the week due to illness.

No one really complained about going to school on Presidents Day. However, if they had used MLK Day as a makeup day, the howls of protest would be loud and numerous.

[Roadgeekteen]

A number of schools in my area had Presidents Day (or, as noted above, still legally called Washington's Birthday) scheduled off, but then had classes because of snow days earlier in the year. And then, a number of districts ended up canceling classes for the rest of the week due to illness.

No one really complained about going to school on Presidents Day. However, if they had used MLK Day as a makeup day, the howls of protest would be loud and numerous.

President's Day is the first day of February Break here.

[hotdogPi]

Why is it called Washington's Birthday when the holiday cannot fall on the 22nd?

[ftballfan]

With the rise of MLK Day, some colleges have extended their Christmas break until after that day (either starting on the Tuesday of that week or the following Monday). In Michigan, all of the public colleges have MLK Day off but none of them have Columbus, Veterans, or Presidents' Day off (Columbus Day isn't a state holiday in MI and has never been one AFAIK).

I have some minor changes to the federal holiday system:
1. Eliminate the Columbus Day holiday (almost all private sector businesses are open; this is also the only federal holiday the stock market is open on)
2. Either (a) move the elections to Veterans Day or (b) move the Veterans Day holiday to Election Day (in even-numbered years; in odd-numbered years, Veterans Day would remain on November 11)
3. To keep the # of federal holidays at 10, I would either make Good Friday, Black Friday, or Christmas Eve federal holidays (the latter two are already state holidays in Michigan)

[bandit957]

We should really have more federal holidays.

[hotdogPi]

(in even-numbered years; in odd-numbered years, Veterans Day would remain on November 11)

VA, NJ, LA, MS, and KY disagree.

[oscar]

(in even-numbered years; in odd-numbered years, Veterans Day would remain on November 11)

VA, NJ, LA, MS, and KY disagree.

Then you have vote-by-mail states like Oregon (and others, present or future), for which messing with the Veterans Day holiday or adding a new Election Day holiday would not help with voter turnout.

[Eth]

I have some minor changes to the federal holiday system:
1. Eliminate the Columbus Day holiday (almost all private sector businesses are open; this is also the only federal holiday the stock market is open on)
2. Either (a) move the elections to Veterans Day or (b) move the Veterans Day holiday to Election Day (in even-numbered years; in odd-numbered years, Veterans Day would remain on November 11)
3. To keep the # of federal holidays at 10, I would either make Good Friday, Black Friday, or Christmas Eve federal holidays (the latter two are already state holidays in Michigan)

Why not just move the Columbus Day holiday to Election Day (which, by the way, does in fact occur in all years, not just the even-numbered ones)? Seems simpler and accomplishes the same goal.

[vdeane]

I'd miss my three day weekends if Columbus Day was no longer a holiday.  Veterans Day has always struck me as being rather close to Thanksgiving for having another day off, though it was useful for route clinching last year since it generated a three day weekend.

Oddly enough, in college, Presidents Day is one of the only holidays we specifically got off (Thanksgiving being the other; everything else was either between semesters or we had classes - yes, we even had class on Labor Day), with a three day break (offset by starting the spring semester on a Thursday; the three day break for Thanksgiving was offset by a two day break in late September; the only other break was "spring break" in mid-March).

[Road Hog]

There's the Big Six that I get paid at work for: NYD, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas.

Then there are government holidays where the mail doesn't run: MLK, Presidents Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, etc. That's the second level.

Then there are holidays with noble purposes (Valentines, Mother's Day, etc.); holidays that are excuses to get drunk (St. Patrick's, Cinco de Mayo, Halloween etc.) and finally, holidays for which you don't know why it's a holiday at all (Groundhog Day), the lowest tier of all.