Lets start a petition to cancel the holidays

[PColumbus73]

I work at one of the retail outlets and we get no holidays except Christmas Day.   It was worst when I worked in the Hospitality Industry as you worked 365 days a year and double time on Christmas Day. 

To me personally I think the holidays are gone anyway.  To bring them back would not only start a war among religions, but among people themselves non religiously as we all have gotten used to them being not important over the last 30 or more years.  Even if you went back to no liquor sales on Sunday's it would create a hardship as we become accustomed to it over the last few decades.

I can understand police, fire and medical personnel working through holidays, even some gas station employees, but everyone deserves at least some time off to spend with family, or outside of work in general. I try to avoid going out on Black Friday and as far as I remember, I've never went to a restaurant on Christmas Day. That's the way it should be.

[english si]

English Bank Holidays (public holidays) bunch up:

Christmas Day (25th Dec or next week day that isn't the 26th)
Boxing Day (26th Dec or the day after Christmas Day BH)
New Years Day (1st Jan) - Scotland also has the second off, as one day isn't enough to recover from Hogmanay hangovers
Good Friday
Easter Monday (day after Easter Sunday)
May Day Bank Holiday (first Monday in May)
Spring Bank Holiday (last Monday in May)
August Bank Holiday (last Monday in August)

As you may have noticed, you have three in a week in mid-winter, another two about three months later (Easter related ones), another one within 1-5 weeks and another 3-4 weeks later, then a 3 month break for one day and then a 4 month break. Our 8 Bank Holidays have 7 in five months, and 1 in the other 7 months!

I should mention that the Royal Wedding in 2011 was a Bank Holiday, and was deliberately put on the Friday before May Bank Holiday. With the late Easter, there was a 3 day week sandwiched between two 4-day weekends (queue lots of people going abroad). Also, the Diamond Jubilee moved the Spring Bank Holiday back a week to June 3rd, and the Queen's 'official birthday' of June 4th was also a Bank Holiday. Jan 2nd 2000 has been the only other Bank Holiday added to the English schedule since, like, forever.

One of the most silly things is a campaign for St Georges Day (23rd of April) to be the English national day and a Bank Holiday - it's right in the middle of the Spring Bank Holiday glut. Far better to reinstate Edward the Confessor as the English national saint (after a 700 year absense) as his day is October 13th: the perfect time for a bank holiday! Plus he is English and has an actual link with England, unlike George. If you want a secular day, then the Battle of Hastings was on the 14th, but why celebrate that awful day? far better celebrate Agincourt on the 25th.

---

English Thanksgiving would be somewhere in September as our harvest is earlier. I celebrate the American one to an extent that mostly involves eating something American and that's about it.

[hbelkins]

The Commonwealth of Kentucky observes 11 1/2 holidays.

Two days for Christmas.
Two days for New Year's Day.
MLK Day.
The afternoon of Good Friday (the half day).
Memorial Day.
Independence Day.
Labor Day.
Veterans Day.
Two days for Thanksgiving.

Also, every four years. the presidential election day is observed as a state holiday. And every four years, workers in Frankfort get the day off when the new governor is inaugurated (the parade and the inaugural balls make parking and navigating town a mess) and usually, employees out in the state get the day off as well. I don't understand why the presidential election day is a state holiday but the gubernatorial election day is not.

When I went to work in Frankfort in 1995, Presidents Day was observed along with MLK Day. Veterans Day was not observed. Around 1999 or 2000, Vets Day was added and Presidents Day (which is the official name of the day in Kentucky even though technically the official name of the federal holiday is still Washington's Birthday) was removed. That means Kentucky celebrates the birth of MLK but not the birth of its only native-born president, Abe Lincoln. Makes no sense whatsoever to me, especially since Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

I'm not sure what holiday was removed to put MLK on the schedule. Probably Columbus Day, but I can't be positive.

[formulanone]

I propose that we make the day after the Super Bowl a mandatory holiday.

Here's a clue, NFL: It's Sunday, we're not doing anything because it's January/February, any religious services ended several hours ago, most people aren't working...so start the damn game at 3pm EST so that shitfaced morons can go to work the next day without an excuse. Who cares if the game is happening at night? Big deal, fifteen-year-olds in one-stoplight towns do that on every Friday during autumn.

Don't take away any holidays. Thanks.

[1995hoo]

Frankly, from a purely practical standpoint, the holiday I find the least "necessary" is Martin Luther King Day, simply because it comes so soon after two other holidays (Christmas and New Year's) and the week in between those two when little work gets done and there's no traffic. I just don't feel any need for another holiday then. I know that's un-PC, of course.

I understand why Veterans Day is when it is, and I understand why moving it to the day after Thanksgiving is a non-starter because the day's significance would be utterly lost, but on the other hand I think the private sector already ignores Veterans Day anyway. If I had to choose between Veterans Day and Columbus Day, I'd choose Columbus Day every time. Much better weather in mid-October.

I'm tired of the media and others referring to Washington's Birthday as "Presidents Day" (or some variant thereon). The federal holiday is called "Washington's Birthday" by statute. Here in Virginia it's "George Washington Day." Alabama calls it "Washington and Jefferson Day" even though Jefferson was born in April (I guess they want to avoid honoring Lincoln). It's just too bad the Monday holiday law screwed it up–by observing that day on the third Monday in February, they ensured it can never fall on Washington's actual birthday under the Gregorian Calendar (February 22) or under the Julian Calendar in use when he was born (February 11–and he was born in 1731 under that calendar, too, rather than 1732).

(Yes, I know some states call it Presidents Day, so in those states it's fine to call it that. But it's not the name of the holiday in most places, popular misconception notwithstanding.)

[jeffandnicole]

I work at one of the retail outlets and we get no holidays except Christmas Day.   It was worst when I worked in the Hospitality Industry as you worked 365 days a year and double time on Christmas Day. 

To me personally I think the holidays are gone anyway.  To bring them back would not only start a war among religions, but among people themselves non religiously as we all have gotten used to them being not important over the last 30 or more years.  Even if you went back to no liquor sales on Sunday's it would create a hardship as we become accustomed to it over the last few decades.

I can understand police, fire and medical personnel working through holidays, even some gas station employees, but everyone deserves at least some time off to spend with family, or outside of work in general. I try to avoid going out on Black Friday and as far as I remember, I've never went to a restaurant on Christmas Day. That's the way it should be.

Then you don't mind if every television station is off the air on holidays, right?  Someone has to run the controls. 

Or if your electric goes out.  While power is generally automated, there still needs to be people at those power plants to verify that.

Or no football, basketball, or other sporting events.  And I'm not just talking about the players, but the thousands of personal that work those games, from security to concession people to the people cleaning the bathrooms to the camera men and producers airing that game to your TV.

I want to say, sure, convenience stores should be closed on major holidays, but when you see how busy they are, one realizes that many holiday meals would be ruined because something was forgotten.

So these are just 4 things that people take for granted.  When someone says "No one should work on a holiday" while sitting down and watching football...well, they should be thankful someone is working on that holiday!

[PHLBOS]

I'm tired of the media and others referring to Washington's Birthday as "Presidents Day" (or some variant thereon).

IIRC, the term Presidents Day came about because many states (my homestate of Massachusetts being one of them) used to observe both Lincoln's Birthday & Washington's birthday on two separate days until sometime during the mid-to-late 1970s. 

Growing up back then, I remember having Lincoln's Birthday off from school (Feb. 12 unless it fell on a weekend) and Washington's Birthday (Feb. 22) and its holiday observance (the 3rd Monday in February regardless of where the date on the calendar) always fell during the week-long February vacation.

When the decision was made to consolidate both Lincoln's & Washington's Birthday observances to one day (and hence lose a paid holiday and/or day off from school); that's when the term President's Day surfaced and has been around since.  Since it's observance is still the 3rd Monday of every February, there are many instances where the observed date falls between Lincoln's & Washington's actual birthdays.   

[Brandon]

^^ Some states still do keep the two days separate.  Illinois celebrates Lincoln's Birthday in addition to Presidents' Day.  Illinois also celebrates Casmir Pulaski Day (March 3).  Don't try to call IDOT on March 3rd.  You won't get anything but an answering machine.

[hbelkins]

West Virginia also observes West Virginia Day, which is a state holiday.



As for working on holidays, I've done it. I covered a high school basketball tournament that was played on Thanksgiving my first year out of college. When I was editing a newspaper, I worked most Monday holidays, the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day most years. In my current job I've put in time on holidays if we've had bad weather that required reporting of road conditions to the public. It's a sacrifice some have to make to earn a living.

[bugo]

Everybody at my work has to work 4 hours on each holiday, even though I somehow got Halloween off, which I didn't request and I have no Halloween plans so I didn't care if I had to work that day or not.

[PColumbus73]

I work at one of the retail outlets and we get no holidays except Christmas Day.   It was worst when I worked in the Hospitality Industry as you worked 365 days a year and double time on Christmas Day. 

To me personally I think the holidays are gone anyway.  To bring them back would not only start a war among religions, but among people themselves non religiously as we all have gotten used to them being not important over the last 30 or more years.  Even if you went back to no liquor sales on Sunday's it would create a hardship as we become accustomed to it over the last few decades.

I can understand police, fire and medical personnel working through holidays, even some gas station employees, but everyone deserves at least some time off to spend with family, or outside of work in general. I try to avoid going out on Black Friday and as far as I remember, I've never went to a restaurant on Christmas Day. That's the way it should be.

Then you don't mind if every television station is off the air on holidays, right?  Someone has to run the controls. 

Or if your electric goes out.  While power is generally automated, there still needs to be people at those power plants to verify that.

Or no football, basketball, or other sporting events.  And I'm not just talking about the players, but the thousands of personal that work those games, from security to concession people to the people cleaning the bathrooms to the camera men and producers airing that game to your TV.

I want to say, sure, convenience stores should be closed on major holidays, but when you see how busy they are, one realizes that many holiday meals would be ruined because something was forgotten.

So these are just 4 things that people take for granted.  When someone says "No one should work on a holiday" while sitting down and watching football...well, they should be thankful someone is working on that holiday!

I understand there needs to be some services that need to be attended, it may have been played down, but I was trying to suggest that non-essential personnel should be given time off on major holidays (specifically Thanksgiving and Christmas).

When I worked at a grocery store, the store closed at 5:30PM for Thanksgiving (and Christmas Eve), and after that, the last minute people were out of luck. If someone was planning some kind of gathering for Thanksgiving/Christmas, then I would guess that the last-minute item may not be super important. If someone waited until 5:25PM to decide they want a feast, then you can't really get mad at the store for the customer's poor planning.

I'm not into sports, so the whole Thanksgiving football/basketball/whatnot events aren't something I'm overtly concerned about.

As I mentioned before, power companies can reduce their staff to essential personnel during the holidays.

Everyone can survive without television for a day or two, before my time (1990), television stations went off air ever night, I dunno about the holidays, maybe someone can enlighten me about television from back then.

[PHLBOS]

One holiday that's a Massachusetts-Only holiday is Patriots Day observed on the 3rd Monday in April (commemorating the initial battle of Lexington & Concord that started the Revolutionary War on April 19, 1775) and is also when the Boston Marathon is held.

Everyone can survive without television for a day or two, before my time (1990), television stations went off air ever night, I dunno about the holidays, maybe someone can enlighten me about television from back then.

You might want to check out this thread (mid-section):

https://www.aaroads.com/forum/index.php?topic=10167.0

[realjd]

Everybody at my work has to work 4 hours on each holiday, even though I somehow got Halloween off, which I didn't request and I have no Halloween plans so I didn't care if I had to work that day or not.

Halloween isn't a federal or state holiday. Why would you expect time off?

[corco]

Everybody at my work has to work 4 hours on each holiday, even though I somehow got Halloween off, which I didn't request and I have no Halloween plans so I didn't care if I had to work that day or not.

Halloween isn't a federal or state holiday. Why would you expect time off?

When I was in the hotel business we got asked to rank our "holiday season" priorities in order and then holidays off would be given to folks based on that. Halloween was included in the mix because a lot of folks would rather have that off than other holidays- just because it's not a federal or state holiday doesn't mean people don't want it off as a holiday. In my case we'd rank 1-6 Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day.

In the service industry, federal/state holidays typically don't matter for shit. If your bosses are nice they'll try to accommodate everybody as best they can, but there's no obligation to pay more attention to honor those days more than any other days.

[Duke87]

I'm tired of the media and others referring to Washington's Birthday as "Presidents Day" (or some variant thereon).

IIRC, the term Presidents Day came about because many states (my homestate of Massachusetts being one of them) used to observe both Lincoln's Birthday & Washington's birthday on two separate days until sometime during the mid-to-late 1970s. 

Growing up back then, I remember having Lincoln's Birthday off from school (Feb. 12 unless it fell on a weekend) and Washington's Birthday (Feb. 22) and its holiday observance (the 3rd Monday in February regardless of where the date on the calendar) always fell during the week-long February vacation.

When the decision was made to consolidate both Lincoln's & Washington's Birthday observances to one day (and hence lose a paid holiday and/or day off from school); that's when the term President's Day surfaced and has been around since.  Since it's observance is still the 3rd Monday of every February, there are many instances where the observed date falls between Lincoln's & Washington's actual birthdays.

My understanding is that this consolidation occurred in order to make room for Martin Luther King day. So rather than celebrate Lincoln and Washington's birthdays separately, "Presidents Day" is supposed to honor all past presidents.

The curious consequence of this is that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln no longer have their names on national holidays, but Martin Luther King does - a distinction he shares with two other people: Christopher Columbus and Jesus Christ. How's that for an odd threesome?


Christmas as a federal holiday is interesting, though, because unlike every other federal holiday it is a religious holiday and not everyone celebrates it. People who follow other religions don't get their major holidays off from work and typically have to use vacation time to do so... which, if you think about it, isn't really fair.

Meanwhile, you can always order Chinese food on Christmas and not feel bad about ruining anyone's holiday.

[ZLoth]

Halloween isn't a federal or state holiday. Why would you expect time off?

When I was in the hotel business we got asked to rank our "holiday season" priorities in order and then holidays off would be given to folks based on that. Halloween was included in the mix because a lot of folks would rather have that off than other holidays

Parents want to accompany their kids trick-or-treating.

[corco]

And for college-aged kids it's arguably the best party of the year, so yeah, the appeal is definitely there.

[1995hoo]

My understanding is that this consolidation occurred in order to make room for Martin Luther King day. So rather than celebrate Lincoln and Washington's birthdays separately, "Presidents Day" is supposed to honor all past presidents.

The curious consequence of this is that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln no longer have their names on national holidays, but Martin Luther King does - a distinction he shares with two other people: Christopher Columbus and Jesus Christ. How's that for an odd threesome?

....

Actually, Washington still does and Lincoln never did. The federal holiday is called Washington's Birthday (media and advertiser propaganda notwithstanding) and Lincoln's Birthday was never a federal holiday. (I say "federal holiday" because technically there is no such thing as a "national holiday" in that no state is required to observe the same holidays as the federal government and no private-sector businesses are required to observe any holidays at all.)

Halloween isn't a federal or state holiday. Why would you expect time off?

When I was in the hotel business we got asked to rank our "holiday season" priorities in order and then holidays off would be given to folks based on that. Halloween was included in the mix because a lot of folks would rather have that off than other holidays

Parents want to accompany their kids trick-or-treating.

When I worked downtown I always found Halloween to be one of the two worst days of the year for commuting (the other is the day when the president lights the Christmas tree on the Ellipse near the White House and so they close a bunch of streets during rush hour). All the parents try to rush home to take their kids around and the traffic is a disaster. I used to take the subway on October 31 even though I normally drove. This year I need to pick up my wife at the subway, so any kids coming around between 6:15 and 6:45 are out of luck.

[jeffandnicole]

NJ still observes "Election Day", so anything state government related is closed.  Why the state workers are given the day off - well, the reasoning is that it gives them time to vote.  But...the booths are open 6am - 8pm, so there's PLENTY of time for them to vote before or after work!

Some schools are closed on Election Day as well, or take a half day, if the voting booths are located in the schools.  Growing up, my town had their booths in the fire halls, so we always had school.  My dad worked in a school district where they voted at the schools, and that district had the day off.

[PHLBOS]

My understanding is that this consolidation occurred in order to make room for Martin Luther King day.

While likely true nationwide, I should point out that MLK Day was originally a Massachusetts-only holiday (like Patriots Day); and I believe that there was a brief period that businesses and schools in the Bay State had all 3 days off.  So the Lincoln/Washington consolidation into President's Day still meant one less paid holiday in Massachusetts.

[formulanone]

MLK Day sometimes fell on or near my birthday, so I was quite partial to it when I was in school.

Which spawns an honest question: Why not celebrate the date of their major accomplishment? After all, everyone's born, but not everyone performs memorable deeds. King's speech at the March on Washington was obviously quite important, so if that's his crowning moment...why not celebrate that day instead?

Halloween is about the only holiday I have to sacrifice with my job; I wouldn't care, but it's for the kids. I pretty much get all the major national holidays off, although there's the rare chance we get an offer to work on those days (with right to refusal).

[Indyroads]

How is Christmas a Catholic holiday?  If anything, it is a pagan holiday.

Trying to avoid religion, this topic is interesting as a discussion on history.

I'm not aware of a pagan tradition celebrating Christmas, but there may be.  Pagans long celebrated that time of year as a period of increasing light, or the rising of the sun.  The term "Catholic" (meaning "universal"), I use to refer to the early post-Jewish church.  The Catholics took the Jewish practices out of Christianity and adopted other practices, some pagan.  I'm not thoroughly familiar with early Catholicism; I picked up bits and pieces in a class.  It seems like a fascinating topic I need to set to studying.  As I recall, the early Catholics wanted to appeal to the pagans they were trying to convert, and adopted their holidays in order to accommodate their lifestyles, or maybe that's just one teacher's interpretation.  I don't know the full story of how the birth of Jesus ended up in late December, but it lines up with pagan holidays celebrating the the birth (rising) of the sun.

It's a fine day to celebrate, as I really don't like the short days in late December.  I really don't even care if we put Christmas there.  I just don't like how it's portrayed as a day something happened, rather than as a day of remembrance of an event of uncertain timing.

Christmas or the celebration of the birth of our Messiah (the Christ) was actually less important than the celebration of Easter (or the resurrection) due to the importance of the rememberance of Jesus' sacrifice for us on the cross. It was thought that we should also celebrate His birth as well. Originally Christmas was celebrated on January 6th (on Epiphany) rather than Dec 25th. it was moved to the earlier date and took the place of the druidic/pagan holiday. However Christmas has always been a christian holiday since its inception. The catholic church has had a bad rap due to a variety of reasons. like the dark ages and even some of the things that came out of the crusades. However we must look at God's actions in the church as we humans were acting in worship. God sustained the church through all of this time. in spite of man's less than perfect ways.

[hbelkins]

Meanwhile, you can always order Chinese food on Christmas and not feel bad about ruining anyone's holiday.

Didn't they make a movie that was based in part on that premise? Something about the neighbor's dogs getting in the house and eating the Christmas turkey, and when the family goes to a Chinese restaurant, the server whacks the duck's head off with a machete.

(I say "federal holiday" because technically there is no such thing as a "national holiday" in that no state is required to observe the same holidays as the federal government and no private-sector businesses are required to observe any holidays at all.)

Interesting. I always heard that banks are required to close on federal holidays because if there's a robbery on a national holiday (which are called "bank holidays" in some countries), that the FDIC is not required to cover the losses.

Why would banks take off on all the federal holidays if they're not required to?

[kkt]

no private-sector businesses are required to observe any holidays at all.

Federally regulated banks are required to be closed federal holidays, as well as required to be open other weekdays baring emergencies.

[kkt]

Interesting. I always heard that banks are required to close on federal holidays because if there's a robbery on a national holiday (which are called "bank holidays" in some countries), that the FDIC is not required to cover the losses.

I thought the reason was that if there's a run on the bank, they need to be able to reach federal workers at their nearest branch of the Federal Reserve, and if those federal workers are on holiday that would be a problem.