"Smallest Holiday of the Year"

[Scott5114]

A day or so ago, I was overhearing Zloth's post about the "Biggest Holiday of the year". Like most posts that I take out of context (because I do that with all of them), the reaction was "If there was a thread about the exact opposite thing, would it be interesting" and "Maybe I should post that if it is."

So what do you think is the smallest holiday of the year? Looking for actual holidays that a nonzero number of people actually do something to acknowledge, so nothing like "National Lunch Meat Day" or anything like that.

[Rothman]

Gotta be something smaller than Groundhog Day.

Casimir Pulaski Day?

[I-57/Route 66 Fan]

Gotta be something smaller than Groundhog Day.

Casimir Pulaski Day?

As an Illinoisan I recognize Casimir Pulaski Day

[Max Rockatansky]

Gotta be something smaller than Groundhog Day.

Flatness Day?

As an Illinoisan I recognize Flatness Day

Flatness day is very underrated...

[Scott5114]

Gotta be something smaller than Groundhog Day.

Flatness Day?

As an Illinoisan I recognize Flatness Day

Flatness day is very underrated...

Good day for a tire sale.

[Max Rockatansky]

Gotta be something smaller than Groundhog Day.

Flatness Day?

As an Illinoisan I recognize Flatness Day

Flatness day is very underrated...

Good day for a tire sale.

Deals so good you'll want to honk your horn in applause.

[Big John]

Any Hallmark holiday.

[ZLoth]

Of the listed Federal Holidays as published by the US Office of Personnel Management, Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., Washington's Birthday (President's Day), Juneteenth National Independence Day, and Columbus Day all earn a "yawn" from me, plus many private sector businesses are open on those days. It's just that the financial institutions are closed, and mail won't get delivered.

[NE2]

Any Hallmark holiday.

Yes, famously small Valentine's Day and Mother's Day.

[MikeTheActuary]

Looking at US federal holidays:

• I have never had Columbus Day off from school or work
• I never had Veterans Day off from work while working on a US calendar; I believe it was always a school day for me.
• I have never had MLK Jr. Day off from work, but my employer did add it to the company calendar for folks following a US schedule in 2021.  I had MLK Jr. Day off from school starting the year it became a federal holiday, and I had the local MLK Jr. holiday off from school when attending public and Catholic schools in Memphis up until (and including) the year the federal holiday was created.
• I have not worked on a US calendar since Juneteenth was introduced.  I never heard of it while I was in school.
• Columbus Day, Veterans Day, and Juneteenth all suffer, holiday-wise, from not being attached to a weekend.

[Scott5114]

Of the federal holidays I feel like Veterans Day might be the smallest, because it's the only one that has a bigger federal holiday where people confuse the reason they're even off between the two.

[The_Ginger]

How do we get a National Road Enthusiasts' Day registered?

[ZLoth]

I have not worked on a US calendar since Juneteenth was introduced.  I never heard of it while I was in school.

Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, when the 117th U.S. Congress enacted and President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law on June 17, 2021.

[Rothman]

Looking at US federal holidays:

• I have never had Columbus Day off from school or work
• I never had Veterans Day off from work while working on a US calendar; I believe it was always a school day for me.
• I have never had MLK Jr. Day off from work, but my employer did add it to the company calendar for folks following a US schedule in 2021.  I had MLK Jr. Day off from school starting the year it became a federal holiday, and I had the local MLK Jr. holiday off from school when attending public and Catholic schools in Memphis up until (and including) the year the federal holiday was created.
• I have not worked on a US calendar since Juneteenth was introduced.  I never heard of it while I was in school.
• Columbus Day, Veterans Day, and Juneteenth all suffer, holiday-wise, from not being attached to a weekend.

I, and a whole lot of other people, get those days off, though.  Columbus Day in the Northeast is huge, mainly due to leaf-peepers.

And, opposition to MLK, Jr.'s b-day as a holiday is why anyone remembers Gov. Evan Mecham of Arizona...(The apartheid-era government of South Africa designated a holiday in Mecham's favor for making them look better, Mark Russell quipped).

[formulanone]

How do we get a National Road Enthusiasts' Day registered?

I suppose if you want a new holiday, make sure it doesn't overlap during other festivities. It has to have some lore, a few stories, sprinkle in a dash of mythos. And then wait 50-200 years and hopefully it takes hold.

August seems to be bereft of holidays, perhaps a good starting point. Halloween hasn't quite crept in yet and Xmas stuff would only be displayed if you're...psychotic.

To really answer this question, I suppose National Nothing Day.

[MikeTheActuary]

I, and a whole lot of other people, get those days off, though.  Columbus Day in the Northeast is huge, mainly due to leaf-peepers.

Keep in mind that I've lived in New England for almost 30 years.  I'm aware of the celebrations of Italian-American culture around the day, and I'm supportive of the remembrance of the genocide of indigenous Americans commemorated on the day.

However, I did make a mistake in my earlier post.  While Columbus Day has never been a work/school holiday for me, Canadian Thanksgiving was a work holiday for me for a few years, and it's still the weekend I schedule my COVID and flu vaccinations for.

Juneteenth was recognized as a federal holiday in 2021, when the 117th U.S. Congress enacted and President Joe Biden signed the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act into law on June 17, 2021.

Even though I've physically lived in New England for almost 30 years, for the past 9 years I've been telecommuting to either Canada or England.  I think in 2021 I was still working on a Québec calendar.  My employer picked it up for employees working in the US in 2022 (the company schedule had already been set when the holiday was federalized in 2021), but since I'm not attached to a US office....

[1995hoo]

I thought about voting for Washington's Birthday because so many people don't even know what its real name is. I think Veterans Day is probably the answer if we restrict it to the federal holidays, though, meaning I don't think it's really fair to count state holidays not observed outside particular states like Kuhio Day or Jefferson Davis's Birthday.

The private sector widely ignores Veterans Day or swaps it for the day after Thanksgiving (at least, that was what we were given as a reason for having school on Veterans Day when I was a kid). But I know various federal offices that open on Veterans Day and that close on the day after Thanksgiving instead, as the latter is not an actual holiday, so as to avoid everyone having to use leave for a day almost everyone would take off anyway. I figure if even the feds don't all observe it, it says something about its status in popular perception.

[Scott5114]

How do we get a National Road Enthusiasts' Day registered?

Well, there's this guy in Finland—

[Scott5114]

I think Veterans Day is probably the answer if we restrict it to the federal holidays, though, meaning I don't think it's really fair to count state holidays not observed outside particular states like Kuhio Day or Jefferson Davis's Birthday.

I wish more states had state holidays. It keeps not working out because of other things going on, but I very much want to go up to Carson City for Nevada Day at some point, because it sounds incredible.

[1995hoo]

I think Veterans Day is probably the answer if we restrict it to the federal holidays, though, meaning I don't think it's really fair to count state holidays not observed outside particular states like Kuhio Day or Jefferson Davis's Birthday.

I wish more states had state holidays. It keeps not working out because of other things going on, but I very much want to go up to Carson City for Nevada Day at some point, because it sounds incredible.

In the legal profession, knowing what days are state holidays are important because the Federal Rules of both Civil and Appellate Procedure allow for an automatic extension to the next business day if the due date for something measured as a certain number of days after an event is a state holiday in the state where the clerk's office is located (for appellate cases, that means the clerk of the district court whose order is being challenged or the clerk of the appellate circuit court). You don't have to take the extension, but it's always good to know about them.

[MikeTheActuary]

I thought about voting for Washington's Birthday because so many people don't even know what its real name is.

That's because before the Uniform Holiday Act, about half the country had a separate holiday for Lincoln's Birthday.   When the observance of Washington's Birthday got moved to the third Monday of February, it didn't make sense in the "Lincoln's Birthday" states to have 12 February as a holiday in addition to the third Monday.   So, Washington's and Lincoln's Birthday got merged on the state holiday calendars in many of those states as "Presidents Day"

I didn't vote for it because I have sometimes, but not always, had it as a day off from work and school (ignoring the past few years where I've worked on a non-US calendar).

[NWI_Irish96]

The day that we start DST. It's one hour smaller than all the others.

(You had to know I was going to say this)

[GaryV]

The private sector widely ignores Veterans Day or swaps it for the day after Thanksgiving

Or, when I was working for Chrysler, for the Friday when deer season opened. We nicknamed it "hunting for veterans" day.

[hotdogPi]

Flag Day. Used to be larger a century ago.

[vdeane]

I think Veterans Day is probably the answer if we restrict it to the federal holidays, though, meaning I don't think it's really fair to count state holidays not observed outside particular states like Kuhio Day or Jefferson Davis's Birthday.

The private sector widely ignores Veterans Day or swaps it for the day after Thanksgiving (at least, that was what we were given as a reason for having school on Veterans Day when I was a kid). But I know various federal offices that open on Veterans Day and that close on the day after Thanksgiving instead, as the latter is not an actual holiday, so as to avoid everyone having to use leave for a day almost everyone would take off anyway. I figure if even the feds don't all observe it, it says something about its status in popular perception.

Agreed.  Most of the other "not major" federal holidays generate long weekends for anyone who gets them off or have children who get off of school on those days.  Juneteenth is in the summer, so many kids are already off school, and those that aren't might be in exams at that point and have some days where they aren't scheduled to come in, and I've noticed it becoming a travel holiday, especially when it does create a long weekend.  Veterans Day is in late fall/early winter, often isn't a long weekend, and right on top of the much more major Thanksgiving that lots of people turn into a long weekend by taking Black Friday off.  There's not much you can do with it other than sleep in and stay home, assuming you can't trade the day off for something more useful.