STORM2K

Ok, this country is holiday-happy. We celebrate everything and everytime something significant happens we feel the need to make it a holiday. There is now argument over whether to make September 11 a federal holiday.

I personally think we should do away with Labor Day, Columbus Day (especially Columbus Day), Martin Luther King's Birthday, President's Day and Independence Day. These holidays should be grouped together and replaced by a single holiday celebrating America on September 3 (or the first Monday in September), the day when the US truly gained it's independence in 1783.

Veteran's Day and Memorial Day should be put together and celebrated on November 11.

We might also consider doing away with New Year's Day.

With fewer holidays, businesses would also be more inclined to increase annual leave. This could even be state-mandated in exhange for doing away with the holidays. Production would increase as the whole nation wouldn't come to a halt at the same time.

What are everyone's thoughts on Federal Holidays?

Are you crazy? all of those are legitimate holidays (except labor day) and therefore should be celebrated.

I don't see a point in Labor Day or Columbus Day(especially the latter), but the rest I'm fine with.

fact789 wrote:Are you crazy? all of those are legitimate holidays (except labor day) and therefore should be celebrated.

Well they'd stay on the calendar, but it wouldn't be mandated that commerce come to a halt.

We might also consider doing away with New Year's Day.

Better leave that one. Many Americans like to sleep late that day for obvious reasons.

The Fourth of July..is..well the Fourth of July. I think we should leave that one be for the sake of tradition. Memorial Day is the day we remember all our military who died for this country. We should leave that one alone as well as Veterans Day. There is too much significant to last two holidays IMO to eliminate them. Just my 2 cents.

I am in favor of eliminating Columbus Day, MLK Day, and Presidents Day.

As for 9/11 it should be a day of remembrance not a holiday. Nothing there to celebrate.

Phew...thank goodness you didn't mention doing away with Mardi Gras! Now that's a holiday i can't live without!

Ah...we can do away with MLK day, President's Day, Columbus Day, Memorial OR Veteran's Day (BUT NOT BOTH), and Labor Day. Every other holiday IMO is definitely very important.

The US has far fewer celebrated holidays (ie days off work) than most other western nations. I don't think we should do away with any of the precious few we have.

CajunMama wrote:Phew...thank goodness you didn't mention doing away with Mardi Gras! Now that's a holiday i can't live without!

lol - we would have to protest if they tried to do that Mama!!!

I AGREE WITH gtalum!!!!!!!

gtalum wrote:The US has far fewer celebrated holidays (ie days off work) than most other western nations. I don't think we should do away with any of the precious few we have.

We only have five of them every year. New Year's day, the monday after Easter, Ascension, the monday after Pentecost, Queen's day and Christmas. So you guys are pretty lucky

Yeah but how much vacation time do you get?

gtalum wrote:Yeah but how much vacation time do you get?

Well my point was that we should have more vacation in lieu of holidays. So that when you have your day off, the rest of the country can go about business as usual.

Countries that give more vacation have more productive man hours.

It should be pointed out that these are FEDERAL holidays. That means FEDERAL and STATE (depending on the state) government offices are closed, not necessarily private businesses and institutions.

Columbus Day, Presidents' Day, and Veteran's Day are not paid holidays where I work. If I want to take those days off, I would have to use vacation. All the other holidays (New Year's, MLK day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving (Thurs and Fri) and Christmas) are paid holidays. And depending when New Year's and Christmas falls on the calender, we may get an extra 2 days paid holiday time(like this year )

Regit wrote:Well my point was that we should have more vacation in lieu of holidays.

It will never happen. If we stopped celebrating a holiday, that would just turn into one more workday for Americans. We already work too hard as a nation as it is.

gtalum wrote:

Regit wrote:Well my point was that we should have more vacation in lieu of holidays.

It will never happen. If we stopped celebrating a holiday, that would just turn into one more workday for Americans. We already work too hard as a nation as it is.

Yeah, I didn't say it was ever going to happen. For some reason, American companies can't seem to figure out that other countries give more annual leave and get more efficient production.

Looking at worldwide data pointing you in one direction and then going in the exact opposite direction is as American as apple pie.

In Ontario, Canada....we have even fewer holidays:-

New Year's Day
Good Friday
Easter Sunday ( NOT PAID..but everything stays closed)
Victoria Day (4th Monday in May)
Canada Day (July 1)
Civic Day (1st Mon in Aug...NOT PAID)
Labour Day (1st Mon in Sept)
Thanksgiving Day (2nd Mon in Oct)
Remembrance Day (Nov 11) **ONLY FOR GOV'T and BANK WORKERS**
Christmas Day
Boxing Day (Dec 26) (but biggest shopping day of the year so all retailers
open early and have extended hours)

So just 8 paid holidays.
It is interesting to note that Canadians have no holidays between New Years Day and Easter Weekend (sometimes 3 1/2 months) ... unlike the US which has MLK in January and President's Day in February.

-justin-

Pfft....those who get vacations are lucky. The last real vacation i had was in 1988. That's right 1988. Being self employed I can't take off. If I take off I lose business. Sure I take off maybe 2 days a year when my daughter goes to national dance competition but that's it. We do take the holidays... New Years, Mardi Gras, Good Friday, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

If you add up the paid holidays that can be up to 12 paid days. Add a weeks paid vacation that's up to 17 paid days and if you're lucky enough to get 2 weeks that's up to 22 days. That's almost a month of working days. And we need more annual leave?

8 holidays would be nice. In SC, we have 11 holidays. The 10 federal holidays, plus an extra state holiday, Jefferson Davis's Birthday, which is such a ridiculous holiday that it makes me cringe.

Regit wrote:8 holidays would be nice. In SC, we have 11 holidays. The 10 federal holidays, plus an extra state holiday, Jefferson Davis's Birthday, which is such a ridiculous holiday that it makes me cringe.

I live ic SC and never heard of that 11th. Must be a perk for the precious few.