Second stringer holidays

[Maister]

I had a Korean roommate in college who once commented on the dearth of holidays we Americans observed. Apparently, most countries average two to three times as many holidays as we officially observe.

The current discussion of Cinco de Mayo has got me to thinking...we seem to have four varieties of holidays in this country. Ones that have: A) some sort of ceremonial or ritual observances (possibly including gifts), but with no time off (e.g. Ash Wednesday, Halloween, Mother's Day); B) ones that amount to little more than a pretext for having a day off (Labor Day, Columbus Day [if you happen to be a Fed employee]); C) useless holidays that exist in name only (United Nations Day, Armed Forces Day [I can say it - I'm a vet ;-) ]); and D) Days that involve both ritual and time off (Xmas, Thanksgiving, Independence Day)

We hold Class D holidays closest to our hearts, but my former roommate was right there aren't enough of these. Which brings me to my question - what can we do to 'punch up' some of the more lame holidays out there to squeeze more fun outta them?.....I was thinking maybe Columbus Day should be approached more thematically - you know, host parties where guests dress up in 1492 Rennaisance garb and chug beer out of tankards (I'm not talking SCA dweebiness where people discuss +2 Bracers of Defense - I'm talking more like a hybrid Halloween/Superbowl Sunday). Maybe St. Patty's Day shouldn't be a day off but I sincerely believe the day AFTER should be...... :-#

 

[Seabishop]

Apparently, most countries average two to three times as many holidays as we officially observe.

I guess that's because we're a young country. We don't celebrate victories over the Romans in 200 AD like some countries. With the whole separation of church and state thing we don't get much time off for minor religious holidays.

I vote to take the whole month of August off like the Europeans. :-}

 

[Duke Of Dystopia]

......I'm talking more like a hybrid Halloween/Superbowl Sunday). Maybe St. Patty's Day shouldn't be a day off but I sincerely believe the day AFTER should be...... :-#

I like the way you think! :-D

Unfortunatly, one can have only so many "WE KICKED YOUR ASS!" days, or only so many "LOOK, ARN'T WE SPECIAL!" days. With the suggestion of any new holiday, a new protest is raised by some group that would feel offended or threatened by it.

Personally, I would like to see State and Federal Elections turned into holidays that fall on a Monday, twice a year. In off years, those days can be used to schedule local elections. They would be banking holidays as well. Anyone forced to work would be mandated to get enough time to vote as well as having priority in the voting lines. I would call these two days each year:

WERE PISSED OFF! :-D

&

YOUR FIRED :-D

Think of the day, members of the local neighborhood, standing next to the grill, waving thier grilling utinsils in anger or support. Everyone would be good and drunk by the time the polling results are in, just as night falls so it will be harder to control the angry crowds! 8-! Maybe it would put some spine into our politicians :-D

 

[Dan]

Can we tastefully "punch up" some holidays? Try to do that with MLK day, and you'll find it next to impossible without offending a good portion of the population. Same thing with Veteran's Day; many vets and former military find it offensive when a civilian dons BDUs or a dress uniform for Halloween or as a fashion statement. Columbus Day is fading away, except in areas with large Italian-American populations.

You've also got the regional holidays, like the many official holidays that Puerto Rico tacks onto the civil calendar on top of conventional US holidays, the various Revolutionary War-related holidays in parts of New England, Paderewski Day in Illinois, or ... the Confederate holidays that some Southern states still officially celebrate. There's also ethnic holidays celebrated in much of the US, like Dyngus Day, Juneteenth, Kwanzaa, St. Joseph's Day, and so on.

In the US, Bastille Day is an up-and-coming excuse for binge drinking, along the lines of St. Patrick's Day and Cinco de Mayo.

 

[michaelskis]

Halloween

The funny thing is that Nov 1 is the real holiday. Halloween is for All Hallows Eve. It is kind of like a Memorial Day or a day of the dead.

Some of the days that I think should become Holidays are:

the Monday after Thanksgiving (typically the first week day of the ski season in the northern section of the mid west)

Tax day. We all see how long those lines are at the Post Office.

Fat Tuesday! Come on... does this need any explanation

Every second Tuesday of the Month. (Second Monday nights are ZBA)

Opening Day of Baseball, Hockey, Foot Ball, Basket Ball, and any other sports that you might have interest in.

Also Octoberfest we should have a week off!

 

[otterpop]

We can add on a whole bunch of new holidays by being more multi-cultural. Moslems and Jews get to take off some of our religious holidays, so let's add theirs to our list of official holidays. Yom Kippur springs to mind. Couldn't we all use a Day of Atonement? Toss in a few Native American holidays - Sun Dance, Battle of Little Bighorn, etc. - and we might have a four-day work week every week! Personally I take off my birthday, my son's birthday, and Mardi Gras (if Commission meetings don't conflict).

 

[boiker]

Paderewski Day in Illinois,

I've lived in Illinois all my life and this is the first I've heard of it? :-\

 

[Richmond Jake]

I think Festivus is a second stringer, too.

 

[Mud Princess]

...There's also ethnic holidays celebrated in much of the US, like Dyngus Day...

HUH??!!! Did you make that one up?!

I don't think we celebrate our "real" holidays enough as it is. My husband, who's a vet, NEVER gets Veteran's Day off. And increasingly -- unless you work at a bank -- people in the private sector are forced to work on major national holidays.

When I was a kid, I used to b*tch about having nothing to do on New Year's Day because nothing was open, but now people not only work on New Year's, they also work Christmas and Thanksgiving (at K-mart, etc., I mean). Unless you provide emergency services, I think EVERYONE should get these major holidays off.

No one wonder Europeans think we're stressed out -- we're always working!

 

[jsk1983]

I go to a state university and federal holidays aren't even observed. I would think that a division of the state would be forced to give fed holidays off, but I guess not.

 

[Maister]

Duke - I think we should have a national "We Kicked yer Ass Day" (and it should be called that too). I see a parade - the Shriners riding around in their minibikes followed by several dozen "pairs" one dressed as Uncle Sam and the other dressed in the tradtional garb of each country (German, British, Spanish etc.) we have vanquished in our several wars with Uncle Sam symbolically 'kicking' the foreign icons' posterior (near the end of this procession there is a Vitenamese icon kicking Uncle Sams arse). Naturally, afterwards everyone adjourns to the local bar and sits down for some recreational drinking

Seabishop - I guess that means we'll have to make more mileage out of the few minor skirmishes we have fought.

Dan - there are Americans celebrating Bastille Day????? :-0

Michaelskis - at "Maison Maister" Oktoberfest IS a weeklong affair. You (and any other Cyburbian out there who's interested) are hereby invited to the Oktoberfest celebration at my place the fourth weekend in September. I serve Schwabian Spaetzle, three varieties of sauerkraut, blutwurst, weisswurst, bratwurst, metwurst, Silesian ham snacks, sauerbraten, mini-barrels of Warsteiner, Becks, Hacker-Pschorr, and homemade pretzels mitt authentic German senf. Cheesy 'Oompah' music is usually playing in the background......I'm still working on the excessively buxom barmaids who carry 10 litres of brew at a time. (any volunteers? ;-)

 

[Duke Of Dystopia]

We should expand some of those we have. Like christmas. We should change the name back to YULE, and celebrate all 12 days like the midwinter cabin fever reliever party it is SUPOSED to be. :-D

Come on! the days are getting LONGER after that! :-}

 

[Planderella]

and Mardi Gras (if Commission meetings don't conflict).

Since I assume you don't get a chance to come back home to celebrate it in true fashion, do you do anything special like cook gumbo or have a king cake shipped to where you are?

 

[Duke Of Dystopia]

Duke - I think we should have a national "We Kicked yer Ass Day" ...

.....Michaelskis - at "Maison Maister" Oktoberfest IS a weeklong affair. You (and any other Cyburbian out there who's interested) are hereby invited to the Oktoberfest celebration at my place the fourth weekend in September. I serve Schwabian Spaetzle, three varieties of sauerkraut, blutwurst, weisswurst, bratwurst, metwurst, Silesian ham snacks, sauerbraten, mini-barrels of Warsteiner, Becks, Hacker-Pschorr, and homemade pretzels mitt authentic German senf. Cheesy 'Oompah' music is usually playing in the background......I'm still working on the excessively buxom barmaids who carry 10 litres of brew at a time. (any volunteers? ;-)

1) :-D

2) Where is this "I hold octoberfest" of which you speak, sounds like A LOT OF FUN! :-D

I have seen those chicks that can carry the beer like that. If you find some, hope you like that good solid stout German Build on a woman! :-c

 

[otterpop]

Since I assume you don't get a chance to come back home to celebrate it in true fashion, do you do anything special like cook gumbo or have a king cake shipped to where you are?

My mom ships me a king cake. I wear my Mardi Gras beads, get drunk and make a fool of myself, like I used to when I lived in Louisiana.

 

[JNA]

Michaelski - am I right that these should be holidays also -
Opening day of the snow skiing season.
Closing day of the snow skiing season. :-c

For others how about:
the monday before both primary and general election days.
the day of your state's statehood.
your birthday - not even a floating holiday here but it should be.

 

[Downtown]

Personally, I would like to see State and Federal Elections turned into holidays that fall on a Monday, twice a year. In off years, those days can be used to schedule local elections. They would be banking holidays as well. Anyone forced to work would be mandated to get enough time to vote as well as having priority in the voting lines.

We actually get election tuesday in November off from work. Although, I would be extremely curious to see how many of my fellow municipal employees take time to vote.... :-\

 

[Dan]

HUH??!!! Did you make that one up?!

I wish I did.

I have a special link just for El Guapo, where he can learn about Dyngus Day.

 

[Maister]

We can add on a whole bunch of new holidays by being more multi-cultural. Moslems and Jews get to take off some of our religious holidays, so let's add theirs to our list of official holidays. Yom Kippur springs to mind. Couldn't we all use a Day of Atonement? Toss in a few Native American holidays - Sun Dance, Battle of Little Bighorn, etc. - and we might have a four-day work week every week! Personally I take off my birthday, my son's birthday, and Mardi Gras (if Commission meetings don't conflict).

If there's any hope for new holidays I'm convinced it will come from some other cultural tradition. Why is it almost every culture on earth has some sort of wheat, rice, manioc, barley, potato...whatever, harvest festival (and Thanksgiving is NOT quite the same thing for the record).

As far as election holidays go I have worked in several different communities and none of them did more than maybe cut you an hour's slack for a 'long lunch' to go vote. Pretty pathetic IMHO.

 

[lowlyplanner]

Let's not forget 'emerging' holidays like National Talk Like a Pirate Day (September 19th).

You can hear Dave Barry discussing it here:

http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1435309

 

[The One]

Follow the Empire Rules

How about those BANK HOLIDAY's 8-! enjoyed throughout the empire? A friend from Singapore really misses those days off! The Canadian's, Aussies/NZ's and the remainder of the empire also enjoy several of these a year I think. At least according to my cheap desk calendar there were 4 this year? :-D

 

[Dan]

[ot]

I'm not talking SCA dweebiness where people discuss +2 Bracers of Defense

Bracers of Defense are armor ... how can they be +2? I assume you're not talking about cursed armor, where the weapon of the attacker is given a +2 HP bonus. Then again, a Bracer of Defense is magical, eliminating the need for physical armor, so you might get a dexterity bonus. The armor itself can't be used as a +2 weapon, though.

Shouldn't Gary Gygax's birthday be a holiday in the Kingdom of Y'Gor? We can all celebrate by rolling a 20-sided and not bathing for the number of days shown, followed by the time-honored ritual of a Stage 1 install of Gentoo Linux on our PCs.

/geek

[/ot]

 

[pete-rock]

... Paderewski Day in Illinois, or ...

Dat would be yer Kazameer Pulaski Day der, fella -- and dat's only in Shee-KAW-ga.

 

[Dan]

Dat would be yer Kazameer Pulaski Day der, fella -- and dat's only in Shee-KAW-ga.

One of those Ski guys from Poland; Pulaski, Paderewski, Kowalski, Chopinski, Walesaski ... you get the idea.

 

[Duke Of Dystopia]

If there's any hope for new holidays I'm convinced it will come from some other cultural tradition. Why is it almost every culture on earth has some sort of wheat, rice, manioc, barley, potato...whatever, harvest festival .....

We won't have one because those are pagan based holidays. We call it thanksgiving but it really is the celebration of the harvest. Harvest celebration is too pagan, you know, when evil disbalievers are out there to do bad things to good christians like reaping the harvest and preparing for winter. But the christians can't be having any of that now.

1) Edward Rawson, the clerk, was directed to proclaim June 29 as a day of Thanksgiving. In 1777 all the 13 colonies joined in a thanksgiving celebration.

2) In 1941 Thanksgiving was sanctioned by Congress as a legal holiday as the fourth Thursday in November.