May 5 is Liberation Day in the Netherlands, commemorating the end of the Nazi occupation in 1945. It’s a national holiday this year, but not next year, and not again until 2015-a quinquennial national holiday, although it used to be annual. I’ve been told the reason for its partial dismantling is that the government wanted to reduce time off, and, with the passage of time, fewer people remembered or felt so strongly about the underlying historical event.
While Europeans work less for pay than Americans, I hate to see Europe even begin to move to what I view as the American low-level equilibrium of short vacations, few holidays and long hours of market work. Instead, since competition does not seem to be leading us to work less, perhaps we should have more nationally mandated holidays (always on a Monday). Martin Luther King, Jr., Day was a good start; how about others-Adam Smith‘s birthday? Suggest your favorite.
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Every month needs a holiday. For June, we could move flad day to Monday. For August, since it is during the dog days of summer, how about “Dog Day?” Everyone can bring their dog to the pool.
Personally, I prefer to see fewer nationally mandated things, holidays or otherwise. I have the freedom to negotiate flex time with my employer; the government can keep its grubby hands away from my time off. (And I consider myself a liberal!)
Good idea. Exactly what we should be focusing on at this point – a more European-style model for less productivity and work hours and more time spent on vacation. That’s turning out beautifully for them.
Chris, that’d be a nightmare for the pool cleaners… I mean, all in one day?
I say we really ramp up celebration of International Talk Like A Pirate Day, lest we forget the noble heritage of seafaring criminals who at least had it together enough to run a boat without killing too many of their crew.
August has a serious dearth of holidays, which I don’t mind because my birthday is in August and I *never* get double-gifted (sorry, late December birthdays). We’ll need to restrict at least August to non-gift holidays to preserve all Augustians’ rich birthright of not giving people an easy out for our birthdays.
We could always celebrate more presidents’ birthdays… Taft Day, when nobody does anything at all? Herbert Hoover day, when everyone eats poor man’s hash and boils their shoes for dinner? J. Edgar Hoover day, when everyone gets as much dirt as possible on everyone they know, and then release it wholesale in anonymous fashion? Bill Clinton day, when everyone has an intern in their offi– well, you get the idea.
Cheers, good idea!
“We Need More Holidays”
huh? No we don’t.
Adam Smith day would be perfect and perhaps an inventor’s day. This would be observed on a fixed date but commemorate a different scientist every year.
I recommend making the day Greenspan admitted his whole fallacy was wrong a holiday.
In America, what we need more than an increased quantity of holidays/vacation is an increased quality of holidays/vacation. I go on vacation for a week, but I work longer hours the week before to prepare for my absence, then I work longer hours the week after to catch up. In all I’m re-allocating my time, not truly getting any time away. It’s very demoralizing.
I get three weeks vacation and about 8-10 holidays each year; if those days off were “true” days off I’d be much more satisfied than if I got an extra week’s vacation that I’d have to make up for anyway.