Easter Public Holidays

[GodLovesCats]

In Australia Good Friday and Easter Monday are both federal public holidays. By that I mean paid days off work - effectively a four day weekend with pay. I understand that the UK is the same.

I was therefore surprised to hear that in the US, an otherwise 'Christian' nation, Good Friday is a state holiday in only a limited number of states and Easter Monday as a holiday, paid or not, doesn't appear to exist.

Is there a reason the US is so stingy with public holidays?

America is not officially a Christian nation. Christianity is just the most popular religion up here. In fact, it has become "less Christian" in recent years, according to nationwide polls on the subject.

Luckily, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution allows people to take Good Friday off work if they want to. It states:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Regarding the "limited states" part: New York is heavily Jewish and Utah is mostly Mormon so it makes a lot of sense that not all states would want the Friday before and Monday after Easter to be holidays. Also, America did not get the nickname "Melting Pot" for nothing. Religion is part of our diversity from years of immigration.

 

[Occams Barber]

America is not officially a Christian nation. Christianity is just the most popular religion up here. In fact, it has become "less Christian" in recent years, according to nationwide polls on the subject.

I'm seeing the US as a "Christian nation" in contrast to my own country. In Australia only 52% identify as Christian and the numbers are dropping dramatically. Very few Christians actually attend church. Over 30% of Australians have 'no religion'. Religion is rarely discussed and churches are few and far between. We're included in lists of the least religious Western nations. Its not remarkable to have non believers as politicians.

Looked at from my viewpoint the US comes across as hyper- Christian. In spite of legalistic church/state separation it infects your politics and publicly identifying as a Christian is normal. No Australian PM would convene a group of Christian pastors as advisers or publicly walk around waving a Bible. The US is acknowledged as the most religious (Christian) Western nation by a huge margin. It's true Christian numbers are dropping but the rate of fall is actually quite slow.

Luckily, the First Amendment of the United States Constitution allows people to take Good Friday off work if they want to

Here everyone gets the day off (along with Monday) and we all get paid.

Also, America did not get the nickname "Melting Pot" for nothing. Religion is part of our diversity from years of immigration.

Australia has also been an immigrant nation since 1788 when it was first colonised by the British. By some measures Australia is more diverse than the US in percentage terms. Religious diversity is also normal here. I live in a small village with two Sikh temples and one Catholic church.

OB

 

[Bradskii]

We also have a State (Victoria) public holiday for a horse race...

Wife and I rolled up into a small town (In Mississipi I think) on the day of the Kentucky Derby. Checked into the motel and headed for the closest bar in walking distance. I thought it would be a la Melbourne Cup. Party atmosphere, sweeps, best dressed filly, cocktails, maybe some free food and a band?

Four people in the bar and that included the barman, me and the missus. I had to ask him to turn the tv on to the race but he wouldn't turn the sound up.

Quite a non event.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Wife and I rolled up into a small town (In Mississipi I think) on the day of the Kentucky Derby. Checked into the motel and headed for the closest bar in walking distance. I thought it would be a la Melbourne Cup. Party atmosphere, sweeps, best dressed filly, cocktails, maybe some free food and a band?

Four people in the bar and that included the barman, me and the missus. I had to ask him to turn the tv on to the race but he wouldn't turn the sound up.

Quite a non event.

I think I see your mistake -- Mississippi. You were a couple states too far south.

The only region in the US where obsession with horse racing is wide spread would be the Blue Grass region of Kentucky, where the locals grow race horses and bourbon.

 

[Occams Barber]

I think I see your mistake -- Mississippi. You were a couple states too far south.

The only region in the US where obsession with horse racing is wide spread would be the Blue Grass region of Kentucky, where the locals grow race horses and bourbon.

The Melbourne Cup is often described as "the race that stops a Nation".

Probably a bit of an exaggeration but many workplaces in and out of Victoria stop to watch the race. Some workplaces run Cup 'sweeps' betting on the outcome.

As a kid we used to all file into the high school auditorium to hear the Cup broadcast.

OB

 

[Tanj]

So is Australia. In fact Australia is measurably less Christian (and more secular) than the US.

I'm not sure that secularity accounts for the dearth of paid public holidays in the US. Looked at from here the US comes across as somewhat Dickensian in its working conditions (public holidays, annual leave, sick leave, minimum wage, parental leave, termination conditions etc.)

OB

Dickensian? What do you mean...apart from 2 weeks annual leave if you are lucky, a minimum wage below the poverty line, no decent health insurance, less public holidays than any other western country, the right to be summarily fired without cause.

Sounds like an exceptional utopia.

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

In South Africa, Good Friday is a public holiday. The monday after Easter Sunday is also one, Family day, to create an Easter Weekend.

It is a bit unfair though, in that Good Friday is a holiday for everyone. In our state service, Muslims are given special off days for their Eids and Hindus for things like Diwali, but Christians and Atheists have the short end of the stick and get no such special leave - as Christmas and Good Friday are the only days such might apply for Christians and those are already holidays. So we are in the same running to get those days off as everyone else in places like the medical sector, while Muslims get special dispensation for Eid while having an equal footing to get Easter Weekend off. Ascension day used to be a holiday back in Apartheid days, and I'd rather have them similarly strip Good Friday of its holiday status and place a secular unconnected and fixed long weekend in its place. I think having Easter be a secular long weekend is anyway disrespectful to the tenor of the feast, and naturally it would have advantages to myself that it would be far less likely that I would end up needing to work on Good Friday.

 

[Bradskii]

Dickensian? What do you mean...apart from 2 weeks annual leave if you are lucky, a minimum wage below the poverty line, no decent health insurance, less public holidays than any other western country, the right to be summarily fired without cause.

Sounds like an exceptional utopia.

At least their petrol is one of the cheapest in the world compared to income.

 

[Occams Barber]

In South Africa, Good Friday is a public holiday. The monday after Easter Sunday is also one, Family day, to create an Easter Weekend.

It is a bit unfair though, in that Good Friday is a holiday for everyone. In our state service, Muslims are given special off days for their Eids and Hindus for things like Diwali, but Christians and Atheists have the short end of the stick and get no such special leave - as Christmas and Good Friday are the only days such might apply for Christians and those are already holidays. So we are in the same running to get those days off as everyone else in places like the medical sector, while Muslims get special dispensation for Eid while having an equal footing to get Easter Weekend off. Ascension day used to be a holiday back in Apartheid days, and I'd rather have them similarly strip Good Friday of its holiday status and place a secular unconnected and fixed long weekend in its place. I think having Easter be a secular long weekend is anyway disrespectful to the tenor of the feast, and naturally it would have advantages to myself that it would be far less likely that I would end up needing to work on Good Friday.

Perhaps it's time to stop whingeing and accept that white protestant Christianity has had it's way for decades. As the pendulum swings some over compensation is inevitable.

Over time things will equalise. Now is the time to shut up and keep your head down.

OB

 

[Quid est Veritas?]

Perhaps it's time to stop whingeing and accept that white protestant Christianity has had it's way for decades. As the pendulum swings some over compensation is inevitable.

Over time things will equalise. Now is the time to shut up and keep your head down.

OB

This is the weirdest comment. You are making no sense whatsoever. If the pendulum swung against Christianity, that would in fact favour disestablishment of the Easter holiday - which is merely an artifact of the 19th century Christian hegemony. Afterall, Eid and Diwali aren't national holidays, and for that reason a special dispensation had been made for them - which alas, plays against me in my specific field.

 

[Bob Crowley]

A paid day off is a paid day off. Australians are fairly indifferent to any religious justification. We also have a State (Victoria) public holiday for a horse race and another for the annual state (NSW) Agricultural Show. OB

We get a day off for the Royal National Show Day in Queensland (same bird, different feathers as the NSW Agricultural Show), but the day varies from place to place eg. in Brisbane it will be a Wednesday in August, whereas in Logan just south of Brisbane it will be the preceding Monday.

We don't get a holiday for the Melbourne Cup, which makes Australia the only nation in the world that stops for a bunch of nags having a race (I couldn't care less personally) but in my last job as a community transport driver, I used to notice the traffic was always lighter during the afternoon peak hour. My thought was that there were so many boozed office workers after the Cup that they couldn't drive home until they'd sobered up. I know - I used to work in an office years ago, and I'd end up driving some of the other workers home.

 

[Aryeh Jay]

Dickensian? What do you mean...apart from 2 weeks annual leave if you are lucky, a minimum wage below the poverty line, no decent health insurance, less public holidays than any other western country, the right to be summarily fired without cause.

Sounds like an exceptional utopia.

Don't forget the incarnation levels and the death penalty.

 

[essentialsaltes]

It's a small surprise to me every year that the US stock markets are closed on Good Friday.

 

[J_B_]

Anyway, the main holiday is on a Sunday ...

Sunday is the high point, true, but it's a common misunderstanding that only Sunday is celebrated. It would be like watching 1 minute of video as Barad-dur falls and claiming you've watched Lord of the Rings ... which is what my son does ... sigh.

It's how we end up with the Easter Bunny and so forth. People don't understand what the celebration is about so they tack on stupid stuff. I don't participate in Ramandan. I don't put up Crescent moon decorations, get a visit from the Arabian sand cat, and hunt for cobra eggs. I understand how it became a cultural thing, but ... oh well.

 

[J_B_]

Sorta kinda yes and no. On the one hand, it is true that religiosity measurable by public observance is definitely lower here. On the other hand, we have no formal legal separation of church and state the way America does. Our constitution prohibits having an Established church, but beyond that, there's much more scope for church-state relations than America's legal system allows; which is why we get things like government funding for church schools etc. (Or why I'm fronting up on Monday to lead prayers for the local ANZAC day observances; something I find almost as objectionable as the local atheists might).

Part of the focus of my history degree led me into studying how churches established themselves in the U.S. It was a new idea, so people didn't know how to do it, and it's harder than most realize. As a result of being the first to try it among modern nations, our system is rather hodge-podge and not really very effective. Americans may like to trumpet the First Amendment, but underneath it's a legal mess.

 

[Hans Blaster]

Sunday is the high point, true, but it's a common misunderstanding that only Sunday is celebrated. It would be like watching 1 minute of video as Barad-dur falls and claiming you've watched Lord of the Rings ... which is what my son does ... sigh.

Oh, I know. When I was a boy we *always* went to Mass on Holy Thursday and took care for our fasting on Good Friday. Since I didn't see evidence of these practices amongst the Protestants, I assumed then that they didn't matter as much to them. I'm still not sure who values what as it is all weird to me now.

[One minute seems like more than enough LtR. I think your boy is onto something...]

 

[J_B_]

Oh, I know. When I was a boy we *always* went to Mass on Holy Thursday and took care for our fasting on Good Friday. Since I didn't see evidence of these practices amongst the Protestants, I assumed then that they didn't matter as much to them. I'm still not sure who values what as it is all weird to me now.

I understand it gets confusing. There are those of us who never really moved that far away from the ancient rites, so it's more than just Catholics. Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans of the high church bent all have practices that look very similar. For us it's even more than Holy Week. It's a year long thing.

[One minute seems like more than enough LtR. I think your boy is onto something...]

There are some, including me, who actually enjoy it and went so far as to also read the books.

 

[Hans Blaster]

I understand it gets confusing. There are those of us who never really moved that far away from the ancient rites, so it's more than just Catholics. Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans of the high church bent all have practices that look very similar. For us it's even more than Holy Week. It's a year long thing.

Holy week -- how did I forget about Palm Sunday.

I've had little contact with the practice of Protestantism. I think I've only been 3 services that I know of: A Lutheran funeral, a Lutheran wedding, and an Anglican wedding. (And that's from someone whose family is half Lutheran.) The last one was really odd because it was eerily familiar, but still different and I was pretending to be a Catholic at the same time I was unfamiliar with the oddly familiar Anglican service.

 

[essentialsaltes]

Even if I don't celebrate, it's still nice to be remembered on the holidays.

 

[J_B_]

I've had little contact with the practice of Protestantism.

Lutherans aren't really Protestant in the way Americans think of the term. We're only Protestant in the sense of being primarily a western church, stemming from an argument with the Reformation-era popes. I've seen some Lutherans refer to themselves as Reformed Catholics.

As such, we're the lesser known recipients of the religious mistreatment most non-Calvinists received in the early American republic.

Let me know when you're ready, and I'll explain it all to you. This time I'm sure it will make perfect sense and you'll decide to join us.