France Cancelling Christmas this year

[Y’VA–REKH’KHA ADONAI]

France Cancelling Christmas this year, anyone hear about this?

I was watching CBN as I was waking up and they mentioned this.

Said it was because of bad economics that to cancel one of their national holidays they could use the taxes from the people working to make up the deficit.

 

[ZiSunka]

I don't even know how to respond to this one. It has so many problems that all I can do is throw up my hands and shake my head.

 

[Jet Black]

lol... that's a bit of a leap. There are lots of national holidays, I doubt it would be christmas.

 

[Karl - Liberal Backslider]

Do you have any links? I can't find anything about this.

 

[Y’VA–REKH’KHA ADONAI]

Sorry, I heard it as I woke up. They did mention not wanting to cancel labor day as the unions would be up in arms.

I dont' know France's other holidays, so can't speculate.

 

[Y’VA–REKH’KHA ADONAI]

TRyed looking for it here but todays news isn't posted yet.

http://cbn.org/cbnnews/cwn/

They only have up to Aug 26th so far. Will check back.

 

[RaptureTicketHolder]

With every day that passes, France is becoming more and more muslim. It would not suprise me it this cancellation happens more often.

 

[Jet Black]

well you jumped the gun a bit with christmas.

 

[Y’VA–REKH’KHA ADONAI]

I didn't jump anything, that is what I heard on the news show. Not that they are , but that they are considering it.

Makes you wonder though if that would be such a great move, I am sure that if they are anything like the US Christmas time is high selling time for their merchants.

 

[RaptureTicketHolder]

I dont think France is anything like us. I think the latest Gulf War efforts should be enough to say so.

 

[Jet Black]

I didn't jump anything, that is what I heard on the news show. Not that they are , but that they are considering it.

no, I doubt they are even considering cancelling christmas..... do you think us Europeans all have a lobotomy at birth or something?

 

[Jet Black]

I dont think France is anything like us. I think the latest Gulf War efforts should be enough to say so.

 

[tulc]

RaptureTicketHolder wrote: (#10)
"I dont think France is anything like us."

Yeah, it's like it's a totally different country!
tulc

 

[Taffsadar]

I dont think France is anything like us. I think the latest Gulf War efforts should be enough to say so.

Actually French people and Irishmen are the ones I consider to behave the most like you yanks do.

 

[ZaraDurden]

Wouldnt this also hurt the economy? I thought people spending was what drove the economy.... thats why american interest rates were just at an all time low...

 

[Reader Nilus]

Will France Scrap Christmas? Government Mulls Abolishing a Holiday to Finance Elderly Care
By John Leicester Associated Press Writer
Published: Aug 27, 2003
PARIS (AP) - France, a country where leisure time is sacrosanct, is mulling a radical plan for financing health care after a heat wave estimated to have killed thousands: Make people work on a national holiday.
The idea, which the government floated Wednesday, immediately split opinion and provoked one main question - which of France's 11 national holidays should go? Labor Day, perhaps, or a religious festival?

At least two ministers said Christmas should not be touched.

Ever wary of angering France's powerful unions, the government insisted it still hadn't made a decision. But even considering the idea shows how seriously the government is taking calls to improve care for the elderly, who made up most of the victims from the record temperatures that baked Europe this month.

Hamlaoui Mekachera, secretary of state for war veterans, told The Associated Press that if the plan is adopted, social taxes from the extra workday could help finance elderly care.

But most of all, abolishing a holiday would signal that France is ready to make sacrifices to better care for the vulnerable, he said.

"It's a very important, very strong symbol," Mekachera said in an interview. "The gesture of solidarity is more important than the financial gesture ... so that we never witness again what we saw."

Thousands died in the heat, the government has estimated, many of them elderly and living alone. The deaths focused attention on France's struggle to care for an aging population and prompted a storm of criticism that the center-right government reacted too slowly.

Secretary of State for the Elderly Hubert Falco noted that Germany has made people work the Day of Penance and Prayer in November to finance care for the aged since 1995.

"It's one of the possibilities, among many others," Falco said after a Cabinet meeting. "It would be, as is the case in Germany, a holiday that would be worked to the advantage of national solidarity."

At first blush, the idea seemed fraught with risk. Many French, long connoisseurs of fine living, appreciate the extra time off granted by a law passed by the previous Socialist government that restricted the working week for many to 35 hours.

There are also religious and historical sensibilities.

Transport Secretary Dominique Bussereau said he opposed abolishing a May 8 holiday that celebrates the end of World War II in Europe, or Christmas, or Armistice Day on Nov. 11, when fighting stopped in World War I.

"Definitely not May 8, because it left quite a few memories; not December 25 because I want Christmas presents," he said.

On the political left, there was outrage.

"There's no question of touching holidays," thundered Communist lawmaker Alain Bocquet. "There's no question of erasing May 8 and the memory of victory over Nazi barbarity and fascism!"

Jean-Claude Mailly, a leader of the Workers' Force trade union, said a wealthy country like France should not have to make workers labor longer to finance health care. The union, he warned, would not take kindly to the abolition of the May 1 Labor Day holiday.

"It's enforced charity, totally unacceptable," he said in an interview.

But Ernest-Antoine Seilliere, president of MEDEF, France's leading business federation, said one less holiday would be "fantastic."

"The idea that we can solve problems by working more is a big first for our country," he said on Europe-1 radio. "We all know that the time has passed for the illusion that we can be more united and make the French system function, eyeing leisure time all the while."

AP-ES-08-27-03 1514EDT
Jeff the Finn

 

[datan]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/france/story/0,11882,1030523,00.html

nope, it's definitely not Christmas.

 

[datan]

RaptureTicketHolder wrote: (#10)
"I dont think France is anything like us."

Yeah, it's like it's a totally different country!
tulc

it is a different country from the US.

 

[ACougar]

The statement was probably tounge in cheek. Christmas has always been boom time for merchants, canceling it would cost them money.

All this hostility toward the French is getting old, like us they have thier good side, a bad side, a pretty side and an ugly side. They should be one and in reality are (I believe) one of our greatest allies when it comes to promoting liberty around the world.

I didn't jump anything, that is what I heard on the news show. Not that they are , but that they are considering it.

Makes you wonder though if that would be such a great move, I am sure that if they are anything like the US Christmas time is high selling time for their merchants.

 

[datan]

I dont think France is anything like us. I think the latest Gulf War efforts should be enough to say so.

I dunno whether it's just a coincidence, but during the last century, France, Germany, China and Russia have all had foreign troops on their soil either as occupiers or invaders; whereas America and Britain haven't.

I think that really gives their people and leaders a rather unique perspective to the whole occupation thing that might be lacking in the US/UK.

That might be one reason why France's perspective on war and ocucpation is nothing like the US'.

So yes, you're right. France is nothing like the US.