Should the Start of Chinese New Year Be a Federal Holiday?

First time accepted submitter CarlosF writes "Does Lunar New Year belong alongside those other red-letter days? Efforts to recognize Lunar New Year at the state and local level have been afoot for years. In 1994, San Francisco decided to close public schools on Lunar New Year, but this was largely a response to demographic reality rather than political pressure."

Comments

No, it shouldn't

[Anonymous Coward]

Should Bastille day be a national holiday?

Re:No, it shouldn't

[osu-neko]

Should Bastille day be a national holiday?

In countries that contain the Bastille, yes. Does the first new moon of the year fail to occur in some nation?

Re:No, it shouldn't

[K. S. Kyosuke]

Should Bastille day be a national holiday?

In countries that contain the Bastille, yes. Does the first new moon of the year fail to occur in some nation?

In that case, we should also celebrate the first full moon of the year. I'd personally also go for the first waxing moon of the year and for the first waning moon of the year.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[rudy_wayne]

All holidays should be abolished. At least at the federal level anyway. Celebrating a "holiday" simply because it's the first day of a new year? We should have stopped that nonsense long ago.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it relevant to anything besides astrology?

I see no reason to have a statutory holiday dedicated to worshipping the moon.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Ol Biscuitbarrel]

In medieval times the calendar was packed with holidays, about one per week IIRC. Seems like that would've been a good way to blow off some steam, eh? Most of these are only historical curios now. I'd be for bringing those back, or secular equivalents, rather. Starting with Festivus, of course. Feats of Strength!

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Richy_T]

I would further like to suggest that we should then celebrate the first day of the month following the start of the lunar year, But let's not stop there, keep it up and we can get the whole year off. Except that I tend to work in industries that don't recognize most federal holidays. That's just for those lazy government workers.

In fact, forget mandatory holidays anyway, just give me more paid time off that I can take on my own schedule.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[LordLucless]

Yeah. You know what else is useless? Weekends. What's up with that crap. I mean, abolish them, and we could work 7 days a week. Woot!

Re:No, it shouldn't

[artor3]

Yeah, fun is irrational. We should all be good little automatons, just like our owners wish.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[craigminah]

Russia tried something like that where people worked 5 days on and 1 day off. This allowed factories to run 24/7 or at least until they broke. The mechanical failures was part of the reason Russia went to a kooky sub-7 day week and shortly after that they went to a normal 7-day week. People and machines need time for scheduled maintenance/beer.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[noobermin]

Do you ever take a day off, or do you work year round? Nonetheless, for arbitrary reasons or not, some people actually enjoy holidays. I, personally, am somewhat fond of CNY since I have a bunch of friends who celebrate it, although I don't I do agree that we should celebrate it since it doesn't carry a lot of historical or cultural significance in the US.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Anonymous Coward]

The argument likely aims at the fact that storming of Bastille was the event that launched chain that resulted in creation of modern democracy, modern Western power structures and Napoleon Code.

The storming of the Bastille happened years after the American Revolution, and unlike the American Revolution, which resulted in (relatively) liberal democracy right away, the French Revolution resulted in the Reign of Terror (hardly a model for democracy), and the re-establishment of monarchy several times (Napoleonic and Bourbon kings and emperors). In fact, the French Revolution scared a lot of other countries from liberalizing and becoming more democratic (see Edmund Burke's writings, for instance)

Also, the Napoleonic Code also has nothing to do with the common law practiced in the US (outside of Louisiana and Puerto Rico to some extent) or other Anglophone liberal democracies.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Sulphur]

Should Bastille day be a national holiday?

In countries that contain the Bastille, yes. Does the first new moon of the year fail to occur in some nation?

In counties that contain a large jail like the Bastille one might notice a momentous jailbreak, no?

Re:No, it shouldn't

[AK Marc]

So maintenance was on the "days off"? Did the maintenance guys work 2 on 5 off in that case? Most 24 hour operations that require scheduled maintenance schedule the maintenance for shift change, or have redundant equipment. Giving your maintenance crew a weekend to "rest" the machinery doesn't work.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[bmo]

>All holidays should be abolished.

You first.

--
BMO

Re:No, it shouldn't

[overshoot]

All holidays should be abolished. At least at the federal level anyway.

Sounds like a plan -- that way, we can get more work out of everyone and make them take their holidays out of their ten days of vacation a year.

Of course, that does make it a bit difficult to schedule coverage for the office when you can't be sure how many people will be available to cover and, conversely, whether there will be demand for services from the ones who are there. Kind of like Wall Street during the major Jewish holidays: not a legal holiday, but don't bother trying to call your brokerage.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[ShanghaiBill]

storming of Bastille ... resulted in creation of modern democracy

America was already a democracy when the Bastille was stormed. It would make more sense for the French to celebrate July 4th.

modern Western power structures

Is that a good thing?

and Napoleon Code.

Except for Louisiana, American law isn't based on the Napoleonic Code, and Louisiana has long been the worst governed and most corrupt state in the country.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[echucker]

Well, may as well keep it a holiday in the US, since a good portion of the country will be hung over, still drinking, or watching football.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[russotto]

Medieval holidays were a little different than holidays nowadays. You didn't get time off work for them (dawn till dusk and a bit more, 7 days a week). Instead, you weren't supposed to have sex or any other sort of fun, and instead spend more time praying.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Libertarian001]

At Intel it's 4 crews working 12 hour shifts: 4 on, 3 off, 3 on, 4 off. Most of our PMs were run-based, not time-based.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[CrimsonAvenger]

The argument likely aims at the fact that storming of Bastille was the event that launched chain that resulted in creation of modern democracy, modern Western power structures and Napoleon Code.

14 July 1789 was the event that launched the chainn that resulted in creation of modern democracy?

Seems to me that 4 July 1776 was a bit earlier, and perhaps even helped to inspire the French.

Or we could step back a year to 19 April 1775, when the Battles of Lexington and Concord were fought...a battle in the US that kicked off a revolution perhaps being a better parallel with a battle in France that kicked off a revolution....

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Alomex]

(dawn till dusk and a bit more, 7 days a week). Instead, you weren't supposed to have sex or any other sort of fun, and instead spend more time praying.

Now we call that "grad school".

Re:No, it shouldn't

[sumdumass]

Bastille and a new moon are slightly different things. one of earmarking a single period of time in history when the other is a method of keeping time that reoccurs yearly or more.

We have chosen to tabulate time differently and the new moon plays no significant roll in that. It is a hold back of tradition rejected- regardless of any usefulness it may have.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[sumdumass]

I don't know about that. I know several full time maintenance personnel at a couple local factories and they use the weekends to retool production runs and deep cleaning.

Large industrial operations generally need tolerances checked and adjusted frequently too.

The idea of rest as far as factories go is more like making sure the equipment is working properly and capable of doing the jobs demanded of them. oiling and greasing the right parts to ensure longevity, and so on. But those factories also take a week or two a year to do comprehensive maintenance also.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Hognoxious]

Does the first new moon of the year fail to occur in some nation?

Australia. I can see the moon right now so it must be daytime there.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Hognoxious]

Pshah! We're supposed to be talking about history, not current affairs.

I'll see your 1776 and raise you 15th June, 1215.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Redmancometh]

Uh last time I checked all that was done in situ by press operators (oil, grease, part tolerance via inspection sheet), qc (via tool history cards and inspections at least a couple times a day), or a sensored controls package (part tolerances, tooling tolerances, press/tonnage monitoring.) "Regular" failures like broken punches, bent cageroll bearings, and crash dies can't really be precented...that press is going down regardless of day. Last time I checked was 6:00 when I got up from my solidworks terminal. I know its not like that in ALL factories. For high (15mil+/mo) volume metalworking operations thats how it works though.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Prof.Phreak]

Not a bad idea... really!

Most folks don't actually do 9-5 five-days-a-week of productive work every week these days... but reducing their workweek to 4-days is somehow not popular (especially if corp has to pay the same amount anyway, or alternatively employees taking a 20% pay cut).

Adding (paid, federal) holidays (like, a LOT of holidays) may have the same impact. Imagine an extra holiday every month giving everyone an extra 3-day weekend every month. From the cultural perspective, I can imagine that being an amazingly great thing. Call it "moon day" or whatever, invent some hallmark theme for it, etc.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[LordLimecat]

Im sure youre a blast to have at parties.

"Stop all of this illogical merrymaking! We should be acting as productive members of society!"

Re:No, it shouldn't

[hairyfish]

Only one? In my country we get two days off work every week.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[craigminah]

Everyone's a doubter...crap, made me set my beer down and google it for your reading pleasure. Forgot where I originally read this, but here's Wikipedia's version:

From the autumn of 1929 until the summer of 1931, each Gregorian calendar year was usually divided into 72 five-day weeks (=360 days), three of which were split into two partial weeks by five national holidays. The two parts of each split week still totaled five days—the one or two national holidays that split it were not part of that week. Each day of the five-day week was labeled by either one of five colors or a Roman numeral from I to V. Each worker was assigned a color or number to identify his or her day of rest.

Eighty per cent of each factory's workforce was at work every day (except holidays) in an attempt to increase production while 20% were resting. But if a husband and wife, and their relatives and friends were assigned different colors or numbers, they would not have a common rest day for their family and social life. Furthermore, machines broke down more frequently both because they were used by workers not familiar with them, and because no maintenance could be performed on machines that were never idle in factories with continuous schedules (24-hours/day every day). Five-day weeks (and later six-day weeks) "made it impossible to observe Sunday as a day of rest. This measure was deliberately introduced 'to facilitate the struggle to eliminate religion'".[1]

The colors vary depending on the source consulted. The 1930 color calendar displayed here has days of purple, blue, yellow, red, and green, in that order beginning 1 January.[2] Blue was supported by an anonymous writer in 1936 as the second day of the week, but he stated that red was the first day of the week.[3] However, most sources replace blue with either pink,[4][5][6][7][8] orange,[9][10][11] or peach,[12] all of which specify the different order yellow, pink/orange/peach, red, purple, and green. The partial 1930 black and white calendar from Kingsbury and Fairchild (1935) displayed here does not conform to any of these because its red day is the fifth day of the week, which even disagrees with their own statement that red was the third day of the week.[9]

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_calendar

Re:No, it shouldn't

[craigminah]

I said everyone worked a 6-day week (5 on, 1 off) and maintenance wasn't done.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[fustakrakich]

I see no reason to have a statutory holiday dedicated to worshipping the moon.

Yes, the Sun is the one, true God.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[viperidaenz]

Didn't Jack and Daniel kill Ra?

Re:No, it shouldn't

[azcoyote]

More than that--every day of the calendar has at least one potential saint's feast, but which ones were celebrated was mostly decided locally. Hence St. Patrick's day was a huge celebration in Ireland, but not necessarily everywhere. Some feast days had a higher significance and were closer to today's public holidays. I don't know where the poster below gets the idea that people worked 7 days a week, since clearly Judaism and Christianity introduced the concept of the weekend and prohibited working on Saturday or Sunday, respectively. And holidays did *not* have much to do with prohibiting sex; a "day of abstinence," for example, merely means abstaining from meat. That's merely a projection of today's bizarre views on sex onto medieval piety. If medieval people had less sex, then one wonders why it wasn't uncommon for there to be families of over 20 children (e.g. St. Catherine of Siena's family). It's also a misconception that a holiday meant that one had to "spend more time praying," as though they were not expected to pray every other day, and as though religious holidays were not celebrated with fun and enjoyment.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[koxkoxkox]

Except of course if the employee wants to rest during the holiday, for some petty reason like the fact that all his family is free this day. The whole point of these holidays is to remove the choice from the employer.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[CrimsonAvenger]

Pshah! We're supposed to be talking about history, not current affairs.

I'll see your 1776 and raise you 15th June, 1215.

Shrewdly played, sir! I will concede the point....

Re:No, it shouldn't

[hemp]

The USis the only nation in the world with no holidays (or sick leave) mandated by law.

I tell my group in India this and they think I am making up stories.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[sjames]

Actually, yes you did, and often half of the previous day. The typical peasant of the day put in about 8 hours of work on a work day (dawn till dusk with time out for meals and a nap) and got about 1/3 of the year off for various holidays (including Sundays).

Re:No, it shouldn't

[kelemvor4]

Should Bastille day be a national holiday?

...a good first step would be explaining what it is rather than mentioning something obscure in the hopes people will bother to search for it.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Kreigaffe]

Actually that's... pretty horribly inaccurate. It's a common inaccuracy -- but the past wasn't as awful as that, and the present isn't that great.
Sure, they worked a lot. So do all of us. It's a different kind of work, and a different kind of pressure to work, but it's all the same in the end.
7 days a week is a lie, as at the very least Sunday was (is?) the Sabbath and most people didn't work.
Sex wasn't exactly the horrible no-no-badness, either. That's really more a Victorian thing.
Hell, even the damned PURITANS had all kinds of sex out of wedlock, brah. There was just always a marriage pretty much soon as the girl was showing.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Kreigaffe]

Also for rolling aluminum. 12 hour shifts, rotating from am-pm to pm-am on each break. 4 on, 3 off, 3 on, 1 off, 3 on, 3 off, 4 on, 7 off.

Things only stopped when there was no work to be done, when things broke, or.. well, ideally, that's it. Shut down a few times because the power company forced it (hot, hot hot summers), worker shortages (blizzard), etc..

It is, unfortunately, a fucking awful schedule to work. You pretty quickly get the feeling that it's killing you, and it pretty much does.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[lister king of smeg]

The Sun is female, the Moon is male.

The ancient Egyptian worshipers of Ra the sun god, as well as the Roman worshipers of the sun god Apollo the sun god of Luna the moon goddess would all like to talk to you about that.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Taco Cowboy]

Yeah. You know what else is useless? Weekends. What's up with that crap. I mean, abolish them, and we could work 7 days a week. Woot!

In that light, why don't we do away with the 8-working-hour-per-day rule?

Why is there a necessity for "overtime pay"?

Work 24-hours-a-day until you die, you slaves!!!

Re:No, it shouldn't

[MaskedSlacker]

Call it "moon day" or whatever, invent some hallmark theme for it, etc.

Whatever you do, don't call it Moonday. We already have one of those every week, and it's a terrible day.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Lotana]

Well they can't because they are DEAD!

See what happens to heathens who get major god genders wrong?! Better repent now before the same fate befall you as well.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[IICV]

The thing is, the days really do have to be mandatory - otherwise, you get those people who basically live in the office and never use vacation time ruining it for everyone else. They almost never do more work, they're just slower at it (because they're burnt out from never taking any time off, it's a chicken and egg thing I guess). The worst part is that because "butts in seats" is an easily quantifiable metric (significantly easier than, say, "work quality" or "features completed"), managers tend to even encourage that self-destructive behavior.

That's pretty much how the USA got to where it is right now, in fact - we have the worst time off laws of almost any nation, and it's largely because of the ridiculously overblown Protestant "you should either be working, eating or sleeping" work ethic. We would probably get more done as a country if we had more time off.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[lister king of smeg]

and the druids died too, guess they were wrong as well they must of also had it wrong the moon must be a hermaphroditic deity

Re:No, it shouldn't

[DKlineburg]

I have worked those. You get used to them, but odd. Not much of a social life on your days on, but lots of time on your days off.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[rich_hudds]

Don't mean to be rude but you'd have to have had a pretty poor history education to not know about the Storming of the Bastille.

The French Revolution is one of the key points in world history, if you don't know anything about it you're not going to understand an awful lot of references in the culture around you.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[flyneye]

I'm all for trading out the holidays we have for new ones every decade or so.
Think of the upsides to this;
We could break free from the usual Winter/XMass/depression cycle. Trade Thanksgiving for one of MANY feast holidays at a more convenient time or just add more.
We could delete non fun holidays like MLK and Presidents Birthdays and have much more celebratory events. Then every 10 years, just change them out for others and keep it fresh and fun. Must we continue to labor under the mental illness of our current holiday season? Forced smiles, rising suicide rates, unnecessary debt incurred buying unappreciated gifts for greedy family members, all avoidable.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[ryzvonusef]

I will save everyone the bother; he refers to the Magna Carta.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[smooth wombat]

We would probably get more done as a country if we had more time off.

Funny you should mention this. Just this morning on CNBC there was a guy who talked about this very subject. His main point was that people should get roughly 10 hours of sleep each night, not the recommended 8 and certainly more than whatever the national average is.

He also mentioned that people should take naps in the afternoon to recharge as well as take more vacations as they are more productive afterwards.

Finally, the blurb across the bottom of the screen said according his book, most people work in 90 minutes bursts of creativity then have to recharge for the next round.

Overall, working more hours does not produce more work and people who think they can be more productive by working more and sleeping less are actually doing the opposite.

This is the link to the interview from this morning and this is a link to a related story from last year saying the same thing.

Having said all that, do I want Chinese New Year to be a holiday? No. Holidays should be reserved for unique events, such as our Declaration of Independence, not some general celebration such as New Years (Chinese or not).

Re:No, it shouldn't

[flyneye]

No, but it should lighten their load. S.A.D. is, in this case a contributor, but not the only symptom. I'd focus on the symptoms that something could be done about.
Sitting under plant lights might be helpful to some, but removing the cause of so much angst is going to make the unavoidable much more bearable.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[boristdog]

I would take a 20% pay cut for a 4 day week. And I would probably do more work in the four days to more than make up for it.

But the stupid corporate culture says you have to be at your desk 5 days a week or you're slacking. And here I am at work...On slashdot, being productive...

Re:No, it shouldn't

[aminorex]

At least its better than a day off to worship Washington and (imperialist pig dog) Lincoln.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[cyberchondriac]

lol, true.. I have no idea about how Islam figures into this, but in Norse/Germanic mythology, Sunne was a goddess, and Mona was a god, so the north saw it differently than the Mediterranean lands. Which kind of makes sense, I suppose. The sun would be powerful, overbearing at times in the south, the moon more gentle in the night.. but in the far north, (this is all just conjecture on my part) whatever sun you could get would represent nourishment and warmth, whereas the moon was darker and very cold.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[fustakrakich]

Yeah, we're supposed to get two days off!

Re:No, it shouldn't

[shutdown -p now]

There isn't really anything in Magna Carta that is directly pertinent to democracy. What it is, rather, is a major milestone in the development of the concept of the rule of law.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[ryzvonusef]

...uh dude, when I said saving people the bother, I was referring to the bother to, you know, *google-ing* that date. Not everyone would have gotten the reference.

I don't know what the hell you are talking about, but you are clearly barking up the wrong tree.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[anguirus.x]

Should Bastille day be a national holiday?

In countries that contain the Bastille, yes. Does the first new moon of the year fail to occur in some nation?

In America the first new moon of the year is the first new moon of the year and January 1st is New Years Day. In China the first new moon of the year is Lunar New Year. I don't think we can explain this any more clearly.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[anguirus.x]

Not a bad idea... really!

Most folks don't actually do 9-5 five-days-a-week of productive work every week these days... but reducing their workweek to 4-days is somehow not popular (especially if corp has to pay the same amount anyway, or alternatively employees taking a 20% pay cut).

Adding (paid, federal) holidays (like, a LOT of holidays) may have the same impact. Imagine an extra holiday every month giving everyone an extra 3-day weekend every month. From the cultural perspective, I can imagine that being an amazingly great thing. Call it "moon day" or whatever, invent some hallmark theme for it, etc.

Sounds like you have a case of class-tunnel vision. Most people actually do work 9-5 five days a week and are working during all 40 hours. Most of these people get paid much less than you do to dick around and 'work' for 40 hours a week. Kind of shameful on the surface.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[dywolf]

What special cultural signifigance does the first new moon of the year have?

Re:No, it shouldn't

[dywolf]

I'd rather work 4 10 hour days than 5x8.

Why?
-same amount of work done
-spend 20% less on gas, or at least on getting to and from work
-and 1 hour or more extra time at home per week (30 minute commute = 1 hr, or if you live in Atlanta and deal with the 2-3 hour commutes in horrible horrible traffic...6 hours or nearly a full work day worth of extra time at home)
-3 day weekend, every week

Re:No, it shouldn't

[psithurism]

Celebrating a "holiday" simply because it's the first day of a new year

No, it's not a celebration, it's more of a national sick day: 90% of the work force was up all night drinking way too much and if they come in, we'll spend the next week repairing the damage they did while trying to preserve their sick days.

I don't know if this is how it started, but I'm pretty sure that's why it is still there. I don't think Chinese new year needs to be a federal holiday, but if your company employs a good portion of Chinese New Year celebrators and they celebrate their new year with as much alcohol as I do, then I would recommend implementing the day after as a holiday.

Mandating these Holidays at a federal level; though, I agree that is pretty silly.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[Richy_T]

I've done it. It's really nice. It can be a struggle getting through some days but when it's the end of the week, it really pays back.

Re:No, it shouldn't

[volmtech]

Many of us have objective jobs. Drive a truck, you can only drive the speed limit, a day off only gets you eight hundred mile behind. Harvesting corn, five hundred acres aren't picked. On an assembly line, five thousand widgets aren't made. Days off are nice but unless you pass out being well rested doesn't make you go faster.

How bizarre...

[osu-neko]

"... but this was largely a response to demographic reality rather than political pressure."

Since when did politicians respond to reality? Reality doesn't vote. You get elected by responding to what people believe. I guess this must be once of those rare cases of congruence between the two...

Re:How bizarre...

[Austerity Empowers]

I assume that schools in San Fran get their funding by Average Daily Attendance (ADA) mechanisms. Also given the heavy asian population there, it stands to reason that a lot of children are kept home. This means that opening school on that day isn't very profitable. So it makes sense to keep them closed in favor of a day in which kids will likely attend and get the school money.

I think that's "demographic reality" in the sense that politicians understand it.

Re:How bizarre...

[paiute]

I assume that schools in San Fran get their funding by Average Daily Attendance (ADA) mechanisms. Also given the heavy asian population there, it stands to reason that a lot of children are kept home. This means that opening school on that day isn't very profitable. So it makes sense to keep them closed in favor of a day in which kids will likely attend and get the school money.

I think that's "demographic reality" in the sense that politicians understand it.

Some high schools in certain states close for a week on the opening of deer hunting season.

Re:How bizarre...

[stephanruby]

That's all we need, one more day where kids don't go to school, and yet most of us still have to go to work (since most of us aren't government employees).

Re:How bizarre...

[hedwards]

And you probably aren't expected to spend your free time grading papers, writing exams and planning classes.

Seriously, if I assign a class 5 minutes of home work to do, that's a minimum of 20 minutes per class that I have to spend grading. And that's just for a very quick look and check mark to grade. There's easily another half hour planning the assignment so that I get what I'm asking for rather than something that's technically in compliance with the instructions.

Teachers spend a lot more time working than what is represented in the class schedule and thanks to budget cuts, end up spending a lot of time doing things like copying and research which really ought to be done by support staff so we can focus on the students.

Re:How bizarre...

[pspahn]

You should stop hunting then.

Re:How bizarre...

[pspahn]

So what you're saying, is that teachers have been doing it wrong this whole time? I always suspected this.

Re:How bizarre...

[hedwards]

Doing it wrong? You can't grade papers when you're giving classes. And they typically don't give you more than an hour of prep time a day. Which means that you're working outside of school time to keep up with the demands of the job.

I'm very curious as to how one avoids doing any of the prep work or grading that's associated with giving out home work. Yes, the ratio is a bit better if you're giving more homework, but students don't have unlimited time to do homework and if each teacher assigns 15 minutes of homework, that adds up to an hour and a half a night. On top of which you've then got to grade probably 5 classes worth of homework.

If there were an easier way without completely abandoning the students, I think teachers would be doing that.

Re:How bizarre...

[cusco]

In Washington state we can choose to receive voter information in either English or Chinese, and I believe they'll be adding Vietnamese in the next election cycle. The principle language in the state after English? It's Spanish, but those folks don't have enough money to be worth pandering to.

Re:How bizarre...

[kelemvor4]

"... but this was largely a response to demographic reality rather than political pressure."

Since when did politicians respond to reality? Reality doesn't vote. You get elected by responding to what people believe. I guess this must be once of those rare cases of congruence between the two...

Since when do votes count in an election?

Why not ...

[prasadsurve]

start celebrating Mexican holidays as well? They outnumber the Chinese in US.
Lets not start going on that slippery slope.

Re:Why not ...

[Martin Blank]

Cesar Chavez Day is not a Mexican holiday, and is observed in Arizona and Texas as well as California. He was born in Arizona and is remembered for improving life for migrant workers while generally opposing illegal immigration (though this latter part seems to be lost in the current debate).

Re:Why not ...

[AK Marc]

It is not a Chinese holiday, any more than celebrating the Julian New Year would be celebrating a Roman holiday. The lunar calendar is universially recognized, even if not followed. The holiday is not Chinese, as many countries celebrate it.

And yes, growing up in Texas, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo, even if we didn't officially close on those days.

Next you'll be asserting that we shouldn't celebrate Easter or Christmas because they are religious, and forcing people, by law, to observe a religious holiday should be illegal. How will that go over?

Instead, the holidays have traditionally followed the wishes of the people, and yes, that means that Juneteenth is celebrated world-wide now (not universally, but with some wide-spread observation), even if it was originally a Texas-only holiday with no significance outside the US at the time it was created.

Re:Why not ...

[richtopia]

Easter is not a federal holiday. I have not received Easter off of work yet.

Re:Why not ...

[Runaway1956]

Battle of Camarón is April 30th!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Camar%C3%B3n

I think March 6th is Alamo Day.

It seems that Mexicans usually win their battles with the tried and true method of overwhelming their enemies by thousands to one.

Re:Why not ...

[Jane Q. Public]

"And yes, growing up in Texas, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo, even if we didn't officially close on those days."

I think you have your head stuck in Texas. Because:

1. BFD. People near the northern borders recognize Cinco de Mayo, too. But that's a far cry from making it a Federal holiday.

2. I doubt it's as "international" as you say. I used to live in Texas. Including summer. And I never heard of Juneteenth until just now. I had to look it up on Wikipedia.

Re:Why not ...

[AK Marc]

The workers were largely Americans. We get Martin Luther King Day too. Or was he a secret Kenyan too, so we should pretend he never existed? Is it easier to ignore the problem if you ignore those who worked on the solution?

Re:Why not ...

[ShanghaiBill]

In California, Ceasar Chavez day is already a holiday for most school districts.

Since Cesar Chavez was a native-born American citizen, and most Mexicans have never heard of him, I am not sure what your point is.

Re:Why not ...

[AK Marc]

I am, when I'm required by law to act differently on the religious holiday in question. I can't work the same or shop the same on that day. I'm "observing" it in that I can't not observe it when the law forces me to act differently.

Re:Why not ...

[ShanghaiBill]

And yes, growing up in Texas, we celebrated Cinco de Mayo

Nitpick: Cinco de Mayo is not a Mexican holiday. It commemorates a rather obscure event in Mexico's history, and most Mexicans do not celebrate it, and have probably never even heard of it. It is celebrated in the USA much more so than in Mexico, and is really more of an American "Chicano Pride" holiday than a Mexican one.

Re:Why not ...

[Waffle Iron]

Who's forced to observe a holiday?

Anybody who tries going to the DMV to get their driver's license renewed on December 25th will find that they've instead been forced to observe a religious holiday.

Re:Why not ...

[paiute]

It is not a Chinese holiday, any more than celebrating the Julian New Year would be celebrating a Roman holiday. The lunar calendar is universially recognized, even if not followed. The holiday is not Chinese, as many countries celebrate it.

Quick Google: Vietnam celebrates the same day, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand do not

Re:Why not ...

[Libertarian001]

I've lived in Arizona for 10 years. I don't recall ever celebrating or observing Cesar Chavez Day.

Re:Why not ...

[AK Marc]

Wikipedia mentioned it as international. White people in Texas went out of their way to ignore it in Texas. Just like there were white people protesting MLK day in Texas when it was made official under Reagan. I didn't realize it was celebrated anywhere outside Texas until I was traveling internationally in June and saw reference to it. But then, I ate at Chili's #1 for years (said "restaurant #001" on the receipts), not realizing how big they were, until again, I was traveling internatoinally and saw one, ate there and saw it was number #800-something. At least with Half-Priced Books, I noticed they were a big chain when I traveled from Dallas to Minneapolis and went to one there, dind't have to go internationally.

All that happened when I was much younger, I've since figured out that just because I haven't heard of it doesn't mean that billions of others haven't. Just like on Slashdot, whenever someone says "that's impossible" I take that to mean "I can't think of how to solve that, so I'll assume it impossible until there is a working prototype available." As that's what it means 99.9% of the time, the last 0.1% for the few proponents of perpetual motion and things with formal logical and mathematical proofs against them.

I know it's not the popular conservative option (the Slashdot approved one), but the assumption that it's unpopular or impossible because you've not heard of it is almost universally wrong. More is possible/known than we can conceive of. It was fun being an American in China for Halloween. So many were asking me about it because they do it, but don't understand it.

Re:Why not ...

[MarioMax]

Cinco de Mayo is almost a holiday in Arizona.

Re:Why not ...

[billstewart]

Remember the Shrimp?

Re:Why not ...

[Hognoxious]

Lets not start going on that slippery slope .

I see what you did there.

Re:Why not ...

[billstewart]

When is St. Anonymous's Day, anyway?

Re:Why not ...

[similar_name]

That doesn't have anything to do with the law and has to do with companies deciding whether or not to be open on those days.

Re:Why not ...

[AK Marc]

Then what does the law do? I was under the impression that most government offices will be closed, and people will likely get the day off because owners are required by law to change pay rates for that day if the people don't have that day off. Oops, I can't get my Driver's license renewed on December 25. I'm required by law to observe that holiday by governmental restrictions on my actions that day. Praise God and the Jesus he sired. You have no other choice.

Re:Why not ...

[similar_name]

Then what does the law do? I was under the impression that most government offices will be closed

That's all it does. Some Federal government offices will be closed.

and people will likely get the day off because owners are required by law to change pay rates for that day if the people don't have that day off.

There are no Federal laws regarding pay on holidays. Any pay for the time off or overtime is solely at the will of the company.

Oops, I can't get my Driver's license renewed on December 25. I'm required by law to observe that holiday by governmental restrictions on my actions that day.

The DMV is a state agency. They're generally not open on the weekends or after 5 for that matter.

Praise God and the Jesus he sired. You have no other choice.

That's a bit dramatic. So some Federal Employees get the day off. Chick Fil A and Hobby Lobby are closed on Sundays. Are they forcing you to observe Sunday as a day of rest because you can't get a chicken sandwich or crafts?

When the vast majority of your employees aren't going to work on a given day for a religious reason, closing on that day off is not supporting that religion, it's just being pragmatic.

Re:Why not ...

[Waffle Iron]

So is Chick Fil A forcing you to observe Sunday as a day of rest because they are closed?

In a way, yes. They deliberately close on that day to make you think about their religion. If you want a really bland chicken sandwich on a Sunday, you can't help but observe that they're resting.

But in more ways no, because:

The DMV isn't open on the weekends either or after 5 generally. What does that mean?

They have a regular schedule. By definition, a holiday is an interruption to that schedule. In this case, the interruption is to commemorate the purported anniversary of the birth of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

And one more thing, the DMV is a poor example since that's a state agency.

It's hard to fathom why you think that. I specifically picked a state agency to point out how the state is forcing people to observe a religious holiday.

Re:Why not ...

[Bing Tsher E]

No. MLK was an African-American. And he was a descendent of actual ex-slaves. He also lived his childhood in the United States.

Re:Why not ...

[AK Marc]

So official federal observance of a religious holiday is not, in any way, legitimizing that religion or its followers? I think you are the one stretching for your point.

Re:Why not ...

[AK Marc]

So any restaurant with menus I should assume is an international conglomerate? I noted that Olive garden feels more "polished" in the items you mention, but that Olive Garden covers fewer places than Chilis. I figured they were a chain because I knew of more than one, but they didn't get the big feel until they started shrinking their milkshake portions and increasing the price. But I had already traveled by then. I did mention that it was as a child that I was so blind. And it is that blindness I'm pointing out that you are accusing me of having. How profound of you. Note, the point of all that was to point out the GP's blindness about Juneteenth. As a white person, he is unaware of a major black holiday. Oooh, segregated white person hasn't ever heard of a black holiday that started in a place he lived. And you are complaining about my observational skills.

Re:Why not ...

[similar_name]

I believe the original point was whether we're forced, by law, to observe it. I still maintain that I'm not forced, by law, to observe Christmas. Does recognizing Christmas as a holiday legitimize that religion? That's a related but slightly different question. I understand the First Amendment issue, I also understand that the vast majority of people will take that day off. Perhaps it should just be renamed Family Day or something. Personally, the only people who force me to observe Christmas are my family.

On a side note, Christmas is widely celebrated outside of Christianity. In Indonesia where the Christian population is only 8%, it is a national holiday. Jordan too where 92% of the population is Muslim. Many non-Christians celebrate Christmas. It's big in Japan where less that 1/2% are Christians. It's almost secular at this point and most symbols of Christmas are pagan or marketing in origin.

Re:Why not ...

[Jane Q. Public]

"Wikipedia mentioned it as international. White people in Texas went out of their way to ignore it in Texas."

Okay. Point conceded. Since I lived in a predominantly (one might say "ostentatiously") white community, they might well have been ignoring it.

Re:Why not ...

[AK Marc]

While I was in private school (the only non whites were on sports scholarships), I hadn't heard of it either. Then, going to public school that was 100% minority (and no, I'm not a minority), and it was all over the place. Once I heard about it, I looked around more and saw it everywhere. But yes, after seeing it around, it was obvious that you'd never see anything about it in the white suburbs of Dallas or Houston.

Re:Why not ...

[AK Marc]

The laws force me to observe it, even if I don't wish to honor it. The law forces some closures and encourages the rest to follow. "Happy Solstice", works.

Re:Why not ...

[gravis777]

I agree - I live in Texas, and while we celebrate Cinco de Mayo, its not like the state shuts down for it. You get home, grab a Dos Equis, maybe throw a steak on the grill, and listen to your neighbors blare mariachie music. Everyone knows that Cinco de Mayo, while the event happened almost 200 years ago, was really not celebrated widely in the US until the 1980s, mainly out of marketing by beer companies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinco_de_mayo#History_of_observance

It's a fun day, but its neither a federal or a state holiday.

Now, back on topic, if you are going to establish Chinese New Year as a federal holiday, you need to establish Rosh Hashanah as a federal holiday as well:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosh_hashana

So, let's see, we have now established Chinese New Year, Rosh Hashanah, and Cinco de Mayo as federal holidays, we should add Islamic New Year

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muslim_new_year

All of the New Year days from India:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_New_Year

Then, once we start doing that, every single religion is going to start demanding that we add their culture's or religion's special days as federal holidays. We did it for the Chinese and the Mexicans (ie people from Mexico, not a derogatory term), we now must do that for every group.Suddenly, we have a calendar full of federal holidays, and no work gets done.

I wouldn't mind having two or three more holidays on the calendar (one in early August would be nice, as well as one in late April, that way we would average about one holiday a month - there is about a two month gap between Good Friday and Memorial Day), but once you start letting in one additional holiday for a people group, there is really no stopping the train.

Let them have their celebrations. Companies should allow workers to request the days off if they are part of that ethnic or religious group. But establishing a federal holiday is going a bit far.

To be fair, though, if you want to get REALLY politically correct, you should remove Christian holidays (ie Christmas) as being Federal Holidays (Good Friday is not observed at the federal level, it is a state holiday - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_the_United_States#Good_Friday.2FEaster_in_the_United_States). Now, I guess that STATES with large populations of one culture or another could establish holidays to celebrate Chinese New Year or Cinco de Mayo or something. That would make sense.

Re:Why not ...

[jjsimp]

Can we get a siesta to, while we're at it? Nothing like the two hour long lunch break.

Re:Why not ...

[AK Marc]

Does any state not recognize a federal holiday? If not, then it's not just a "federal" holiday when it's a national holiday, but a "federal and local" holiday.

Re:Why not ...

[ocdscouter]

And one more thing, the DMV is a poor example since that's a state agency.

It's hard to fathom why you think that. I specifically picked a state agency to point out how the state is forcing people to observe a religious holiday.

I believe that dear Mr. AC meant 'state agency' in the sense of an agency that is ultimately responsible to a state governor (1 of 50 such), as opposed to agencies who are ultimately responsible to a person often addressed as 'Mr. President'. Generally speaking, your local DMV is one such agency.

Hence the difference between *state secrets* (e.g. the judges of the chili cookoff at this year's Texas state fair, wouldn't want anyone to try and 'help' them with their impartial decision) and *State secrets* (e.g. the flight schedules for unmanned drones, wouldn't want someone to 'help' them make an unscheduled landing.)

Re:Why not ...

[quacking duck]

Wikipedia mentioned [Juneteenth] as international.

From what I could see, it's "celebrated" internationally thanks to the efforts of a relatively small though dedicated group of people. While a worthwhile effort, Wikipedia does *not* mention it (nor the World Day of Reconciliation & Healing) as being a holiday anywhere else in the world, and international events are relatively few.

Outside the US, Earth Hour is probably "celebrated world-wide now", as you say, by far more people than Juneteenth is.

Re:Why not ...

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

You seem to have an interesting (*) definition of 100%.

(*) i.e. mathematically impossible.

100% means NO other. so 100% "minority" means no non-"minority".

(nevermind that 100% isn't numerically a minority and we should use another word or phrase)

Re:Why not ...

[AK Marc]

The enrollment was 100% minority. I am a non minority. I was not enrolled there, but I took classes there. That and the definition of race in the US is subjective, and being under 18, the population of the school is the race the parents assert, without the children's input required. But the children, after growing up, may retractively change their race (not retroactively in that they will have changed the records from before, but that race is considered immutable such that someone at age 40 who considers himself a particular race would also consider himself to have been that at age 4, even if his parents selected something else.

do not want

[wickerprints]

Having to observe both American *and* Chinese holidays is a bit too much. Mid-Autumn festival, Thanksgiving, Christmas, the solar New Year, and the lunar New Year--and for each one I'm expected to go home and spend time with the parents. If the lunar new year becomes a federal holiday, there goes my last excuse!

Re:do not want

[steelfood]

The worst part is, it tends to happen sometime between MLK and President's Day. I'd much rather have an extra long weekend during April or October or some such, when there's typically a long weekend dry spell.

Ridiculous

[cupantae]

Well, we know the answer is no.

The way it should go is exactly the way it will go: if the Chinese population in a given area is large enough that the inhabitants cannot ignore the celebration, they will recognise it. That area can be a county, state or country.

No.

[Frosty Piss]

Please. No.

I like paid days off as much as the next guy, but seriously, we are not in China.

Slippery slope, blah, blah, blah...

Re:No.

[Maow]

Please. No.

I like paid days off as much as the next guy, but seriously, we are not in China.

Slippery slope, blah, blah, blah...

We're not in Palestine / Bethlehem / where-ever, but Christmas & Easter are among our biggest sets of holidays.

Also, Chinese New Year is celebrated in a lot more countries than just China.

Another angle is, we need a break in the dark, dreary months between Xmas / New Year and ... Easter.

A strike against Chinese New Year is that it's not on a constant day, but floats around the calendar.

Also, since all the factories in China are closed for a week, a fair number of westerners whose work is liaising with these manufacturers haven't got a lot to do around this time of year...

Re:No.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Another angle is, we need a break in the dark, dreary months between Xmas / New Year and ... Easter.

Then maybe you should do what we do down here - Mardi Gras ftw!

Which is day after tomorrow, so tomorrow and Tuesday will be a nearly nonstop party....

Re:No.

[Maow]

Another angle is, we need a break in the dark, dreary months between Xmas / New Year and ... Easter.

Then maybe you should do what we do down here - Mardi Gras ftw!

Which is day after tomorrow, so tomorrow and Tuesday will be a nearly nonstop party....

Mardi Gras sounds like a blast!

It's also based on Lent, a religious holiday, from my understanding. But never-the-less, sounds freaking great. Enjoy!

Re:No.

[billstewart]

Mardi Gras is only partly related to Lent; apparently there are also African traditions of having feast in the spring and using up the meat. (Having a big party to finish off the things you're not going to eat during a long solemn fasting holiday is kind of missing the point.)

Also, Mardi Gras roughly tracks with Chinese Lunar New Year, because it's a fixed number of days before Easter, which was originally celebrated based on the Jewish lunar calendar, though the Romans munged the date into their solar calendar system, and the Jewish calendar's leap-month approach to keeping lunar and solar calendars aligned probably doesn't match whatever the Chinese calendar does.

Re:No.

[LordLimecat]

We're not in Palestine / Bethlehem / where-ever, but Christmas & Easter are among our biggest sets of holidays.

Well, seeing as Christmas and Easter are not days that would be celebrated by Jewish or Muslim populations, that isnt surprising.

Re:No.

[hawk]

Easter was *never* calculated with the Jewish calendar.

Early on, it varied wildly by region. Various schemes were used in different areas. There were some *prohibitions* against using the Jewish calendar, and with relation to the relative order Passover and Easter (complicated by a couple of Jewish calendars in use [also note that the Jewish calendars would calculate for the Friday, and the Christian for the Sunday, which is going to automatically create an occasional month's difference with some schemes]).

There was no universal date for easter.

Eventually, at the Nicean council, it was set as the first Sunday following the first full moon after the equinox.

This was then sent to Antioch (or was it Alexandria), which had the best astronomers, who produced tables for calculating Easter.

Over time, the calendar drifted from the events, and Pope Gregory published a newer calendar with a more sophisticated leap year, and skipping a bunch of days that year. Skipped days varied from country to country, as it was adopted over a surprising long period.

The Roman Catholic Church (and by inheritance, Protestants) use a newer, longer set of tables (72 years rather than 14? I forget). As a result, the astronomical event is still missed something like once a century.

The two calculations frequently produce the same Sunday.

Most of the Roman Catholic Church uses the New Calendar for Easter, while most Orthodox use the Old Calendar. Many Eastern Catholics (most of those in the US; few outside) use the new, while a handful of Orthodox use it, too. And in predominantly Orthodox areas, the Roman Church itself uses the Orthodox date so as to celebrate simultaneously.

More than I meant to write. But, anyway, the while related, the Jewish and Christian calculations have never been the same.

hawk

Should the Chinese New Year Be a Federal Holiday?

[John Hasler]

Of course. All those Chinese hackers trying to break into US Federal systems should be able to spend the holiday with their families.

It is a federal holiday

[sunderland56]

Shouldn't your question be "should it be a federal holiday in the USA"? It is already in China.

Re:It is a federal holiday

[spire3661]

US-centric website. You should know this.

Re:It is a federal holiday

[LordLucless]

No its not; China isn't officially a federation, therefore it doesn't have a federal government, or federal holidays.

Re:It is a federal holiday

[Martin Blank]

China isn't a federal government. Don't confuse "federal" with "national."

Re:It is a federal holiday

[corbettw]

If this were slashdot.cn your observation would have merit. But it's not, so it doesn't.

Re:It is a federal holiday

[sunderland56]

It's not slashdot.co.us it is? The .com TLD is international.

Over 50% of the geeks in the world are not in the USA, so a "news for geeks" web site pretty much needs to be international.

Re:It is a federal holiday

[corbettw]

It's not slashdot.co.us it is? The .com TLD is international.

.co.us is for the government of the State of Colorado, dumb ass. And go read the FAQ.

Re:It is a federal holiday

[VortexCortex]

Shouldn't your question be "should it be a federal holiday in the USA"? It is already in China.

The USA is already in China? Well damn, that was fast, sounds fine to me then. On the up side, I can feel prideful about the "Made in China" labels now.

What about Ramadan

[mark_reh]

and Diwali?

Re:What about Ramadan

[lennier1]

I'd rather have Holi
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi

Re:What about Ramadan

[PrimaryConsult]

They are mentioned in the article actually...

Really I think these are what "floater" holidays are designed for. For example Christmas should actually be converted to a floater holiday. For non-Christians it's basically a paid weekday off with little value since you can't get anything done because most places are closed. Come up with a set number, say 5, and make it federal law that all employers offer 5 "floater" holidays for religious observance. The law could require that they can be used like vacation days but if coinciding with a religious holiday the time off must be approved.

Now the hairy part is schools. You have people of all different faiths who need to take different days off. For that, they should group the holidays, and students should be able to select from the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Chinese, etc group. Make those days "light" days. It is certainly do-able, my grade school and high school both had scheduled half-days in which half the classes were simply ignored, and the other half (since they would get "ahead" of the cancelled sections) simply had educational films and other things which were interesting but not required.

Re:What about Ramadan

[bsane]

For non-Christians it's basically a paid weekday off with little value since you can't get anything done because most places are closed

Christmas is/was/has become (take your pick) a secular holiday for most people.

Re:What about Ramadan

[richtopia]

Floater holidays would have the same issue with the days between Christmas and New Year - You don't have the time off, but unofficially you are expected to take it off. I know that it isn't true in all cases, but I have seen a number of cases where you just cannot do any work on those days because no one is in the office. An even more extreme case is the Friday after Thanksgiving, when security had the day off so engineering couldn't enter the building.

Re:What about Ramadan

[AK Marc]

But floaters don't work once a certain level of observation is reached. Floaters work when 10% or less take it. But at 90% observation, you either have to refuse to allow people to observe it, or you have a store with no managers, a call center with no service reps. You are closed, even if 10% of the people show up. Floaters work for the 10% holidays, religious and ethnic ones that aren't the mainstream US/Christian ones. Most places I've worked have given Good Friday off (or at least officially closed at noon). Let the businesses figure it out, they'll work in the best interests of the employees, right?

Re:What about Ramadan

[Dr. Tom]

Darwin Day! Get ready ...

Re:What about Ramadan

[billstewart]

The traditional Jewish observance of Christmas is to go out for Chinese food and a movie. (At least in SF and NYC, perhaps other areas with large Jewish and Chinese populations.)

Re:What about Ramadan

[fufufang]

And Hanukkah?

If I owed

[Swampash]

a loanshark an inconceivably large sum of money, and was only able to go about my business and you know, exist, because of the loanshark's continuing goodwill... I'd probably go out of my way to wish him happy birthday when it rolled around.

Just saying.

Re:If I owed

[Anonymous Coward]

US citizens hold the majority of US debt (68%), and that doesn't make our government beholden to us! (Trivia: Japan and China both own 8.3% of US debt.)

Re:If I owed

[Swampash]

Yeah but thanks to the War on Terror, War on Drugs, and War on Just About Everything, US citizens are too pants-shittingly scared of the government to do anything.

Re:If I owed

[Anonymous Coward]

The loan-shark will just keep giving you money because you are the one buying all of his drugs. Not only are you buying all of his drugs but you're the one with all the muscle. Either way, we don't owe the Chinese a lot of money compared to how much money we actually have. Go back to being a moron.

Re:If I owed

[cusco]

You borrowed money from the moon?

Re:Since the Dems sold us to China

[Austerity Empowers]

Trolling slashdot is a time honored tradition.

Re:Since the Dems sold us to China

[AK Marc]

Nixon was a Dem?

Make every day a holiday

[kawabago]

and work a particular day only if no one minds.

Also 19 September

[Alain Williams]

The Pastafarian holiday International Talk Like a Pirate day: 19 September, to not do so would be religious discrimination.

Re:Also 19 September

[Alain Williams]

Oh, lordy me ... I was also forgetting May 4th -- International Star Wars day, the Jedi attacking me I don't want. You see: once we start having holidays for some groups, we have to have them for all of them!

Re:Also 19 September

[billstewart]

Yarrr! But ye don't have ta take that day off, as long as yer boss is ok with ye talkin' like pirates at the office and doin' bad statistics!

The place I worked in the 80s started getting more culturally sensitive and having a rotating variety of ethnic foods for lunch in the office cafeterias. It was in New Jersey, and that meant they did a much better job of doing Italian than other ethnic groups. But hey, if you want pasta for lunch, they can set you up.

Why National?

[Dave Emami]

Emphasis mine:

In 1994, San Francisco decided to close public schools on Lunar New Year, but this was largely a response to demographic reality rather than political pressure.

Which is as it should be, and an indicator that federalism is working just fine, thank you very much. In an area where lots of people want to take the same day off, it's off. Otherwise, it's not. Heck, we could make Nooruz (Persian New Year) a national holiday, but I doubt there's a demand for that anywhere except in certain parts of Los Angeles. It would be nice for the various Slavic and Greek enclaves around the US if their New Year (based on the Julian rather than Gregorian calendar) was a national holiday. We could make Rosh Hashanah a national holiday, along with at least half a dozen different New Year days from India (it depends on the region). Etc. Etc. Etc.

It's one thing to be respectful of minority groups, and for everyone to have the same legal rights regardless of ethnicity, religion, etc. That's as it should be. But it's an entirely-different thing to bend over backwards pretending that there are no minorities. I wouldn't expect to get Christmas off if I lived in China, nor would it be any kind of insult or malign discrimination on China's part if I didn't.

Re:Why National?

[cusco]

May 1 is 'International Day of the Worker', and is celebrated in many countries around the world. It was originally a Soviet holiday, so of course most Americans have never heard of it.

Re:Why National?

[Dave Emami]

May 1 is 'International Day of the Worker', and is celebrated in many countries around the world. It was originally a Soviet holiday, so of course most Americans have never heard of it.

Actually, it pre-dates the USSR by almost two decades. It was established by the Socialist Second International in 1889, to commemorate what was called the Haymarket Affair in Chicago a few years before. Most folks I know are quite aware what May Day is, though of course that's not a random sample, and I expect most of them assume (as did you) that it is Soviet in origin. You need a little less of the attitude embodied in your sig.

Re:Why National?

[cusco]

I always assumed it was the Soviets co-opting the Eastern Orthodox church's May Day spring festival, the same way the Catholic Church supplanted Lupercalia fertility festival with St. Valentine's Day.

Re:Why National?

[shutdown -p now]

It would be nice for the various Slavic and Greek enclaves around the US if their New Year (based on the Julian rather than Gregorian calendar) was a national holiday.

I don't know about Greeks, but pretty much all Russians celebrate New Year with the rest of the world - the calendar difference only applies to Christmas. There is also Old New Year, yes, but it's not an official holiday even in Russia itself, and it's not celebrated anywhere nearly as wildly as New Year proper - and many people ignore it outright.

Re:Since the Dems sold us to China

[Runaway1956]

WTF? Like, the other party hasn't been actively selling off bits and pieces all along? Get real!

As soon as everyone is hung over...

[flibbidyfloo]

As soon as the night before is used as an excuse to get drunk by a large portion of the populace, who are then too hung over to go to work on the holiday, it will become an official American day off. New Year's day isn't a holiday because anyone is celebrating the start of a new year.

Nope!

[mschaffer]

Not enough Frenchies in San Francisco.
I do hear that it is a holiday in France there. After all, they have millions of Frenchies there. They seem to act like they run the place,

It already is...in China!

[mschaffer]

I believe that, in China, both new years are official state holidays.

Re:Since the Dems sold us to China

[akozakie]

Indeed. I've wondered for a long time why the holiday system is fixed almost everywhere in the world. Sure, it's easy to manage, but seriously, in a mixed society it makes no sense! National holidays are ok, but mandating religious ones is simply stupid. Just legalize a set of religious calendars with a preset number of holidays. This number should be fixed. If there's more in a given religion - have the church choose. If there's less - fix the ones that exist and have the employee choose any other days to fill the limit. These days are free for that person, period. If you have an atheist, just let him choose whatever. Just make that calendar fixed for an employee, unless he changes religion.

Now have the employer decide how to proceed. Keep the business running on a given holiday with reduced mancount, close it and let the employees who should be working on that day take overtime on different days instead... There are many ways to solve this. Any such elastic system is better than the current one. The end result will be that in any given place the locally dominant religion will practically set the holidays when everything closes, while minorities can have theirs without problems. And smaller bussinesses can be built by minorities to offer services during holidays - $$$profit$$$!

I have a colleague in my team with a different religion than the rest (and most of our country). He has to "waste" vacation days for his holidays, at the same time he gets to sit at home on days which are not special for him in any way. He seems used to it, but I find it unfair.

Re:Since the Dems sold us to China

[0123456]

Nixon was a Dem?

Wage controls? Price controls? He was certainly to the left of Obama.

Do it for all nationalities.

[antdude]

If you are going to do it for Chinese. :P

Re:Do it for all nationalities.

[gestalt_n_pepper]

You want all nationalities to celebrate Chinese New Year? Well....let's see. Big dinner of good food with family. Gift exchanges. Fireworks. Colorful dances. OK, this works for me. Oops! Gotta go buy some moon cakes. See Ya!

Re:Do it for all nationalities.

[antdude]

What about Christmas? Why is that a holiday? :P

Re:Do it for all nationalities.

[maxwell demon]

Because otherwise, who would buy all those Christmas presents?

Re:Do it for all nationalities.

[VortexCortex]

If you are going to do it for Chinese. :P

Remind me again, when are the French, German, and English new years?

Re:No, it shouldn't.

[AK Marc]

It's not "Chinese New Year" It's "Lunar New Year". That the Chinese celebrate it more than Americans is cultural, but there are other places than China that celebrate it. Much like another I pointed out elsewhere. Juneteenth was originally a Texas-only holiday, but it's celebrated elsewhere around the world now.

Why should I be docked vacation or PTO because I happen to observe my own religion's most important holiday yet the gentleman of east-Asian decent next to me gets a free day off for CNY?

If you are docked vacation pay for holidays, you need to call your employment rights board for your location. I think you are lying to prove a point, but it only shows that you are a liar, and you know your position is so weak that you must lie to support it.

Re:Frenchies in San Francisco

[billstewart]

Come down to Palo Alto for World Music Day in the summer; there's always a large French music jam.

And there is a French consulate in SF, and a reasonable choice of French cocktails at the bar around the corner.

Re:Cesar Chavez Day, May 5, Sept 16

[billstewart]

Sure, and the Texas school kids get Texas Independence Day off, celebrating a bunch of illegal immigrants trying to overthrow their government. And while Delaware doesn't get a school holiday for Dec. 7 (ratifying the Constitution), or for whatever day the invading Dutch overthrew the Swedes, we did get a couple of school days off in the fall for teachers' union meetings. Cinco de Mayo nominally celebrates a successful battle at the beginning of an unsuccessful war against the invading French Army, but Mexicans view it as mostly a beer company holiday.

And no, Presidents' Day isn't a bona-fide holiday; it's a consolidation of the old Washington's Birthday and Lincoln's Birthday holidays, turned into a Monday holiday for convenience. (Washington wouldn't have minded that much; he'd already changed his official birthday by 11 days to reflect the 1753 calendar change.) But Cesar Chavez is a local hero, and legitimately deserves a holiday.

Re:Since the Dems sold us to China

[billstewart]

Yeah, but the Republicans have moved far to the right (or at least the vocal Tea Party types have, as opposed to the corporatist party machine which is really in charge.) Not only would they not want a pinko liberal like Nixon any more, they wouldn't even want that notorious leftist Barry Goldwater.

Re:Holiday time where I work

[billstewart]

I've worked at a large company for many years, and the way our bureaucracy has worked things out between management, union, and non-union folks is that we get a small set of US national holidays off, plus three floating holidays that the company can't tell you when to take and four or five more that they can, in addition to however much vacation you get (based on seniority.) So typically if you're Jewish you use those three days for the high holidays, if you believe in Columbus you might take Columbus Day off, if you believe the President you might take Presidents' Day off. Some years they'll tell us when we have to use one of the normally-floating holidays, e.g. if New Years' is on a Tuesday they might tell us to take Dec.31 Monday off.

It works for me. I don't feel the need to take Columbus Day off, and I'd rather not take Winter Skiing Holiday on the same weekend that everybody else is there.

Re:What about Diwali and Holi

[billstewart]

Diwali celebrations have the good cookies.

And while celebrating spring colors and throwing paint around are cool, witch-burning not so much. (I'm getting that phrase from the Wikipedia article, though she's described more as a demon than a witch.)

Of course not

[slasher999]

At least not in the US. Many US employers, beyond paying employees for a significant number of "non-work" days now be they holiday or otherwise, provide a "floating holiday" that employees can use for that purpose if they wish. Beyond that, this is what "PTO" time is for ("Personal Time Off" in the US is the new name for a combined pool of vacation, sick, and personal days that came into fashion a few years ago).

Re:Holiday time where I work

[akozakie]

See? That's more-or-less what I meant and it can clearly work well. Good for you, that you live in a place where this is legal. Where I leave (not US, obviously) a couple of christian holidays (and national ones as well, but as I said, I'm ok with these) are so free, that in most businesses (most visibly retail) it is actually illegal for your employee to work for you then. Exemptions are only available for the owner and his/her family and anyone they hire specifically for that day (not a regular employee). Fun, isn't it?

Hey, it's just thinking about families! We want the families to be together on important holidays, don't we? And after all, every family is christian, right?

Re:Vacation days for holidays

[billstewart]

I don't get Good Friday off at work, and have to take a vacation day or floating holiday if I want the day off (though we do get floating holidays that are intended for days like that or Jewish holidays.) And most companies don't give you a day off for Eid, or, for Hindu holidays, or for the various neo-pagan holidays, nor do most of them even have a clue about the Zoroastrian holidays (even though they may have Iranians or Parsees working for them) or Baha'i holidays, and those are just the ones I can think of on short notice that have affected coworkers.

Re:Does China have a holiday on Jul/4?

[billstewart]

July 4th is a nationalist holiday, not a cultural holiday - the equivalent would be Threw-Out-Chiang-Kai-Shek-Day, err, National Day, Oct 1.

Lunar New Year is a cultural holiday that many of the east Asian cultures celebrate, not just China, just as many of the European cultures celebrate Solar New Year or May Day (either as Labor Day or Pretend-It's-Not-Beltane cultural holiday.) And in fact, China does celebrate Solar New Year and May Day as official public holidays.

Of course it should

[Trogre]

...in China!

Noo...!

[pubwvj]

We need fewer federal holidays. Federal holidays get observed by all those bankers and government employees and jack up the costs of doing business which means higher prices for consumers. We do not need more holidays. If you want a holiday, take a personal day. Don't have a personal day then take an unpaid day. Don't have that option (I don't) then that's just the way life is.

Push for less holidays, not more.

Re:Noo...!

[sjames]

Why are you so anxious to work more days than any other Western country at any time in history?

What makes you think a federal holiday jacks up prices?

Re:Noo...!

[bill_mcgonigle]

What makes you think a federal holiday jacks up prices?

I know the Chinese buffets around here charge dinner prices all day on federal holidays. Price rationing, I suppose, but they're not usually that busy.

But I think the GP probably meant paying workers for not working means the cost of production is incrementally higher. Which might be true for machines.

Why are you so anxious to work more days than any other Western country at any time in history?

Our massive productivity improvements in the 20th Century should be rewarded with more labor and less pay! No, wait, that's not right.

Re:Noo...!

[pubwvj]

"Why are you so anxious to work more days than any other Western country at any time in history?"

1) Perhaps because I enjoy my work.

2) Perhaps because you have an odd perspective, a false memory of history. The fact is, people work far less than they did in the past.

Re:Noo...!

[sjames]

Actually, the period from the start of the industrial revolution forward is the aberration. We worked less before that and have yet to return to baseline.

I enjoy my work too, but even enjoyable work should be set aside from time to time.

If it makes you feel better, you can work on your day off. Or hire someone to flog you or something.

Re:Noo...!

[pubwvj]

Our you could change your work so that you do things you enjoy. You seem to consider work to be pain. It need not be that way. And I wasn't talking about the industrial revolution period.

Re:Noo...!

[sjames]

As I said, I enjoy my work, I just have enough perspective to realize that a life that has room only for work is a diminished and one dimensional existence even when it is work you enjoy.

Most people want and need more than that, and deserve to have it.

Re:Noo...!

[pubwvj]

We seem to be talking at cross purposes here. Perhaps we are saying much the same. My work is immensely varied. I am a small farmer. I do a tremendous amount of different stuff from planting, to caring for animals, the slaughter, to butcher, to value added processing, to studying regulations, to designing and building our own super efficient home, to building our own state of the art USDA/State inspected on-farm meat processing facility (current project). Granted, if one were living in a cubicle as a cog in the machine life might be pretty dull and in need of balance but that right there is a modern phenomenon. You don't have to be a Dilbert. Be more. Do more. Integrate your life and your work so that you enjoy both.

Cheers,

-Walter
on Sugar Mountain
in Vermont
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/

Re:Noo...!

[sjames]

In that case, I cannot possibly imagine why you have such a problem with it if the Dilberts of the world take one more day off. It sounds like you can carry on quite well without them for a day here and there.

Re:Noo...!

[pubwvj]

Because then there is one more day each year when I can not ship a package, make a bank deposit, etc. We don't need to have all these holidays. If Dilbert people want to take another day off let them use their personal days. There shouldn't be a federal mandate.

Re:Noo...!

[sjames]

You can't manage to hold a deposit for one lousy day? It kills you to have a package go out a day later? Surely you could find something from the list of fulfilling activities to help you while away the WHOLE DAY you'd have to wait!

Your head must be about ready to explode somewhere around 3PM on Sunday!

You must be one of those guys who learns the timing of the traffic lights so you can be sure your honk reaches the lead driver's ears at the same time as the first photon of green light touches his retina.

Re:Noo...!

[pubwvj]

You just don't get it. The problem is they're creating more and more federal holidays which are almost always on a Monday or a Friday so that creates a long weekend. Great for people like you who are just cogs in the system, mere pion workers. But it is a waste of time for the rest of us that don't observe bank holidays and federal holidays. For us it is an annoying waste of time and money.

What is your problem? You can't wait to have your holiday on the weekend or an existing holiday? No need to make more federal holidays. If you want to take a day off, fine, do that, but don't force it on the rest of us, sJames. Take responsibility for yourself.

Re:Noo...!

[sjames]

Or, we can take a whole week off and then when your aneurysm goes splat we can enjoy a peaceful quiet. Perhaps you should just get over yourself, the rest of us are over you.

Meanwhile, what ever gave you the idea that I'm a pi meson?

Re:Noo...!

[pubwvj]

SJames, if you want to take off time so much than do so. But don't be so greedy as to force the rest of us to pay for your holiday.

Re:Noo...!

[sjames]

Let me guess, your all time favorite movie quote if from roots:"

PUT YOUR BACK INTO IT BOOOOOOOY!

Not Just China!

[billstewart]

Lunar New Year isn't just China; it's also celebrated by a number of other east Asian countries, particularly Vietnam (Tet), Thailand, Korea, parts of Japan, and Chinese-style celebrations happen anywhere with large Chinese populations.

There are a lot of traditional Chinese holidays. The People's Republic of China has , some of which are traditional, some Western (New Year and Labor Day), and National Day. Hong Kong and Taiwan have somewhat longer lists.

No.

[Seumas]

Don't we have enough stupid and meaningless excuses to not work without adding more days to the list?

There are more Celts than Chinese

[Grayhand]

What about Beltane, May 1st, Lamnas August 1st, Samhain October 31st? They are all traditional Celtic holidays. May day was the beginning of the planting season. Lammas was the wheat harvest and was celebrated with bread, Samhain was a combination of Thanksgiving and New Years Eve. It was called the season of death because it was also the time animals were slaughtered for winter meat so they didn't have to feed them all winter. Far more people in this country grew up with May Day and Halloween celebrations than Chinese New Year. We already celebrate a New Year so how many redundant new years do we need to have to keep everyone happy?

Fireworks for Everybody!

[billstewart]

My sister lives in Hawaii, and they not only celebrate July 4 with fireworks because it's haole national day tradition, and firecrackers for Chinese New Year because it's cultural tradition, and Jan. 1 New Year because they've got fireworks. Technically most fireworks are illegal most of the time, but holidays are a standard exception.

They may not have a tradition of setting them off for Bastille Day, but it's a good excuse too.

Yes

[sidevans]

This gives me a day off to deal with the food poisoning and diarrhoea I have, probably from all the dodgy Asian street food I ate last night during Chinese New Year.

I am an Australian though and we look for any excuse to drink beer.

How many days of the year...

[QuietLagoon]

... are major holidays for the various groups that make up our country? What if all those days were Federal holidays? Would we ever get any work done? We clearly need a better way than to recognize every holiday of every group of people tha tmake up our country.

I'm for it

[friedman101]

Holiday vs no holiday seems like an easy choice to me. All you have to do is not work, nobody is forcing you to get a Mao tattoo.

Only in Ammurica

[rueger]

Will people argue strenuously against having more paid holidays. You folks really do love punishment don't you?

(I'll take Newfoundland, which includes St Patrick's Day as a holiday)

(Here in BC the Liberal government, desperate to do anything that might rescue a few votes, has launched a February holiday called "Family Day." I guess that it goes without saying this comes after years of hacking away at any program that actually benefited real working class families.)

(And of course, in Vancouver Chinese New Year is in fact a pretty big deal. Maybe we'll celebrate Family Day by going out for Dim Sum.)

Re:Only in Ammurica

[quacking duck]

(Here in BC the Liberal government, desperate to do anything that might rescue a few votes, has launched a February holiday called "Family Day." I guess that it goes without saying this comes after years of hacking away at any program that actually benefited real working class families.)

They're only catching up to Alberta, Ontario, Saskatchewan, and PEI, which has had Family Day for several years now... but only for non-federal government workers since their unions maxed out the number of annual stat holidays already.

Re:Why not?

[c0lo]

We already owe the Chinese 1.2 Trillion. Might as well throw 'em a bone.

I don't think China would accept a bone in return.

Following the line of your suggestion, I guess the question should be: "Should Solar New Year be banished as a Fed holiday?" on the ground that working on those days would pay the debts faster.

No.

[Spugglefink]

There should be NO federal holidays. Go to work and quit whining.

Re:No, it shouldn't.

[cusco]

Because there are more of them.

Why not?

[mynameiskhan]

Why not make US congress tricameral and include the Chinese Communist Party. The we will have, (1) House of Representatives, (2) Senate, and (3) Loan masters

Enough

[ChrisMaple]

The US already has enough federal holidays, but I will gladly support Chinese New Year if we drop Martin Luther King's birthday. Rabble rouser.

Celebrated != state holiday

[mschaffer]

The Chinese new year is NOT a state holiday in Japan.
There are many calendars used around the world. How many official state new year's holidays are needed?
What about the Indian, Jewish, old Russian, Kurdish, or the many other New Year's holidays around the world?
A country only needs one.

Re:Since the Dems sold us to China

[Ravenscall]

Trust me, there have always been trolls here.

Obviously...

[jandersen]

Yes: As China grows in importance, Chinese holidays do become more important - when the Chinese are taking time off, we can't trade with them. Also, there is a growing interest in Chinese culture, and with interest comes a desire to take part, so why not? It's good fun, after all.

No: Religious holidays are a thing of the past, and state and religion should be completely separate any way, since we are no longer religious monocultures. So, rather than introducing more, we should get rid of Christmas, Easter etc as public holidays and instead give people a flexible quota of holidays on top of their current allowance which they can use as the see fit.

No, American Country = American Holidays

[realsilly]

Personally I think our government celebrates too few holidays, but that is the American way. If you are from another country and are living here, whether on a visa or permanently, it's time to melt in to the pot. We have specific holidays for our country and they have been adopted as such over the centuries. If you choose to emigrate to the US and don't adopt our culture then you really haven't accepted your new home. You should ask yourself then, do you really belong here?

I see no reason why you cannot continue to celebrate holidays from your native culture, but that should be done by your choice. If you want the day off, take the day off, burn your own vacation to do it though. Most corporations in the US offer between 1 and 3 floating holidays, these have been designed as such for those of you who wish to still celebrate your culture's holidays.

While the USA is a melting pot of cultural diversity, which I personally believe to be pretty cool, one is still expected to melt into the pot upon making the USA your home.

It's a question; the answer is No

[msobkow]

As per usual, when an article asks a question, the answer is "No."

Yes.

[azav]

In China.

Re:Since the Dems sold us to China

[AK Marc]

And he's the one that opened trade with China. And started the pull-out of Vietnam (After doing a build-up). Two more things that are perceived to be "left" leaning. And Obama is right of Bush (either of them), so that's not a great metric. Perhaps measuring him against Clinton. Though the Bushs are hard to place because they'd do things that are far-right the same time as doing things that are far-left. The main problem being that right and left are moving targets.

I don't know why people are so against this

[TheSkepticalOptimist]

Yes, I think every international holiday should be a federal holiday then we can get a full year's salary without working a single day.