Mark Steyn: Americans have their holidays in perpective -

Chicago Sun Times ^ | January 2, 2004 | Mark Steyn

[Pokey78]

Thanks!

[MEG33]

HAPPY NEW YEAR..I love Steyn!

[prairiebreeze]

But Paris in August, like London ''over Christmas,'' is in itself a symbol of flight -- flight from work. In

Ah yes. And a couple of years ago thousands of elderly French were left alone and died of heat because of the Flight of the French in August.

[GVnana]

The French and Germans, who average 40 days vacation a year, assume the reason Americans don't take holidays is because they don't get them.

I always have to laugh when I hear some Euro chastizing American corporations for their treatment of labor and the fact that Americans don't take month long vacations. They're so completely off-base! Americans enjoy the fruits of their productivity, as the Euro's would if they ever had the chance.

[King Prout]

I have a pet desire, concerning Halloween:

Make it the last friday of October.

Period.

Everyone -employees and employers, kids and parents, students and revelers of all ages- will be much, much happier that way.

[Mr. Mojo]

Your plan certainly makes sense from a practical standpoint. But as you probably know Halloween is "All Hallow's Eve," and "All Hallow's Day" (All Saints Day) is Nov 1. ......so the change will probably never happen.

[King Prout]

screw it: Halloween in America is a purely secular holiday, a time of partying and festivity and spooks and scares, very like the old harvest festival/welcome to winter celebration it was in the old pagan era before the christian missionaries swiped it for its PR value.

another thing:
>in 1863, Lincoln proclaimed the last Thursday in November as a national day of Thanksgiving.
>Franklin Roosevelt set it to the next-to-last Thursday (in order to create a longer Christmas shopping season).
>Public uproar against this decision caused FDR to move Thanksgiving back to the final Thursday two years later.
>in 1941, Thanksgiving was sanctioned by Congress as a legal holiday, always to fall on the fourth Thursday in November.

'sides... Easter Sunday is a floater, too, so there's no bloody excuse even on a religious basis.

Point being: "Holidays" are flexible animals.

[Mr. Mojo]

I'm with ya. ....and hope it happens.

[King Prout]

how would this worthy objective best be pursued and accomplished?

for that matter - how best to force the abandonment of the lunacy called "daylight savings"???

[Ciexyz]

Actually, the buildup starts after Labor Day.

[Tribune7]

and even harder to get them to quit cold turkey.

OTOH, reality is pretty hard.

[MeekOneGOP]

Hopefully, I can get back here to read. bttt!

[irv]

It's true there are those in America who occasionally aspire to Europe's elegant lethargy.

Realistically, in America there's a significant work slowdown even among people who show up for work during the week before and the week after Christmas.

Scary to think that this time of low productivity is still more productive than the same time period in Europe.

[FreedomPoster]

Or wearing traditional dress, and blacks and white checked keffiyeh, suicide-bombing you at the beer garden.

[FreedomPoster]

While many here accomplish little on those days, there are also many who accomplish more than normal due to a lack of distractions. May not be as much as when all hands are at work, but it isn't *that* much of a reduction.

[irv]

Good point. But even those of us who get more work done when others aren't around will take a few minutes off for the department "holiday party" while losing other bits of productivity because someone else hasn't done their work, either because they're on vacation or they spent all day at the party.

I work at a newspaper. The holidays don't stop the paper from going out every day but, just like every place else I've ever worked, there's definitely a lot less going on behind the scenes.

[speekinout]

Realistically, in America there's a significant work slowdown even among people who show up for work during the week before and the week after Christmas.

Depends on where you work. I was a gov't contractor for years. The gov't employees' favorite agenda was to give the contractors heavy assignments on Dec. 15 or so, and make the due date Jan. 15, when they would be ready to get back to work.

Then there are the people in the financial industry who have to cope with clients who at the last minute think of tax implications, or the ones in medical professions who have to care for the people who have "use it or lose it" health care benefits.

Never mind retail, travel and tourist workers.

[Renfield]

Traditionally, Christmas in Scotland was celebrated on January 6th.

[cyncooper]

In America, even with separation of church and state, the Christmas holiday is what it says: a holiday for Christmas. If it happens to fall on a Saturday or Sunday, tough. See you at work Monday morning.

Just a wee quibble. In most businesses, if Christmas falls on Saturday they close that Friday. If it falls on Sunday, they'll close on Monday.

[cyncooper]

We often hear of the "twelve days of Christmas" in America, but we never stop to think about it.

Not true. Most of us think and know about it, but the 12 days is observed religiously (to Epiphany), not the commercial hoopla and is different than Advent.