T Mark and I were chatting at the GoGoD executive lunch today (Thursday), which was brought forward a day because of the Easter holiday. We discovered that neither of us really knew about Easter as a public holiday in the US. We couldn't recall any mention of it in films, despite the many mentions of Thanksgiving (and the almost obligatory mention of some form of religion in just about every US tv series).

I did see Hop last week with my grandsons, so I know the concept of the Easter bunny exists (in the UK we are more into plain Easter eggs without the need for lettuce), but presumably Easter in the US does not mean (as here) long bank holiday weekends and mass desertion of the country for rainier climes. This year we've also got an extension to the holiday because some guy called William is getting married.

I know US workers get far fewer holidays than us in Europe - is this why Easter appears not to appear on the US holiday schedule? And is it also a low-key event for religious people in the US?

Where I work, there are no paid holidays between President's day (Feb 21) and Memorial Day (May 30).

As far as Easter goes, mostly it's observed with special church services and privately at home, with dyeing or painting eggs, and egg hunts.

If a person is looking for something more "consumer" oriented, there is an egg hunt at the local shopping mall. $10 admition. I suspect they'll put bunny suits on the automatronic dancing bears...

Easter comes with federal holiday and school holiday, typically recognized on Good Friday. Many (most?) private employers recognize it, though I think that's not as universal as Christmas and Thanksgiving.

Religious people sometimes deprecate the "Christmas and Easter set", so it has a lot of appeal there. My grandfather-in-law, who's not in the C&E set was complaining about the lack of recognition for Easter, compared to Christmas.

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As best I can tell, it has no effect on my life whatsoever. I neither observe nor notice it, nor do the people with whom I socialize. It is about as relevant as Ramadan or Passover.
Emancipation day had more effect on my life. It delayed income taxes for 3 days.

And, no, I don't plan on seeing 'Hop'. The previews were, at best, uninspiring.

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And since it is always on Sunday it doesn't "need" to go down as a day-off type work holiday. So I've never seen it on a work holiday list (like say Mother's Day or similarly scheduled holidays). I was pondering making my workplace run a shift that day but luckily it looks like that won't have to happen now.

Bruce "Slavedriver" Young

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Eh? Mother's Day is an official US holiday? That's new to me.

BTW here in England (Scotland has some differences), many people get a half-day on Maundy Thursday (the day before Good Friday), and everyone gets Good Friday and Easter Monday off. Depending on the timing of Easter, it can create a nice tie-in with the May Day bank holiday. All in all we get eight bank/public holidays (but 9 in 2011 and 2012 for Royal celebrations). If any fall on a weekend day, the nearest Monday is usually chosen. At work it's usually an extra 4 to 6 weeks paid leave, depending on seniority.

Normally only Easter and Christmas are heavily commercialised, but some Scots celebrate Hogmanay for about eight weeks. Mother's Day and Valentine's Day are commercialised but are not holidays. Halloween was known but a non-event when I was little, but is becoming more prominent, partly because of American influence but probably mostly because Guy Fawkes Night and its bonfires are now virtually banned. Only druids and mushroom fanatics enjoy the Midsummer festival, but manage usually to get a press mention - though Stonehenge is now off limits to all but a few.

Pancake Tuesday is still popular with kids, but maybe fading away. Some people try to re-invent tradition by rigging up Maypoles and morris dancing, but it usually looks contrived.

Some imported festivals are taking hold. Diwali in particular seems to have secured a niche in schools.

For people of a different class, the day the grouse season starts is a high point of the year.

Add to that the two weeks of sickies many workers think they are entitled to, Britain can be quite a jolly place at times - especially at times like this week when it's been 25C and set to continue. I did batting practice in my Cubs shorts yesterday and got sunburnt knees!

Not anywhere I've lived in this country: massive parties, massive bonfires, fireworks everywhere. I think it's only been banned in the Magical Land of the Daily Mail reader.

I actually get good friday off, and every year I'm surprised it's legal to give everyone good friday and Xmas off while not giving time off for passover, ramadan, et cetera...

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It sure is, although it's always a Sunday so no time off work. Father's Day is a holiday, too.

Conveniently for me, my mom was born right around Mother's day and dad right around Father's day.

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Yeah, "official holiday" is hard to pin down in the US if it doesn't involve taking work off. As an example, my company is based out of DC so follows a lot of the Federal Holidays and this is our actual days off list for the year:

Martin Luther King Jr. Day
President's Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas
New Years

All that is missing from the "official" federal holiday list is Veteran's Day (and Inaugural Day, but that's only every 4 years and only in the DC area).

As a comparison point, the City and County of Denver adds on Cesar Chavez Day to this federal list.

There are a good dozen or so of other holidays that are recognized as dates is the US but don't involve any regularly scheduled time off (ranging from Valentine's Day to Arbor Day).

Bruce "Quattro de Julio" Young

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My company, OmniMegaAmericanCorp, officially gave us off 6 days this year for holidays. Anything above that is vacation days.

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Oh, I know there are cheap imitations still running, but nearly every bonfire in towns now is run by the local council. When I was little, you made three or four separate bonfires you built yourself in the back lane, and people used them as an excuse to get rid of unwanted furniture and so on. You got rid of surplus energy by going on raiding parties with penny bangers in the next lane, and at the end of a happy evening roasted spuds in the embers.

The next day there were always long reports of kids who'd blown hands or fingers off and cats that had had Catherine wheels attached to their tails (slightly more civilised than the modern practice of putting them in microwaves), but oddly I got the impression that wasn't the real impetus for the creeping bans. I think the main problem was that the back lanes were traditionally paved with cobble stones, which stood up to the rigours of the fires, but when these were replaced with tarmac, there was a major problem every year with three or four huge melted holes in every lane, which was a problem for the ragman's horse and cart. Violins fade gently into the background...

Of course, in my day we had it tough...


Best wishes.

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And here's me sitting at my work desk (albeit looking at a L19 thread) on Good Friday. For shame!

Well, this is the day which the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!
For quite a few of the people it is the greatest Holy Day. It comes after 7 weeks of preparation and really, it has nothing to do with the heavy commercialization, shopping, the bunny, and others alike.

But it may have something to do with go.

It is the day of resurrection! Let us be illumined for the feast! The Pascha of the Lord! From death unto life, and from earth unto heaven.
Let us be radiant in the festival. Let us embrace one another. In the hearts of hearts or merely stones. Let us call brothers, even those who hate us, by the Resurrection. Then, at least, if they get better, we might get better too.

Happy Pascha, to everyone!

The people who commented on Federal holidays above may have given an overly casual view of the Easter holidays here. In most of the country, all stores are closed. Very frustrating if you bought brown eggs by mistake.

Hmmm...it looks like we capitalists have overlooked one. This could be a gold mine like Halloween and Xmas and Mother's Day. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

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