Wednesday, March 29, 2006

A TRoubling Question

This struck me while I was washing the supper dishes. WHy Good Friday a Stautory Holiday but PAssover (or Tet, or Ramadan, or...) isn't?

WE claim to live in a multicultural country, not a Christian country. We claim that all are due equal treatment. And yet Good Friday and Christmas Day are automatically Statutory holidays (Easter Monday used to be as well, its status is less clear these days). WHy? Is Christianity so fragile tht no-one would notice the holy-days without a day off work? At least Christmas can be sold as a sort of mid-winter holiday but does that work for Easter? If you wanted a spring holiday (which may well be a good idea) why not make it a set date like President's Day or Victoria Day?

In the end it may not be an issue to many, but if you really look at it it is troubling. In the laws of the land, Christian religious celebrations are given a status not offered to others. I wonder, what happens if you insist on having a religious holiday off that isn't already enshrined in law?

2 comments:

  1. France allows no expression of religion it says, no yamakus hijab or large crosses. small and medium sized are ok, and yet all of its school holidays are Christian holidays, and french catholic to be precise. HMMMM i think there is a smell and it aint french perfume.

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  2. One of the non-profit groups I have worked with had a flexible stat holiday policy. When an employee was hired to work at the agency, they had a one-time opportunity to change ONLY the religious stat holidays. All the others were mandatory, but any that were blatantly Christian could be exchanged with another, some of which you mentioned. Then it was written into the contract, and that person always had those adjusted holidays.

    It worked really well, as the staff was very diverse with regard to religious practice.

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