Suppose we were limited to 5 National holidays...which would you keep?

[Grave Grumbler]

In another thread, a poster said that we only "need" 5 national holidays. While I would disagree with that, it brings up an amusing idea:  Suppose that for whatever reason, the United States will only have 5 national holidays per year in the future...and it's up to you to decide what they are.  For reference's sake, here is the current list of Federal holidays:

New Year's Day
Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
President's Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Columbus Day
Veterans Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day

Also, just in case you fear for your safety in this scenario, you will remain anonymous (more than a few people might get mad at you if you cancel Christmas!).

So...which ones do you keep?  You can also list holidays that aren't on the current list, as long as you stick to a total of 5.

My list:

Memorial Day
Independence Day
Veterans Day
Thanksgiving Day
Christmas Day

[Cleita]

1. I guess I would have a holiday for each solstice and equinox.

The fifth holiday would be New Year's Day.

[fleur-de-lisa]

7. I'm with you!

[arcane1]

2. I would keep four and would create a new one: Election Day

I suppose these would be the four I kept:

Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Veterans Day

[HubertHeaver]

22. The "Gung-Ho" days

[Gabi Hayes]

3. change Columbus Day to "People who got here first, and then we killed almost all of them" Day

[countryjake]

20. Or....Indigenous Day of Remembrance

[quinnox]

4. I really like the election day holiday idea so

Mine would be:

Election day
New Year's day
President's day
Independence day
Labor day

[Scootaloo]

5. Replace Christmas with Labor day, and you've got my list.

We aren't a Christian nation, and turning out the lights in observance of the day when Jesus most assuredly was not born on, is fucking dumb.

Especially since it's not even a "big" holiday for the faith (That's what Easter is for y'all!)

[Robyn66]

6. what about

Earth Day and Arbor Day? Maybe we should have special days where we can go out, clean up and plant things. Although we do them all year at our house.

[Spirochete]

8. My list would be

Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
New Year's Day
Thanksgiving Day
Spirochete's Birthday (well, maybe not...)

[kudzu22]

9. I'd keep

Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas

[slackmaster]

10. My List Just To Piss Off As Many People As Possible

To piss off the South, William Tecumseh Sherman's Birthday, February 8

To piss off pacifists, the Japanese, and anti-nuclear people, Bombing of Hiroshima Day, August 6

To piss off fundamentalist Christians, Halloween, October 31

To piss off lots and lots of people, Election Day, First Tuesday in November but adopt Mexico's law prohibiting sale of alcohol.

To piss off other religious people, Festivus, December 23

[Grave Grumbler]

14. A worthy goal!

[southernyankeebelle]

11. I would keep:

Christmas
New Years
Thanksgiving
Labor Day
Veterans Day


If I could add Parents day (for both mom and dad)
July the 4th

[CrispyQ]

12. My list.

Last edited Mon Oct 8, 2012, 08:15 PM - Edit history (1)

New Year's Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Halloween

on edit: Election Day!

[Behind the Aegis]

13. Mine would be:

New Year's Day
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day

[David Zephyr]

29. Those would be my days, too.

If we had a sixth, my extra would be the Winter Solstice.

[KansDem]

15. My list...

Memorial Day
Independence Day
Veterans Day
Labor Day
New Year's Day

[MadrasT]

31. +1 n/t

[HuckleB]

16. My List:

Memorial Day
4th of July
Labor Day
Thanksgiving Day
President's Day (Or a Historical American's Day)

[Jack Rabbit]

17. OK, I can't resist this . . .

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[Blue Idaho]

18. Because what America really needs are fewer paid vacation days and more days working for the man?

America already has the fewest number of paid vacation days per year of any other civilized nation. Why on earth would we want to make people work even more days? I have a better idea - increase pay which will cause more dollars to flow into the economy which will encourage business owners to expand their workforce to increase inventory and that will stimulate the economy.

Sounds like a good idea if you are an employer - but then again so does down-sizing your workforce.

Don't give the bastards any ideas - austerity is NOT the answer.

[immoderate]

32. Yeah!

I would at least double the paid holidays we have now!

I would impose a twenty hour work week for the same pay. Production is way up and wages are diminishing.

Maybe is would serve to rotate days off so services can be maintained, but we work too much as it is.

--imm

[DLine]

19. My list...

Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas

[MerryBlooms]

21. A holiday week to recognize all those who celebrate religious beliefs

New Year's Day
A Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day

[rock]

23. Splain's Day, Triver's Eve, Gagnasticon Toot, Horgdiffle, and Wropshreve Day

Wait. Did you say holidays to keep or holidays to drop? (Just joking)

[stevenleser]

24. I would expand the list to 20-30 holidays. Keep the current ones and add a 2 week summer break. nt

[OffWithTheirHeads]

25. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. All others would be workdays.

[DJ13]

26. Americans already work more than any other industrialized country

Theres no mandatory vacations for workers (a full month is the EU standard), no mandatory sick leave, and while US productivity has increased every year since 1980 pay hasnt kept pace with inflation.

And you think theres too many holidays?

[no_hypocrisy]

27. From your list, I'd merge Memorial Day and Veteran's Day

and add Labor Day. This country should recognize the people who work everyday to keep it in existence.

[Speck Tater]

28. International Talk Like a Pirate Day.

Five times each year.

[WilmywoodNCparalegal]

30. May the 4th - Star Wars day! n/t

[Ian David]

33. Just make the first weekend in every month a three-day weekend.

Make them all "floating" vacation days. Employers would be required to give all of their workers five paid Mondays or Fridays off per year. The employees would choose which of the five they want to take.

The very name "holiday" implies that it is a "holy" day.

Get rid of them all, and replace them with my system instead.

[frazzled]

34. Talk Like a Pirate Day

Also:

Epiphany
Yom Kippur
Backwards Day
Sadie Hawkins Day

Oh, what about April Fool's Day?

[haele]

35. I would keep:

Memorial Day, 4th of July (Independence Day), Labor Day, Veteran's Day...

But I would add a new holiday: Voting Day
And I'd set it in the beginning of March or April - starting the lame duck legislative session right afterwards, with inauguration/assumption of office the day after Memorial Day.

I would also set a the requirement for seven non-specified federal working "holidays" to be allowed every non-official holiday month to every Federal employee that is scheduled at during a set period twice a year (say schedule four holidays Jan 2 - 10 for Feb through June and three holidays on June 1 - 10 for August through January) as a "use or lose" benefit.
These holidays are to be requested to occur every month that does not already have a holiday in it or the employee can "bank" a holiday to the end of the calendar year to be taken over an overall "winter holiday" (i.e., Christmas, Hanukkah) as the job requirements allow. (This will keep most government offices open except on the five official holidays as employees "flex" these holidays.)
Once approved and scheduled, these holidays cannot be reascended by a supervisor without paying the employee for them tax free - however, if the employee decides at the last minute not to take it or changes up their personal scheduling and doesn't want to take it on the scheduled day, that holiday will automatically be banked to Jan 1st, and subsequent "missed" scheduled holidays will bank to days previous - counting back from Dec 31 to Dec 24 (weekends don't count).

This way, people can schedule holidays around the main religious holidays, children's school holidays, state holidays, and other important events - or just have one guaranteed paid day off a month scheduled for mental health. After all, not everyone wants to take off Xmas or Thanksgiving (and frankly, Thanksgiving is just about as coherently associated with a significant national event as President's Day or Columbus Day), and many times, there's a lot of important official business that does not wait until a holiday is over to get done.

It's a much more civilized way of handling holidays. Now if we can get more paid leave days...

Haele

[porphyrian]

36. I would change things up entirely.

I would trash all of the existing national holidays and create these, in no particular order. (Yes, some of the names are reused or suck.)

Independence Day - to celebrate our nation, to celebrate liberty, and to memorialize the soldiers who died for it and to honor the veterans of our wars

Labor Day - to celebrate the everyday Americans who built this nation and greased the cogs of our economy with their sweat and blood, to celebrate all civil servants and to honor them for everything they do

Harvest Day - to celebrate the fruits of our labors, to share the bounty with those in need, to honor those who make our prosperity possible

Belief Day - to celebrate our freedom of religion, to celebrate all of the faiths and beliefs of our diverse nation, including the belief in no religion at all, to honor those who served to unite us despite our differing beliefs and made us a better country for it

Earth Day - to celebrate the world we live in and on, to make it a better place to live for everyone, to honor those whose contributions have done so

[ozone_man]

37. A balance

I think a balance between nationalistic holidays and seasonal holidays is appropriate. Also realizing that Christian holidays were co-opted from pagan holidays, it’s only appropriate to offer them as substitutes.

Memorial Day
Summer Solstice or July 4th (or Summer holiday of your choice)
Labor Day
Halloween
Winter Solstice or Christmas (or Winter holiday of your choice)

[Nye Bevan]

38. Christmas Day, Boxing Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, 4th July (nt)

[Grave Grumbler]

39. The results:

Here are the results.  I'm not including joke answers, as amusing as they were!

The five most popular federal holidays on DU are, in descending order:

1:  Labor Day
2:  Independence Day
3:  Memorial Day
4:  Thanksgiving Day
5:  New Year's Day

The rest of the list, in descending order of popularity (as a Federal holiday, mind you):

6:  Veteran's Day
7:  Christmas Day
8:  Election Day
9:  Spring Solstice
10:  Winter Equinox
11:  Fall Solstice
12:  Summer Equinox
13:  Generic Religious Holiday
14:  President's Day
15:  Earth Day
16:  Halloween
17:  Harvest Day

[hunter]

40. I think we should have at least fifty holidays.

Five of these could be individual "make your own" holidays... personal birthdays, anniversaries, LOLcat holidays, Beer Days, whatever.

Some groups might even create new religious holidays.

"Drink Tequila and howl at the Blue Moon Holy Day" would be a good one.

Or "Naked Bicycle Riding Holy Day."

I could get lots of people to join those religions.