Why are holidays like Good Friday, Easter Monday, or Boxing Day celebrated in many former British colonies but not the United States?
You could ask why is the Queen’s Birthday long weekend (my day off starts in half an hour) celebrated in Australia (which cares little about Her Maj) but not in the UK itself.
The answer is because some smooth talker got away with it. Then again, you have Thanksgiving, and isn’t there some Martin Luther King holiday or summat? So it all works out.
It’s about barbecues and beer.
From time to time politicians in the UK try to get Trafalgar Day made a holiday, but nobody’s too keen since it’s in October. On the other hand, when the Labour government in the 1970’s made May Day a holiday, the Conservatives threatened to abolish it when they came to power. Problem is, the weather has usually started to improve by May and it was quite popular. In the end the Conservatives were in power for 18 years but never quite got round to abolishing it.
Good Friday is a holiday in parts of the US, like the Connecticut schools I attended as a child. But then I also remember getting some of the Jewish holidays off as well.
Good Friday is most emphatically a holiday for the 80-odd% of Americans who claim to be Christian. Whether or not it’s a legally-observed holiday depends on state laws, and on individual companies giving it off from work if not mandated to.
We always got out of school in my school district in West Texas for Good Friday. I never heard of Easter Monday or Boxing Day until I was an adult, though.
If you’re going to have B and B in NSW today, then good luck to you, you poor soaked bastards.