I work in local government, public safety specifically, and while my employer has abolished Good Friday as a paid holiday (meaning everyone shows up, and no one gets holiday pay) many others haven’t. I think that the observance of a holiday that is so specific to one religion, while not being ‘commercially’ accepted, should be left to the individual, not endorsed by an entity funded with public money.
While it’s true that public offices close on Christmas, the Christmas time of year is universally adopted as a holiday that goes beyond the barriers of one faith. The concept of Good Friday as a holiday for public offices is, I think, antiquated and unnecessary.
Modern jobs being what they are, it is often difficult to allow time off for even fully recognized holidays. I’ve worked my share of them, and so have many others on this board.
Good Friday is not a federal holiday, so I think these things can be handled well at a local and individual level. Allowing employees time for appropriate religious observance is appropriate if it can be accomodated. Schools, likewise, should adjust calendars mindful of this fact and mindful too that many students and their families will be travelling this weekend.
Where I grew up in Pennsylvania, many school districts would have the first day of deer season as a school holiday. I think local customs such as this are not harmful at all, and reflective of the different and diverse communities that make up our nation.
Many years ago, I had an instructor in an education course who asserted this interesting version of the issue: 1) Christians are not by their religion required to attend church services on Christmas, and consequently, they should not get the day off in order to exercise the choices of their religion. The government, in other words, should not provide paid holidays for them - it would be establishing religion. On the other hand, 2) Jews ARE required to attend services, or at least are not to work on certain holidays such as Yom Kipper. To require them to work would be an infringement of their freedom to exercise their religion - an unconstitutional act. In other words, it would be unconstitutional to close a school on Christmas, but it would, by the same argument, be unconstitutional to keep them open on Yom Kippur. This being a country that is populated by a large majority of Christians, I have come to abide by it. I’d be willing to work on Christmas, but schools are closed. And, by the same token, there are plenty places where I can’t go in and buy a 6-pack of beer for later in the day (on a Sunday) because of that being the Christian sabbath. Oh, and the main break I get - on Sunday, I don’t have to feed the parking meters. I think it would be great if individual companies and school districts could handle this on a case by case basis. Establish what they agree to be a fair policy. I wonder if I answered your question. xo C.
While I have used words such as “damn it” and “holy crap” in the past, I know of no english wards that can convey my dismay that trash is not taken out on this friday.
hmmmm…
Actually, CC, you may find that a surprising number of Christians are required by their faith to attend church on Christmas. It is, for example, a holy day of obligation in Catholicism, and the equivalent in Orthodoxy. Not that you yourself were making that argument, but I think it’s important not to equate “the rules of Granpaw’s church,” so to speak, with those of every branch of Christianity. You will note that some of the strongest spokespeople against Biblical-literalist doctrines being imposed on non-Christians are Christians from churches that espouse tradition and reason as equal to Scripture.
The celebration of Christmas as a holiday in the U.S. has always been troublesome because some Christian denominations don’t emphasize it as a big holiday. However, it is a Holy Day of Obligation (meaning put down the new toys and go to church) for Catholics.