On a somewhat separate note, regardless of why Christmas is a Federal holiday, the fact that a holiday is recognized by the Federal government doesn’t really have much to do with anything other than Federal government functions. Businesses are in general not are not required to close on Federal holidays - not even banks and the stock markets. * Private businesses, local and state governments and even school districts are free to and do in fact set their own holiday schedules including how holidays that fall on Saturday or Sunday are observed.** This is how you get companies and school systems that close for Jewish holidays, the Lunar New Year, Muslim holidays, states that have Good Friday as a public holiday and school districts that have Evacuation day ( Mar 17) as a holiday and even school districts that close on the first day of hunting season.
* There were 11 Federal holidays in 2021. TD bank opened on Columbus Day and Presidents Day. The NYSE and Nasdaq were open on Columbus Day and Veterans Day.
** Some of my relatives work for the state government and some work for the city government. Those who work for city were off yesterday, as the city observes Saturday holidays on Friday. Those who work for the state were not automatically off, as the state does not observe Saturday holidays on Friday but simply grants a day of holiday leave.
It’s still like that in England. I was in London on Christmas one year and everything was closed. Even the buses and Underground don’t run on Christmas.
Yes, it has religious antecedents. Saturnalia, Yule, the Christian holiday, etc.
But much of the holiday – Santa (other than his name), Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (written by a Jewish songwriter), decorating, the Grinch, Die Hard ( some consider it has something to do with it), turkey for dinner, etc al.) – is secular.
Although this question is in IMHO, I think that it has a factual answer, and while I am not sure of the religious traditions of the 19th century, I believe that when Christmas was established as a federal holiday in 1870, it was not a secular holiday, but a religious one that had enough adherents that it made sense to just close down government offices because everyone would be out anyway.
All those things you mentioned—along with pretty much all the “secular Christmas” stuff I can think of—post-date the establishment of Christmas as a federal holiday.
Christmas is an ordinary working day in Japan, not a public holiday. I was working there in December 2012 and it felt very strange to be in the office on the 25th.
I don’t know if you’ve noticed this, but a lot of laws and policies in the United States favor business interests to a disproportianate degree. Many businesses in the US make over half their annual profits during the Christmas season, due to Christmas-related buying. If this were true for St. Patrick’s Day or St. Valentine’s Day or the Feast of St. Walpurgis, these would probably be national holidays as well. Christmas and Thanksgiving are federal holidays because it’s good for business for them to be such.
Whether Christmas has become a mostly secular holiday is irrelevant. Christmas is about the birth of Christ, and Christ is still a religious figure. By making Christmas the only federal holiday based on a religious figure the US Government officially endorses Christianity over every other religion. If a business can’t open because they don’t have enough people to work on Christmas Day then that business shouldn’t be open.
There’s no federal holiday for the birthdays of Mohammad, Moses, Joseph Smith, or L. Ron Hubbard. Singling out one religious group above others is unamerican, but it’s not like it’s going to change. The US is now and has always been a Christian country, and if you’re not Christian I feel sorry for you (I’m a Secular Humanist). Suck it up and enjoy the day off, and let’s all stop pretending that Christmas isn’t a religious holiday at its heart.
For comparison’s sake, what are the federal holidays in Israel? In addition to being a Jewish state, it’s also one of the most pluralistic democracies in the world, so I wonder how they handle federal holidays.
What if a government office can’t open because they don’t have enough people to work on Christmas Day? What if most of them can’t? What if, even the ones that can, it’s basically a waste of salaries because almost no one comes in because most people are celebrating Christmas?
Okay. Do they have legal holidays that citizens get to take off regardless of their religious affiliation, similar to how most Americans get Christmas off? If so, what are they?
something else that’s unique in the US UK and Canada is the notion of “bank holidays” that started out as odd little holidays where the financial institutions closed down in the 30s that was designed to slow down “runs” on the baking systems it’s how and why things like Colombus day started …
Some states have a government holiday for Good Friday, but it’s not the norm. The financial markets close too.
Non-liturgical Christianity has a much larger share of the American population. For a huge percentage of devout churchgoers in the USA, Good Friday is one of those weird notes on the calendar like Bastille Day or Eid al-Fitr. The religious calendar has two days on it, Easter Sunday and Christmas, and they survived in those traditions primarily because they were social events.
A lot of people seem to think that, but it’s a Christian holiday. The fact that those of us who aren’t Christian traditionally find other things to do, or happily celebrate with our Christian friends (as I did yesterday) does not erase that this holiday has its origins in one, particular religion and for a significant number of people it remains a religious holiday.
Yes, there are nations where Christians are a minority that have taken on some aspects of the US celebration, but that’s due to cultural influence. Likewise, New Year’s Day on the Gregorian calendar has become a big thing world wide, even if other societies still use other calendars. Also, there’s a profit motive in Christmas due to the purchasing of gifts - the Christmas tree with the Visa card on top is an accurate expression of that. This is a motivation for non-Christians to get involved by supplying Christians with material goods to give as gifts. This offends some religious Christians, but sorry, us heathens have to eat and pay rent, too.
EVERYTHING being closed happened well until 2000 in my city. I remember having my Christmas dinner plans being cancelled so I had to drive around looking for ANYTHING that was open for food. All the gas stations were closed, every fast food place was closed, the only place I found was open at a 6pm Christmas night was a pizza shop ran by an Indian family.
True of cultural Christians, but I think devout churchgoers are well aware of Good Friday and what it commemorates, which is pretty crucial to Christianity (pun intended).
