Veterans Day Reminds Us That U.S. Holidays Are Becoming Imbalanced

When you’re in school or working at a job in the United States, Veterans Day is a bright spot in the fall calendar. November 11 is an opportunity for all Americans to thank those who have served our country in the armed forces, especially those veterans who are still living (since those who have fallen are remembered separately on Memorial Day). The holiday began in 1919 as Armistice Day, commemorating the end of World War I and thanking those who had fought in the war. After World War II and the Korean War, the name was changed so that it would honor all veterans.

Veterans Day is one of the most functional holidays of the year. First, most of us have family members or friends who have served in the military, so there is a relevance in honoring their service. Whether or not we agree with the policies of the government that deployed them, these people have put their lives on the line to defend our country. Second, Veterans Day is a fixed date each year (November 11), as opposed to the many holidays that occur on Mondays in order to facilitate three-day weekends.

That raises the possibility that Veterans Day may occur on a weekend or on another day when celebrating it might be inconvenient. Also, one of the main values of this holiday is how it can be taught in schools, which is difficult to do if children get the day off. But if the holiday falls on a weekend, employers and schools can designate another day (such as November 10) when it is observed. In addition, many schools teach children about this over the course of several days, not just one. For example, my kids’ school invited a Marine Corps veteran to speak to the classes earlier in the week.

It’s Time to Re-Examine U.S. Fall Holidays

Aside from Veterans Day and several others, the holiday calendar in the United States is getting messy. It’s time for us to re-examine it, discuss what’s not working as well as it could, and consider making the necessary changes.

Let’s begin by looking at the list of U.S. federal holidays. These are the holidays observed by government offices. While states, employers, and school districts have some freedom to set their own schedules, this is fairly similar to what each of them do and it’s a good place to start. Here is the lineup for 2017:

Monday, January 2 New Year’s Day (observed)
Monday, January 16 Martin Luther King Jr. birthday
Monday, February 20 Washington’s Birthday
Monday, May 29 Memorial Day
Tuesday, July 4 Independence Day
Monday, September 4 Labor Day
Monday, October 9 Columbus Day
November 11 Veterans Day
November 23 Thanksgiving Day
December 25 Christmas Day

On the surface, that appears well balanced. There’s a holiday roughly once per month. We see only a couple of extended stretches without them. And there are almost as many in the first and second halves of the year; the split would be perfect if July 4 fell a few days earlier, so we won’t worry about that.

There is something happening every day, but here we are talking about official holidays, not Zipper Day and Draw a Bird Day.

Should We Have Other Holidays?

Problem # 1 is what’s NOT there. Easter and Spring Break are not there (typically observed in late March or sometime in the first few weeks of April). Neither is Halloween (October 31). Yet no “unofficial” events in the annual calendar have more impact on peoples’ schedules than those two. Halloween is largely a kid’s holiday, but it involves after-dark activity, so many school districts simply give students the next day off (November 1), acknowledging that it is a less productive day at school. Many parents are forced to take time off for Halloween (some schools have parades or other events that day) and the day after.

Easter is a religious holiday and it occurs on a Sunday each year. Some places offer Good Friday as a holiday, but Easter’s main impact on peoples’ work and school schedules comes from Spring Break. Most schools give students a Spring Break week off the week before or after Easter, which has a huge impact on schedules for parents, travel, and businesses. Yet as there is no official holiday during this period, working people need to use vacation days for any time off.

Source: Fairport.org.

Digging deeper, there are other candidates for holidays, but probably none as impactful on so many peoples’ schedules as those two. Valentine’s Day (February 4) leads the Hallmark holidays, but few people would advocate for it to be elevated to full holiday status. Mother’s and Father’s Days are on Sundays anyway, so they don’t yield a day off. There is no Children’s Day in the U.S., but you may beg to differ when you see all the candy and knicknacks in stores for Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween, and Christmas. We could throw in others like St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, and 4/20, but at some point, it starts to look like a Happy Hour schedule.

Besides Veterans Day, A Barren Stretch of Autumn Has Opened Up on the Calendar

While Columbus Day is a federal holiday, it is no longer celebrated in many states (at last count, 24 states - nearly half of the country - no longer celebrate it). This is because of the modern view that Native Americans already were living in the United States (and were not treated well by most European explorers), so many states have decided not to glorify Columbus’ “discovery” of the Americas by observing this holiday. A few have designated it Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead. Some states have replaced Columbus Day with Cesar Chavez Day, but because this occurs or is observed around March 31, it results in an imbalanced calendar.

I take no side on this, but merely observe that when Columbus Day is removed from the calendar without a close replacement, autumn looks quite bare of holidays. Between Labor Day (which is functionally the last day of summer for vacation season and for many schools/colleges) and Thanksgiving (fourth Thursday in November), Veterans Day is literally the only remaining fall holiday. We’re talking about most of September, October, and November without a holiday? Not good.

Fixing the Broken Calendar of Holidays

We clearly need another holiday in the fall. For states that do not celebrate Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples’ Day in early October, this is too long of a period for students and employees to suffer without a designated day off. The calendar is way too front-loaded.

Here are some possible suggestions.

(1) Many countries have a paid holiday for Election Day. The United States does not do this. Most elections are held in early November, so this would be close in time to Veterans Day. Not every year is an election year, however, since major elections are on two-year cycles, four years for Presidential elections.

(2) Designate Halloween or the day after as a formal holiday. Move President’s Day from early in the year. Let people wear masks of their favorite or least favorite presidents…or pirates or witches.

(3) The “missing” holiday would fit best in early October. The Canadians celebrate their Thanksgiving at the same time as Columbus Day. The U.S. Thanksgiving is too late for a harvest-oriented holiday, since the fall harvest occurs earlier. And it’s too close in time to Christmas, which is just over a month later, when you see many of the same family members again. Why not move Thanksgiving to sometime in the first half of October? And give people an extra day off, since this is the largest travel holiday of the year.

(4) Or don’t move Thanksgiving, but add another paid official holiday for the Friday that week. Few people actually work on the Friday after Thanksgiving anyway. It’s already known as Black Friday.

(5) Add a new holiday. I’d love to add a holiday to recognize parks and the outdoors. Make it a tradition that people should visit a local or national park, go for a walk or die a bike/horse/surfboard/whatever, breathe some fresh air, see some natural scenery. And remember what a wonderful thing it is that we still have a few natural places left (let’s keep it that way, please).

In the meantime, we can be thankful for Veterans Day, not only because we thank our veterans, but because it’s a rare chance to catch our breath during this time of year.

Do you have any ideas for fixing this calendar of holidays? If you could add a new holiday of your choice to the calendar in your country, what would it be?

Sources:
http://www.history.com/topics/holidays/history-of-veterans-day
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veterans_Day
https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/veterans-day
https://www.census.gov/srd/www/genhol/easter500freq.html
http://www.edd.ca.gov/Payroll_Taxes/State_Holidays.htm
Last image: jjmccullough.com