Always room for more…holidays

New Year’s has come and gone, and the final strains of Auld Lang Syne are history.  The perennial Christmas – New Years holiday rush is over.  The only remainders of the past few weeks are bedraggled Christmas trees, crumpled Hallmark cards and cardboard boxes dressed in tattered wrapping paper and limp bows lining the curbs.

It’s January – which this year, apparently means frozen garden plants, water pipes and all things outdoors.  It also means back to school, back to work and back to counting the humdrum days until the next holiday which, for some, will fall on Monday, Jan. 18 as we celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr. Day.

Who among us doesn’t like holidays?

Most of us are a hard working lot and deserve holidays, and lots of them.  Some folks think there are too many holidays, especially for government workers.  But comparatively speaking, that may not be the case.  For instance, the Feds celebrate with 10 holidays while the fine employees of the Sunshine State celebrate with 10 as well, including the floating “birthday,” and the schools…well, I admit defeat on trying to keep up with what has become a moving target. 

The French and the Brits have 10 official public holidays; the Germans have 11, as do our Canadian neighbors.  Denmark and Italy tie for 12, with Norway and Sweden celebrating 13 and Japan making it 14 days for two entire weeks off. 

But the big winner is Brazil with 17 – that’s right 17 holidays.  Not surprising that a country with a nut as its namesake should also be a bit wacky in its zeal for celebrations.

I submit for consideration, there should be more official holidays in this country.  I’m not suggesting that the 80-plus special red-letter observances issued annually by Presidential proclamation (40 observances, 18 special weeks, 25 special months) be accepted, although National Hurricane Preparedness Week (third week in May) may be the exception in Florida and the Gulf Coast States.

I do, however, believe the following four special occasions should be recognized as official holiday:

1 - For all the diehard football fans who will soon be crying in their beer because football season is o - v- e- r, I nominate Mournful Monday – the day following Super Sunday, the last big pigskin hurrah until next August. One post-traumatic day of chest pounding or grievous groaning should be enough.  This goes for fantasy football freaks, too.

2 - For all the nation’s workers, especially those in Florida who are, during one of the dreariest months of the year, trying to feign interest in their jobs all the while daydreaming about waves lapping at their sand-covered toes, and the big one that got away - this one’s for you: Tax Freedom Day, the day in which an average citizen is said to have worked enough to pay his or her taxes for the year.  The date changes from year-to-year, adding a little spice and spontaneity to the mix.

3 - April 15 is infamous indeed as the annual Federal tax filing deadline, and a holiday is most certainly due the accountants who worked a jillion hours, folks who paid their taxes, begrudgingly or not, and folks who couldn’t quite face the music in time.  Post-Tax Day, April 16, is long overdue so the tax-paying, tax-owing, and tax-ciphering folks can breathe a sigh or relief or catch their breath, whichever the case may be.

4 - Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, should be a national holiday.  Considered to be the first shopping day of the Christmas season, as a national holiday it would fuel the economy as well as give a jumpstart to shoppers who don’t start buying Christmas presents in July.  And because most people think that all government workers have this day off, think again – for Feds it is a standard workday, as well as for many private sector employees.  With all those additional dollars circulating in the economy, in Economics 101 lingo, the multiplier effect will cumulatively reinforce interaction between consumption and production resulting in the amplified increase from two to five times in production and income, thus adding a little jingle in everyone’s pockets.

Admittedly, it may not be realistic to adopt the whole kit and caboodle of new holidays immediately, a case can be made for a phased introduction, say over a five-year period.  I can almost hear the Hallmark wordsmiths doing cartwheels as they exercise their poetic diction with witty and heartfelt wishes for Happy Mournful Monday, Celebrate Tax Freedom Day, Give Thanks for Post-Tax Day and Ring the Bell for Black Friday. 

Remember, there’s always room for more … holidays, that is.