This would be my argument for allowing people of various religions to take their religious holidays, but not require everyone to take them (if they don’t want to).
So (and these will all be hypothetical because my knowledge of holidays across various religions is pretty poor – sorry) :-
Imagine there are four main religions in the UK – Potterism, Everdinery, Swannism and Sherlockian.
Potterism celebrates the 31st of July, 31st of October, the 2nd of May, the 1st of September and the 19th of September as its holy days.
Everdinery celebrates the 10th of March, the 20th of May, the 31st of August, the 9th of January and the 5th of July.
Swannism celebrates the 3rd to the 5th of May, the 10th of August, the 12th of September and the 12th of December.
And Sherlockian celebrates the 1st of February, the 9th of March, the 12th of June, the 24th of September and the 10th of October.
Along with all these, all four religions celebrate the 31st of December, the 1st of January and the 23rd of August. Just because.
(Really making this up as I ago along).
The celebrants of each religion can take their days off as a holiday (without using up their paid holiday allowance), but businesses do not have to close. Bank holidays become a thing of the past.
Schools ignore them, and school holidays are arranged around more sensible times (summer holidays, spring holidays, winter holidays).
Religion is taken out of public life more or less altogether.
Now I accept that in “real life” this will be more complicated, but businesses can adapt for Jewish, Muslim, Christian and other workers and would not need to shut down on such a wide scope
The only exception might still be Christmas, because that has become more of a secular thing than a religious one.
I listened to an interesting podcast about something like this, it might have been on 'cautionary tales '.
Apparently at one point some Soviet area tried organising everyone’s days off in shifts instead of everyone taking Sunday off and factories lying idle.
Basically tho you actually loose a lot of the social value of days off if you don’t get them at the same time as other people. Can’t visit your family or friends unless they have the same day off as you, for example. And what if your kid’s school’s day off isn’t the same as yours?
But conversely if everyone is forced to take the same day, or days, then it entirely ignores the idea of different cultures.
In Islam their… (sorry – can’t think of a better way to phrase this) their Sunday is Friday. So it is most likely that in a Muslim family most of them would want their rest day to be Friday.
Christians would take Sunday. The Jewish day of rest is Saturday.
Yeah – there’d be allowances for schools, and teachers in state/secular schools.
I understand the friends problem, and it’s something to work around, but as I said if you force every culture and every person into taking the same day just because one culture or one religion says “this is the day” then… it seems somewhat dictatorial.
I find the opposite. Nothing is more frustrating than a Holiday where everything is all closed as well. Sometimes you see enough of family and friends and you have life stuff to catch up on.
I’ve known a lot of people who thrived on Second- and Third-Shift, or found jobs that let them trade holidays with their own day-off of choice, and/or made sure to work weekends and take weekdays off. The world stopping for everyone at the same time is great if you want to sit on your couch and watch tv, but can get in the way if you want to live your life.
That was the lesson I got when I started working and finally had my holiday. Great, I’m off, but no one else is. At least all of the museums, attractions and activities are open.
This would be my argument for allowing people of various religions to take their religious holidays, but not require everyone to take them (if they don’t want to).
So (and these will all be hypothetical because my knowledge of holidays across various religions is pretty poor – sorry) :-
Imagine there are four main religions in the UK – Potterism, Everdinery, Swannism and Sherlockian.
Potterism celebrates the 31st of July, 31st of October, the 2nd of May, the 1st of September and the 19th of September as its holy days.
Everdinery celebrates the 10th of March, the 20th of May, the 31st of August, the 9th of January and the 5th of July.
Swannism celebrates the 3rd to the 5th of May, the 10th of August, the 12th of September and the 12th of December.
And Sherlockian celebrates the 1st of February, the 9th of March, the 12th of June, the 24th of September and the 10th of October.
Along with all these, all four religions celebrate the 31st of December, the 1st of January and the 23rd of August. Just because.
(Really making this up as I ago along).
The celebrants of each religion can take their days off as a holiday (without using up their paid holiday allowance), but businesses do not have to close. Bank holidays become a thing of the past.
Schools ignore them, and school holidays are arranged around more sensible times (summer holidays, spring holidays, winter holidays).
Religion is taken out of public life more or less altogether.
Now I accept that in “real life” this will be more complicated, but businesses can adapt for Jewish, Muslim, Christian and other workers and would not need to shut down on such a wide scope
The only exception might still be Christmas, because that has become more of a secular thing than a religious one.
I listened to an interesting podcast about something like this, it might have been on 'cautionary tales '. Apparently at one point some Soviet area tried organising everyone’s days off in shifts instead of everyone taking Sunday off and factories lying idle. Basically tho you actually loose a lot of the social value of days off if you don’t get them at the same time as other people. Can’t visit your family or friends unless they have the same day off as you, for example. And what if your kid’s school’s day off isn’t the same as yours?
I can understand that argument.
But conversely if everyone is forced to take the same day, or days, then it entirely ignores the idea of different cultures.
In Islam their… (sorry – can’t think of a better way to phrase this) their Sunday is Friday. So it is most likely that in a Muslim family most of them would want their rest day to be Friday.
Christians would take Sunday. The Jewish day of rest is Saturday.
Yeah – there’d be allowances for schools, and teachers in state/secular schools.
I understand the friends problem, and it’s something to work around, but as I said if you force every culture and every person into taking the same day just because one culture or one religion says “this is the day” then… it seems somewhat dictatorial.
I find the opposite. Nothing is more frustrating than a Holiday where everything is all closed as well. Sometimes you see enough of family and friends and you have life stuff to catch up on.
I’ve known a lot of people who thrived on Second- and Third-Shift, or found jobs that let them trade holidays with their own day-off of choice, and/or made sure to work weekends and take weekdays off. The world stopping for everyone at the same time is great if you want to sit on your couch and watch tv, but can get in the way if you want to live your life.
That was the lesson I got when I started working and finally had my holiday. Great, I’m off, but no one else is. At least all of the museums, attractions and activities are open.