Thursday 28 March 2013

Easter

As a pronounced and ethical agnostic - we can't really know, so why pretend there's a definite answer? - there are two holidays which really give me problems: Christmas and Easter. Separated from the Godly aspect, and celebrating some man who said nice things and inspired people, Christmas would be quite a nice holiday but somehow it's still troubling. It's probably because it's a national holiday, and is essentially an intertwinement of government and religion. As American constitution writers guessed well so long ago, Church and State are best served as separate entities. We should really be abashed at how mixed up things are. Going out on an unpopular limb, let's make our national holidays secular and universal. Fortunately the Winter Solstice is right next to Christmas so we can appease people by making the shortest day a holiday. And we could do summer solstice too, but what of the other national holidays? We have the fewest bank holidays of the EU countries, or did when last I checked, so when should these holidays be?

Some obvious and un-controversial National Holiday nominations, some of which are in jest:

Shakespeare Day: 23 April (died this day in 1616. Birth date unknown.)
May Day: Remains the same.
Henry VII Day: 28 June (born this day in 1491)
David Lloyd George Day: 17 January (born this day in 1863)
Burns Day: 25 January (born this day in 1759)
Science Day: Placed strategically in an empty period of time.
Faith Day: See Science Day

I'm sure there many other and better ideas, but it seems reasonable to allow people to believe what they believe and holiday when they want without being told they have to. Let's not mix religion and government,

Having said all that, I'm not sure why it all came into mind! Perhaps it's the emptiness of my department here today, everyone having sloped off early for Easter. Also, as Daylight Savings Time looms, I'm very conscious of the fact that we'll be on fake time for the next few interminable months. Daylight Saving Time is one of my least favourite things in life, along with slow transformations in monster movies, and interminable setup sections in movies. If I ever see another origin story in a superhero movie then there will be ructions!

O.

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