A Year-Round Plan for Our National Holidays
The time has come to revise the national holiday schedule, using a type of zero-base budget approach in which the year is wiped clean of all holidays falling on week days. This letter proposes a schedule of holidays worthy of national celebration carefully selected from the existing holidays or representing newly conceived, but relevant holidays.
The proposed schedule adopts a few simple rules to generate a sense of logic and order into the holiday pattern. First, there should be at least one week-day holiday, and preferably only one, in each month. Second, each holiday should commemorate a human value universally precious to our national culture and not arbitrarily emphasize the custom or celebration of any sect. Appointing the third Monday in the month as the usual day of celebration of each holiday could give way, in a few cases to rotation of the holiday through the week, such as the July 4 holiday.
My suggestion for a holiday schedule is as follows:
January: Integration Day. By focusing on integration, the recent furor over designating Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday as a holiday should abate. Instead, this generalized holiday would honor and recognize all who have contributed to the process of integration, including President Lincoln, as well as stimulate further efforts toward integration.
February: Love Day. Valentine’s Day would be upgraded to Love Day by focusing on the important species and cultural element of Love. President’s days would be deleted and are covered under July.
March: Nature Day. Lonely March would at last have a major holiday, designed to stimulate the appreciation of and respect for Nature.
April: Peace Day. Peace deserves continuing and conscious regard, so I nominate April for the honor of our celebration of peace.
May: Memorial Day. The first existing holiday retained, which would continue to honor the war dead. Into it would also be telescoped the Nov. 11 Veterans Day so all war and veteran-related celebrations would be consolidated into one day.
June: Family Day. The proximity of Mother’s Day in May and Father’s Day in June makes Family Day a natural. Retention concurrently of a Mother’s Day and a Father’s Day, which are always on Sunday, (no national shutdown) would not be ruled out.
July: United States Day: This holiday would merge the July 4th Independence Day, the President’s Days from February, and each state’s admission day into a single day for celebration of our nation. For old time’s sake this holiday could wander through the week to lend a break in the routine scheduling of holidays on the third Monday of each month.
August: Freedom Day. The pinnacle of our rights to freedom of speech, press, religion, etc., deserves an exclusive day for celebration. Besides, barren August desperately needs a holiday.
September: Labor Day. Labor Day is one that the old holiday makers got right. It should be continued in honor of the great resource that labor is to our nation.
October: Discovery Day. Columbus was not the only discoverer. Discovery Day would represent an expansion to include recognition to all discoverers.
November: Thanksgiving Day. Again, Thanksgiving is a noble tradition worthy of maintaining on the third Thursday of the month.
December: Creation Day. A national holiday with any overtones related to the spirituality of humans should be predicated on some basic precept common to all religions and sets of beliefs. Celebrating the creation of the universe and all that is in it satisfies this constraint. Such a theme would be free from any nationally sanctioned support of a religion because each individual would implement the celebration in accordance with his or her own beliefs respecting such creation. Thus, the current arbitrary national sponsorship of the Christian religious holiday of “Christmas,” the basis of which is not shared by those with non-Christian beliefs, would be avoided.
Back to January: The above schedule leaves only New Year’s Day to deal with. Since we need a vehicle to present all the football bowl games, perhaps there would be no harm in having two holidays in January. As a suggestion, to honor that institution that has penetrated the farthest reaches of human existence, perhaps “Television Day” would be appropriate.
If you share my discomfort with being a prisoner of a sometimes illogical past, perhaps we can begin freeing ourselves from these uncomfortable shackles by restructuring our holidays to reflect more appropriately those premium ideas and ideals of our culture that are truly worth celebrating.
GEORGE V. HALL
Torrance