Hands off Christmas, protesters say

Nom Chompsky

Nom Chompsky

High Tory
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Johannesburg - A group of Christian demonstrators handed over a memorandum to Home Affairs Minister Naledi Pandor on Saturday to oppose a proposal to remove Good Friday and Christmas as public holidays.

"Hands off Christmas and Good Friday," said the group outside Constitution Hill in Johannesburg.

The group of around 100 protesters which were led by head of the African Christian Democratic Party's Reverend Kenneth Meshoe delivered a memorandum of understanding to Pandor to oppose a motion by the Commission for the Protection and Promotion of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities.

The commission was allegedly exploring the idea of requesting government to scrap Good Friday and Christmas from the national calendar. They alleged that the celebrating of the two Christian holidays discriminated and excluded other religious denominations.

Reading the memorandum, Meshoe said they did not believe the two holidays discriminated against any religion.

"According to Statistics South Africa, Christians make up 79.5% of the country's population," said Meshoe.

He said the existence of these two holidays on the calendar showed the majority's standing.

Pandor told demonstrators that she had not yet received any enquiries from the commission, and urged them to "prepare for a jolly festive season".
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http://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/Hands-off-Christmas-protesters-say-20121110
 
Haha! Good luck with trying to steal Christmas. Numbskulls.
 
We might need to profess our love for the ANC if they get rid of the religious holidays

Also why the govt. is wasting time on this is a mystery to me.
 
What difference does this really make? Isn't 90% of the country on holiday during that period anyway?
 
Garyvdh said:
What difference does this really make? Isn't 90% of the country on holiday during that period anyway?
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Yes, but if 2 of those days are public holidays then it means I have 2 extra days annual leave somewhere during the year to take (arguably losing the country money in lost productivity).

One solution is to grant each person in the country 3 or 4 days "religious holidays" to take whenever their religion says they should take it. Then remove all of the official holidays.

No idea what the atheists would do, though. ;)
 
ebendl said:
Yes, but if 2 of those days are public holidays then it means I have 2 extra days annual leave somewhere during the year to take (arguably losing the country money in lost productivity).

One solution is to grant each person in the country 3 or 4 days "religious holidays" to take whenever their religion says they should take it. Then remove all of the official holidays.

No idea what the atheists would do, though. ;)
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or be smart like an athiest and rather ask for 3 or 4 personal holidays during a year. easy.
 
Garyvdh said:
What difference does this really make? Isn't 90% of the country on holiday during that period anyway?
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More interesting question would be what international companies are going to do on Christmas Day, since all their branches outside of South Africa will be closed.
 
I will simply put in religious leave as all other religions do. In fact this will be more fair as I don't get other religious holidays where other religions get mine.
 
Just allow those that are religious to claim those two days as religious holidays, much like companies have to make allowances for the religious practices of non-Christians. Easy peasy.
 
Church and State are separate, and so should the public holidays. Nuke xmas and add some more meaningful holidays.
 
I say scrap all the public holidays.
If you want to celebrate youth day or woman's day or Christmas day, use your annual leave...simple. Too many lazy freaking people in this world.
 
HammerDown said:
I say scrap all the public holidays.
If you want to celebrate youth day or woman's day or Christmas day, use your annual leave...simple. Too many lazy freaking people in this world.
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Actually, I advocate scrapping all public holidays and replacing them with one long weekend a month. Every month just make one Friday a day off. Friday's are generally very unproductive anyway and most companies let their staff go early. It's not really about being lazy either, people need a break.
 
HammerDown said:
I say scrap all the public holidays.
If you want to celebrate youth day or woman's day or Christmas day, use your annual leave...simple. Too many lazy freaking people in this world.
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Sure, if you want to kill people.
 
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