Observance of public holidays

[bwana]

Do you think public holidays should be observed on a Monday/Friday or do you think things are fine as they are?

 

[Madhawk]

Yes

 

[Brian_G]

The economy can and has normally well survived it being unregulated, the bosses want more of course. But in our current economy dare we be lax anymore with anything?

 

[Geoff.D]

The concept of a public holiday is the same as that of a birthday.
It therefore should be on the date and not as a convenience.
The problem is there are just too many of them now.

 

[eg2505]

the day it comes is the day it comes,
would be more convenient sure,
but its like the 25, the day it comes is the day it comes.

just have to live with it.

 

[RedViking]

Should be on a Wednesday.

 

[copacetic]

I think they should split them up throughout the year, in the middle of the week...

 

[bwana]

The problem is there are just too many of them now.

I just had a look and SA has 12 annually compared to 10 in the US, and between eight and ten in the UK.

 

[RedViking]

There is not enough. People need to get min. 30 days leave and need at least 20 public holidays. People are over worked.

 

[elf_lord_ZC5]

Leave as is, let it stay on the day it falls on.

 

[Dan C]

All public holidays should be on a Sunday, so we don't need to go to church.

 

[bwana]

the day it comes is the day it comes,
would be more convenient sure,
but its like the 25, the day it comes is the day it comes.

just have to live with it.

Really? What happens when, for example, Heritage Day falls on a Sunday? Or Christmas?

 

[Kelerei]

In my opinion, it depends on the public holiday in question, and whether or not it comemmorates a specific date. If the public holiday in question does commemorate a specific date, it shouldn't be "Mondayised"; if it doesn't, it's a good candidate to be.

So, I'd keep New Years, Human Rights Day, Freedom Day, Youth Day, Day of the Vow, Christmas Day and Boxing Day as they are now, and good luck changing Easter Weekend, but Workers Day, Womens Day and National Braai Day can all be observed on the closest Monday to the actual date.

It's the same thing with NZ public holidays. New Year, Easter and Christmas are on their specific days, and the two days commemorating specific events (Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day) are always on the same dates, but the rest of them (Queen's Birthday, Labour Day and each region's regional holiday) are usually observed on the nearest Monday. (Some of the regional holidays are observed close to other public holidays, so those regions end up with extra-long weekends.)

 

[SauRoNZA]

Do you think public holidays should be observed on a Monday/Friday or do you think things are fine as they are?

What do you mean fine as they are? We do observe them on Mondays at the moment.

 

[saor]

What do you mean fine as they are? We do observe them on Mondays at the moment.

We just had Heritage day on a Thursday.

 

[bwana]

EDIT - what he said ^

What do you mean fine as they are? We do observe them on Mondays at the moment.

We observed Heritage Day on a Thursday this year.

 

[SauRoNZA]

We observed Heritage Day on a Thursday this year.

But that’s the day it falls on?

To me “observe” means to have the public holiday on a different day it didn’t fall on to “observe” when it actually happened and still take a day off.

Such as when it falls on a Sunday but we observe it on the Monday.

So we didn’t observe Heritage Day on Thursday, we celebrated it as per the calendar.

 

[SauRoNZA]

We just had Heritage day on a Thursday.

See above though.

We didn’t observe it on the Thursday. We simply celebrated it on the day it fell as per calendar.

“An Observed Holiday is when a public federal holiday is celebrated on a date that is not the actual event's anniversary date. For example, if July 4th (Independence Day) falls on a Saturday, it is "observed" on the Friday before as a holiday (and is usually a day off work).”

 

[bwana]

But that’s the day it falls on?

To me “observe” means to have the public holiday on a different day it didn’t fall on to “observe” when it actually happened and still take a day off.

Such as when it falls on a Sunday but we observe it on the Monday.

Some countries observe [some of] their public holidays on a Monday or Friday regardless on the day it falls. What's stopping SA from doing the same where possible?

 

[KleinBoontjie]

Pfft, kids....