6
votes
Denmark has managed to anger the Evangelical Lutheran Church and hundreds of thousands of Danish voters – all because of a public holiday
Link information
This data is scraped automatically and may be incorrect.
- Title
- Livin' on a prayer: Denmark turns to God to save public holiday
- Published
- Jan 21 2023
- Word count
- 928 words
Call me an extremist, but (in the US in particular) I'd like to see total abolition of all formal holidays in favor of mandatory vacation and sick leave.
Most citizens don't get off for most of the holidays anyway.
I'd say 30 days of vacation and another 15 of sick would be a good start for a replacement strategy.
Dane here. I'd prefer a truly secular country (with vacation days) over Christian national holidays.
It's a minority who cares about this Christian holiday, anyway. Using your example: the thing people are upset about is that we are potentially going from 30 to 29 vacation days. That's all.
I imagine the American vs (Western?) European context for this one has a larger cultural gap than usual.
From a European perspective, everyone’s already getting at least ~25 general days off and as much sick time as they medically need, so having some portion of those days shared nationally to let people get together, celebrate, party, go on trips is a nice bonus. Religion plays a small enough part in daily life that a few national holidays coinciding with religious festivals is more cultural history than a meaningful observance of a specific faith.
In the US, time off is incredibly scarce and precious, and religion is enormously prominent in politics and in a lot of people’s day to day lives. The state choosing the schedule of those days is very different when it’s not also guaranteeing a reasonable number of days to take when you want them, and choosing them in line with a religion is more divisive when that religion is a loud and controversial part of the political climate as a whole.
I think that there is cultural value in having vacations that everyone shares. Times when people are encouraged to gather together and celebrate are valuable. Of course, the decision regarding what those holidays will celebrate is a fraught one, but the existence of shared holidays in general seems like something of value.
I'm honestly OK with secular holdays as well (Labor Day for example), but the state will never be able to adapt nicely to its varied constituents in a way that is both equitable and fair.
In that vein, this social media account does an excellent job parodying the Christian-normative nature of the US.
This post sums it excellently for newcomers, as Christians who stumble across without context get immensely offended, which I find extra hilarious: