Bear at Revolutionary Moderation has a brilliant idea. Canadians are strapped for holidays this time of year. Americans have Martin Luther King Day, but Canadians work right through it. Hope for a three day weekend and all of the joy and celebration that it provides must wait to Good Friday when, frankly, joy should be the last thing on your mind (at least until the following Sunday).
The problem is, Canada's proposals for January-February holidays come out as either needlessly controversial (a day to celebrate the life of Rene Levesque) or somewhat lame (Prime Ministers' Day? Heritage Day? -- celebrating McDonald's birthday might be a good excuse to drink, however). Any holiday in January is going to be cold and snow-riddled, so unless it's beefed up with Winterludes everywhere, it's going to feel a little artificial.
Unless we do as Bear says and select Chinese New Year as the day we all take off work.
I love this idea: it's a holiday full of pagentry and celebration, fireworks and food. Celebrating it as a national holiday would recognize one of our oldest and largest cultural minorities and their extensive contributions to this country.
Sure, the holiday moves around according to the lunar calendar, but so does Easter, and we make allowances for that. Sure, some people are bound to raise the question of why pick this holiday to celebrate and none of the other unrecognized ethnic holidays that exist in Canada's multicultural society. Well, I have no coherent argument against that, except to say that I think some people should lighten up, kick back and enjoy themselves. After all, we're on holiday.
Happy New Year!
Winter Photographs
Erin has a few, and here are a couple that I took...
| The bird sculpture outside the window at work, and it's crazy new snow 'do. |
| Bare tree and lamppost |