Monday Holidays 2025

You may as well say, there he goes again. It's time a for regular rant of mine about the Monday Holiday law.

Today is Martin Luther King Day, and that's a good and right thing. If anyone deserves a holiday it's the icon of the Civil Rights movement. But for those of you who don't know, I never liked moving holidays to Mondays. I get the reason for it: three day weekends. I don't doubt that makes things like business scheduling easier or that it gives people the opportunity to plan for longer breaks. Yet I can't help but believe that such mundane and arguably selfish concerns distract from the real point of honoring someone or something.

If we are supposed to remember and honor Dr. King why aren't we remembering and honoring him on a day which would have meant something to him? Why does his holiday get moved around to suit our purposes? I would argue that it smacks of nonchalance, of, perhaps, even dishonor.  However so subtly we're putting our business and/or personal lives ahead actually honoring a man, woman, concept, or event.

Now while I'm sure Dr. King would likely, in modesty, argue he is underserving of such laurels, I believe that if we're going to look past that (as we should) then let's at least give remembrances on a day of import to him. It doesn't even have to be a birthday, birthdays after all being somewhat benign compared to what a man or woman actually achieved in life. It could be to commemorate the I Have a Dream Speech or the Selma March, or any number of things. But pick a day which would be important to what he stood for and stay with it.

Or at least stick with their actual birthdays. Monday Holidays detract rather than uplift the person or place or event they purport to recall.

Happy Labor Day

Happy Labor Day! Enjoy the holiday! Walk the Mighty Mackinac Bridge if can! Don't eat too many burgers and hot dogs.

Yeah, right, to that last one.

Memorial Day

Memorial Day: the last Monday in May. The day set aside for remembering our fallen heroes. It is fitting and proper that we do this.

Forget for the moment that it like so many other holidays has been been given something of a second class citizen status. It once was held every May 30th every year. In our rush to celebrate special days more on our terms than as an honest retrospective of deserving people and ideals it has been moved to the last Monday of the month. That is so we may have three day weekends to party more so than a single, specially set aside day to actually contemplate what the day is supposed to be about. Nevertheless, it is still a great day on our calendar.

Great hardly seems the right word. It is sad that we have to have a day such as this, sadder still that willing souls have given us their all in order to make such times a need. But that is the price we pay, they paid, for living in a world where evil exists. We must be thankful for those souls who have made it possible for us to be here and reflect on their actions.

So we will stand by the word great. It takes great people for us to have a chance to solemnly remember their deeds. It takes great people for us to realize that freedom is not free and liberty not a given. It takes great people to give us the chance to grill and hoist a brew and spend time with our families and friends.

It takes great people to lay down their lives for their friends, as the Greatest Friend of ours did. Remember them, today and every day. They've earned the honor. The very least we can do is acknowledge them.

Halloween 2018

Tonight is Halloween, a day that I've come to look forward to more and more as time goes by. I think maybe it's the atmosphere: we simply don't have many days when there is a true neighborhood wide party feeling. My area, Woodbridge, and most neighborhoods I fancy, come to life in a manner which simply doesn't happen often.

Oh, they'll be the occasional annoyance, mild pushing and shoving, even an adult or two who want free candy. That last one used to burn at me, but not so much anymore. You can't let the twerps ruin your mood.

My family will take turns passing out goodies and walking around the hood. I'll wander a bit through my mother's yard, where my brother Patrick goes to town with the outdoor decor, and just be happy to be around it. I'm not even going to get upset over the move-Halloween-to-the-nearest-Saturday for convenience controllers. Damn convenience. This is Halloween, October 31st. Leave it there. Let's not go Monday Holiday over yet another special day.

And now I wish a curmudgeonly Happy Halloween all!

Presidents' Day 2017

Today is Presidents' Day. It is a holiday that I am not fond of, for a variety of reasons.

I'm nowhere near convinced that all Presidents deserve honor. If nothing else, I don't see where Washington and Millard Fillmore are on the same plane. Beyond that, some just weren't good presidents. There aren't particularly good reasons to remember some of those guys.

Then too (as I've lamented frequently) I don't like the whole Monday Holiday Law. What honor are we showing the honorable when we shunt them around to our satisfaction? Not much that I can see.

To be fair, Presidents' Day officially is George Washington's Birthday, so I take some solace in that. Still, I can't help but feel that, as with many holidays, it's become kinda shallow. An excuse for sales if you will. I'm just not into that.

Presidents Day 2014

Today is Presidents Day. We are expected to celebrate our Presidents, even the ones who weren't that good or memorable. And we do that at the expense of the ones who truly do merit a certain reverence. Washington, Lincoln: you guys are as good as Millard Fillmore or James Buchanan.

To be fair, the official holiday is still known, at the federal level, as Washington's Birthday. That is how it should be. The importance of General Washington to our history simply cannot be overstated; it is widely held by historians that we would not have survived as a nation without his leadership. His demeanor, the respect he commanded: he was the one person Americans would unite under, and they did.

It is not fair to his memory that we are now expected to think of all the men who served as President. Many of then simply don't merit the recognition no matter what they may have sacrificed in gaining the office. It is not fair either that the Monday Holiday Law bounces Washington's Birthday around for the sake of convenience. Further, it is not fair that such days are marked more by sales, weekend trips, and days off work more than for what the holiday is supposed to represent: a reflection on important even ts and figures in our history.

Try doing that, instead of or before whatever else you want to do today. Think about what Washington means to our being here this day. Read a passage about him, even if it's simply on Wikipedia. Take a second and look at a dollar bill or a quarter and reflect on why we would put the image of an old general on our coinage. Remember while you do that that our ability to do all the things we take readily for granted are only so because of the work and sacrifice of men like our first President, and be even for the moment grateful.

Then go ahead and do what you like. We suspect that the General himself would approve of it.

Washington's Birthday

Today is Presidents Day. We are expected to celebrate our Presidents, even the ones who weren't that good or memorable. And we do that at the expense of the ones who truly do merit a certain reverence. Washington, Lincoln: you guys are as good as Millard Fillmore of James Buchanan.

To be fair, the official holiday is still known, at the federal level, as Washington's Birthday. That is how it should be. The importance of General Washington to our history simply cannot be overstated; it is widely held by historians that we would not have survived as a nation without his leadership. His demeanor, the respect he commanded: he was the one person Americans would unite under, and they did.

It is not fair to his memory that we are now expected to think of all the men who served as President. Many of then simply don't merit the recognition no matter what they may have sacrificed in gaining the office. It is not fair either that the Monday Holiday Law bounces Washington's Birthday around for the sake of convenience. Further, it is not fair that such days are marked more by sales, weekend trips, and days off work more than for what the holiday is supposed to represent: a reflection on important even ts and figures in our history.

Try doing that, instead of or before whatever else you want to do today. Think about what Washington means to our being here this day. Read a passage about him, even if it's simply on Wikipedia. Take a second and look at a dollar bill or a quarter and reflect on why we would put the image of an old general on our coinage. Remember while you do that that our ability to do all the things we take readily for granted are only so because of the work and sacrifice of men like our first President, and be even for the moment grateful.

Then go ahead and do what you like. We suspect that the General himself would approve of it.