All or none religious holidays?

[megalithic]

I wouldn't support that at all.

 

UK is still a Christian country, and relgious holidays should be in line with said faith.

 

If Muslims/Hindus or whoever wish to take day off on their religious holiday, they should take it out of ther annual leave...or if the employer is of certain faith, allow a day off in lieu.

 

Xtianity itself was forced upon the indigenous population of this country by xtians.

 

Are you for real ?

[blake]

I am not against this in principle at all, although there is a limit to how many official holidays can possibly be taken in a year, and where to draw the line. Eid and Deepvali, I would say yes. Yom Kippur and Tamil New Year, no. There are just not enough Jews and Tamils here.

 

multicultural but Muslim majority Malaysia takes Bank Holidays at Christmas, Deepvali, and Chinese New Year, and people take these days off whether they are Muslims are not. If a country like Malaysia, where Islam is the official religion, like Christianity is in the UK is tolerant enough to allow holidays based on the religous days of other faiths, then I don't see why Britain should not be similarly as tolerant as they are. I think Eid and Deepvali have a pretty good case to be included in the UK's Bank Holiday roster.

 

the Philippines is only 5% Muslim. There are not many more Muslims there than there are here. Yet they still have Eid as a national holiday all over the country - not just those parts of it where there are more Muslims than others. Partly because Eid is very important to a sizable minority there, but also because Islam was the first western Abrahamic religion to reach the Philippines a hundred years before Christianity did.

[999tigger]

Which bank holidays would you give up to allow for these two? Otherwise its no moe than an excuse to get two further days holiday, which might be nice, but not good for the economy.

[blake]

if I had to cull one Bank Holiday, it would be the Spring Bank Holiday, the one that follows closely after May Day. There is a glut of holidays around that time so shortly after Easter. The trouble with Eid al-Fitr as a holiday in the calendar is that it does not fall at around the same time of year each year like Easter and Deepvali does. Like it is late July this year, but in 10 years it will be in April. In 20 years, it will be in December.

[Doom]

Why not just stick to the holidays we have as part of this nations 'traditions'.

 

Obviously many of them came about for religious reasons, but whether people still believe in religion or not is irrelevant, for many people they're set days off that they've always had and are part of British culture/tradition.

 

I don't go to church around the Christmas period, but I like the tradition of Christmas and the routine that goes with it.

 

Regards

 

Doom

[Guest]

Xtianity itself was forced upon the indigenous population of this country by xtians.

 

Are you for real ?

 

Yes I am for real.

 

The OP isn't about religions imposed on this nation etc.

 

We are a Christian country..at the moment.I am sure you don't moan when 25th December comes along.

[perplexed]

The best thing would be to bin all the public/bank holidays altogether, and replace them with an individual allocation of extra leave days to be added to one's annual leave allowance.

[blake]

We are a Christian country..at the moment.

 

so what. Malaysia and Indonesia are Muslim majority countries and Malaysia, even though it has a lesser number of Muslims proportionally than Indonesia does, even has an official religion like the UK does - in their case, Islam. Indonesia has no official religion, despite it being 80% Muslim.

 

they have realised that theirs are multicultural societies and to reflect that, they have holidays for all on the big days of other faiths, not just the big days of the faith that happens to have the largest number of adherents.

[Cyclone]

Which bank holidays would you give up to allow for these two? Otherwise its no moe than an excuse to get two further days holiday, which might be nice, but not good for the economy.

 

I've seen a study that suggested that a few more bank holidays would actually be beneficial.

There's the simple calculation about productivity lost, but simple calculations like that fail to take into account the increase in productivity due to having a rest and the improved morale.

[JFKvsNixon]

I've always thought that the other religions need to step up to the plate and claim more bank holidays. Isn't the Mayday bank holiday Labour day, if so the socialists have come through, so what we need is for the others to pull their weight.

 

I'm also including the pagans in with this criticism, as I feel that Summer Solstice would make an excellent bank holiday.