Happy Holidays?

I'm hoping to explore what exactly holidays are. Holiday is a combination of Holy and Day. We as a nation judge holidays by the Christian calendar. We seem offended when someone else wants respect for their holiday. I was going through school when Jewish holidays were added to the school calendar. I completely support it. I also support Muslim Holidays being added to the calendar. Where do you draw the line? Well I wouldn't expect to go to India, primarily a Hindu/Buddhist country and expect days off for Christian holidays. In America, we have this idea that we are this great melting pot. I say idea because I don't think we are melting together, I think we are actually dividing apart right now. I think we are more of a tossed salad. We have little clusters mixed together. And I fear that we are reverting back to the salad bar, picking bits and pieces we like, and excluding others.


I have heard of other counties across the school which have to make the choice to add Islamic holidays to the calendar and others to exclude them completely. Some have made the call to remove Jewish holidays as well, because school is not a place for religion and therefore if it's your religious holiday, you make the choice to stay home and celebrate, catch up later. I honestly feel this is fair, as long as the school acknowledges and excuses the absence. I will admit I take it for granted that winter and spring breaks coincide with Christmas and Easter. Christmas I understand more because it's the end of the year, Christmas and New Years are close together and it's the point in the year where a break is needed. Easter I could care less if the break coincided. I got used to it in college when spring break was always a month before Easter, I DO however feel that this needs break needs to be more in the middle of the semester, rather than in February like my college used to have it. This may change in the future if I have kids, but I don't see it happening.


Now, off to research a few upcoming holidays. Even ones I know, I don't feel like I know.