It's a handful of days out of 365. What part of the human body is harmed by a few days off?  

gzt: 
My view is the always on 24x7x365 world is in fact nuts, and there should be compulsory breaks from it, perhaps every seven days.

That's my thinking. If we're so addicted to the 24x7x365 world, a break does wonders and helps us appreciate more the other 361.5 days we can rush out and buy whatever dohickey flashes up on the glowing rectangles we have surrounded ourselves with. 

PS do we have the same thread every year? 🤣

Something can mean more than one thing.
No problem its a pagan holiday too, eggs, rabbits, you know. :-)
Many cultures had their own Spring festivals.
There were Autumn end of harvest festivals too.
Life is what you make of it.

Not spring, so for us it may be last fling before weather fully packs it in and we hibernate.
A reminder that time is moving on and to replace the toothbrush.

Best thing about a number of standard holidays, long weekends through the year.
It gives a chance for various sports, pastimes, even extended families to have occasions where most can gather.

The ones with liquor sales restriction even give A&E an odd night of less business. 

There is an industry, holiday regions, hotels, motels, Air B&Bs, event organizers who rely on this prompt.

openmedia:

 

Whilst like many others I do enjoy the long weekend that Easter provides, I simply don't understand why we have the massive retail shutdown on Good Friday and Easter Sunday. I'm sure I'm not alone in often using the long break to carry out a bunch of maintenance and renovations, and it isn't always possible to have everything I need ahead of the Friday shutdown.

 

There is also the secondary issue that Easter Sunday isn't a public Holiday, just a special restricted trading day, so the normal public holiday surcharges don't apply.

 

Please don't come back with a religious response - Religion in New Zealand is diverse. The country has no state religion and freedom of religion has been protected since the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. I'm firmly with the 50% of kiwis with no religion. 

 

What about Christmas Day?  Would you like to make that an optional holiday where people need to apply for leave?  (I guess if the leave isn't granted then little Johnny and Sally need to wait till Pa trudges home from the factory before opening (any) presents and having a belated meal).  Or does your DIY, maintenance, etc have a break for Christmas day?

I am all for public holidays. I just don't see what superstition has to do with it.

SaltyNZ:

 

I tend to agree - remove legal restrictions on all public holidays. There's nothing preventing individual shop owners from closing on any day of the year for any reason, religious or otherwise. I would simply add that if they want to stay open on any public holiday then they should be obliged to pay penalty rates to staff. We in turn as customers can then expect to pay for that (without moaning about it) as surcharges. 

 

You sarcastic little devil. I don't care about any of that. For me, every day is a holiday. 😉😁

If one views public holidays from the perspective of visiting family, relatives, and friends (of all religions and backgrounds), or simply as an opportunity to pause after the usual hustle and bustle, then they at least make sense. Those less socially engaged may find this less appealing and sometimes come up with rather strange selfish ideas. Besides, the internet is open 24/7/365 for shopping. 🙂

MaxineN:

 

Lias:

 

I think we need to scrap the entire concept of public holidays.. just get rid of them all and increase everyone's annual leave by the same amount. Having everyone forced to take a holiday on the same day and effectively shutting the country down is just nuts in our always on 24x7x365 world. 

 

 

 

 

The entire country doesn't shut down though.

 

Essential services are still open.

 

You can still fly on a public holiday.

 

If you can't plan around a day off then the onus is on you. 

 

In my previous job I traveled non stop domestically. I'd book all my travel constantly about six weeks out. One week I'd booked the flight, the rental car, the first motel (usually four different ones per week) and at the second or third one the motel said, oh you're our first booking for ANZAC day! 🤦‍♂️

Not sure which calendar I was looking at, but safe to say I had a very quiet work day somewhere on the west coast of the South Island!!

Same argument, every year, nothing changes, rinse & repeat.  

Rikkitic:

 

I am all for public holidays. I just don't see what superstition has to do with it.

 

 

 

One can simply insert reason of choice. For me it's "whanau refresh"

Rikkitic:

 

I am all for public holidays. I just don't see what superstition has to do with it.

 

Yeah I'm not that bothered by the specifics of them. I do quite like a couple of days where the whole country essentially has to stop. 

MikeB4:

 

It's a handful of days out of 365. What part of the human body is harmed by a few days off?  

 

You still get 20 days off via annual leave.  I'm with Lias.  Scrap them all and add however many days it is to the annual leave minimum.  Give people a choice.  if they want to have a family gathering, plan, take leave etc etc. 

Tying holidays to one of the many religions in NZ is outdated.  Religious folks can take leave for religious observances that take place on a work-day.  As far as I know that is what people of other faiths do.  We don't have any public holidays for sikhism, hinduism, islam, judaism, zoroastrianism ....

mudguard:

 

Rikkitic:

 

I am all for public holidays. I just don't see what superstition has to do with it.

 

 

Yeah I'm not that bothered by the specifics of them. I do quite like a couple of days where the whole country essentially has to stop. 

 

same with me. i also feel that if "superstition" means we have a few more public holidays, i don't think that hurts.

MikeAqua:

 

MikeB4:

 

It's a handful of days out of 365. What part of the human body is harmed by a few days off?  

 

 

You still get 20 days off via annual leave.  I'm with Lias.  Scrap them all and add however many days it is to the annual leave minimum.  Give people a choice.  if they want to have a family gathering, plan, take leave etc etc. 

 

Tying holidays to one of the many religions in NZ is outdated.  Religious folks can take leave for religious observances that take place on a work-day.  As far as I know that is what people of other faiths do.  We don't have any public holidays for sikhism, hinduism, islam, judaism, zoroastrianism ....

 

So just to be clear, you would scrap Christmas Day as a enforced public holiday?  In which case families that wanted to come together on that day, would all have to apply for leave.  And if they weren't all successful with their leave applications, then they could just do it at some other time in the year more convenient to their employers.  It is a 'superstitous' holiday for 'religious folks' anyway.

I'm pretty sure a dude called Grinch has already proposed this, but anyway...

Most of the moaning about it is 'OH my god the shops are closed for one day I have to go and pre purchase 6 months of supplies'. There are 3.5 five days when shops must close. 3.5 of 365 FFS. This reminds me of the wailing and gnashing of teeth if a new cycle lane is announced or a small speed restriction is announced.