Business as usual - holidays - Demogaffes

American Demographics, April, 1997 by Ross Baker

I just ran across a list of public holidays in the major countries of the world, and discovered that the United States leads the world. Maybe it's appropriate for the world's remaining superpower to be the dominant force in festivals. Here's how we stack up with other industrial countries: U.S. (32), Japan (19), Mexico (14), Germany (13), Canada (11), France (11), Great Britain (10), Greece (10), Sweden (10), and Switzerland (9).

The average number of national holidays among these most celebratory countries is 13.9 a year. That means the U.S. has twice the average. But as citizens of this holiday haven, we may find these events on our calendars, but not the time from work to enjoy them. When was the last time you had a long weekend for United Nations Day?

Americans may be the world's prime commemorators and celebrators, but few of these festivals come with time off. Because we are more pluralistic than other countries, our holiday list is padded with religious observances for which some people get time off, but not others. And we don't close banks and post offices on St. Patrick's Day or Kwanzaa.

When you pare down the list to only those holidays that give you relief from the daily grind, you probably come up with 10. But this reality shouldn't cause much distress to the people who compiled the list of world holidays. They can cash in on all 32 in the U.S. -- the Gibson Greeting Card Company.