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Mid-week causes confusion
The Advocate
Monday and Friday are logical days to take off from work or school. They’re directly connected to the weekend, and therefore they don’t interrupt the normal flow of the week.
This is why these days are traditionally taken off for holidays, instead of days that fall in the middle of the week — like Wednesday.
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It’s understandable that Wednesday should be taken off if the date happens to coincide with a federal holiday, as it did this week with Veterans Day.
However, it would seem to make much more sense to issue a certain time of month for the holiday to occur. Perhaps the fourth Monday of every October would be a better day to celebrate Veterans Day.
“That would be highly preferable to current segmenting of the work week that Veterans Day causes!” shout the figurative children.
But no, that change would never be made because the holiday has always been on Nov. 11, and that’s just the way things are.
The trouble with that is that from 1971-78, Veterans Day was changed to the fourth Monday of every October. Then, just as quick as it came, the law was abolished and Veterans Day resumed its rather annoying spot.
It doesn’t make a lot of sense, either, considering that other federal holidays, such as Memorial Day and Thanksgiving, fall on the last Monday in May and the last Thursday in November, respectively.
Interestingly enough though, it was returned to Nov. 11 in response to a large public outcry that preferred the 11/11 date, as they feel the repetition of the number 11 to be highly significant. In fact, many ceremonies for Veterans Day start or come to some type of peak at 11 a.m.
It’s a hard subject to even begin to skim the surface of, because if American veterans want Nov. 11 to be the day designated to celebrate what they have given, then that is the day it should be on.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that when Nov. 11 falls on any day that’s not Monday or Friday, it becomes incredibly inconvenient.
Currently, they have exceptions to when it is celebrated strictly on Nov. 11, which state that if it falls on a weekend, it will be celebrated on either the nearest Friday or Monday.
It’s not really the say of the public at large, in any case, and it somehow doesn’t seem fitting to complain about the placement of the holiday.
But the fact of the matter is days such as Memorial Day seem to have been put in place with the general understanding that it’s a bad idea to abruptly interrupt the flow of the week.
That’s not to say that Memorial Day is more important that Veterans Day, or vice versa. They are both incredibly important and necessary days to give remember at what price freedom comes.
However, if the holidays are equal in importance, why can’t they be equal in the way they are
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