GaryP

My city has issued this statement;

On Friday, April 18, 2003, all City Offices will be closed in observance of Good Friday.

There will be NO trash, yard waste or recycling pick-up on Friday, April 18, 2003. Friday's trash, yard waste or recycling will be picked up on Saturday, April 19, 2003. Residents are reminded that trash is to be placed out for pick-up no earlier than the night before their day of pick-up and no later than 7:30 a.m. the day of pick-up.

The Transfer Station will be closed Friday, April 18, 2003. The Transfer Station will reopen on Satday, April 19, 2003.

Thank you.
http://www.ci.lancaster.oh.us/about/goodfriday.asp


Do you think this is acceptable?

I understand that anyone who wants to go to a church service should get time off. I just cannot believe that even in this city there would be so many employees taking off that they need to shut down.

And I wonder if the sanitation workers like the idea of having to make up for an opportunity to go to church by working on a Saturday! I know I would not like it.

Isn't it christian tradition to observe the crucifixion from 12-3? Why can't they just let people who want to take those hours off?

chrislee

Funnily enough, Good Friday is a public holiday in Britain, as is Easter Monday. Very few people are religious enough to observe it, and it has become a 4-day secular holiday weekend. It's the start of the spring/summer tourist industry.

nj_heathens

Good Friday is also on my mind today, on this good Friday (aren't all Fridays good?).

In New Jersey, Good Friday is a holiday for all state employees. I'm sure it's the same in many other states. So, I'm home, suffering through the onset of allergies and a cold weather front, wondering how to make the day productive.

When I worked in the private sector, our office would close early, around 2:00, on Good Friday. At first, I didn't leave early and worked until my usual 5:00. The memo always referred to "closing early so our employees can meet their Good Friday obligations." Well, I didn't have any such obligations, so I worked on. Years passed and the fact that I was the only one who never left early on Good Friday became ..... noticed. It was mentioned to me that I might want to leave like everyone else and just keep to myself that I had no religious obligations. I therefore started a ritual of going to the movie matinee to see the most disgusting, gory, R-rated movie I could. I still think the day I saw Billy Bob Thornton in Sling Blade was one of the best Good Fridays I can remember.

But I digress. If I had the option of working today, I'd be there. I'd rather swap this holiday for an alternative day (preferably during that long holiday-less stretch in the summer), but I can't. I'm stuck taking a day off because the Christians do. I know, I shouldn't complain because I'm being forced to take a day off.

But one thing is really curious to me. I work with many of the Jewish faith who have to take their own vacation/sick/admin time for Jewish holidays, including Passover. I think I'm more outraged about it than they are, as they just seem resigned to it.

If I can't live in an ideal world, where no one gets a government-sanctioned day off work for a religious holiday, then why is it legal for the government, state and federal, to discriminate in favor of Christians over all other religions? My question is partly rhetorical, of course, but I'd like to know if anyone else ever asks themselves this question.

Mrs. Heathen

keitht

Just like Christmas, I think. Rather than fight it, I suggest commercializing it. We have Santa Claus and the easter bunny. How about the Good Friday Bartender? Then we can poo poo all of the whining about how we aren't celebrating the true meaning of the holiday. Besides, who am I to begrudge somebody elses paid day off.

Keith

nogods4me

Well, the State of Maryland has it's employees working today. Which is odd considering Maryland was a Catholic stronghold for so long.
So good on us.

Seeker630

I was a Police Officer for 30 years in the Detroit area. Pretty much all municipal/county/state employees in the area were given the option of taking 4 hrs off and getting paid for it. In my case (as with most) it was a contractual matter. Same for any other religious (read Christian) holidays we got paid premium pay if we worked, or got the day off with regular pay if we didn't.

But as one poster has already pointed out, there was no provision for any other religions to get paid time off for any of their religious holidays.

Oresta

nj_heathens
Good Friday is also on my mind today, on this good Friday (aren't all Fridays good?).

I suppose all Fridays are good, as in TGIF; but I always call this one So-So Friday.

Just like Christmas, I think. Rather than fight it, I suggest commercializing it. We have Santa Claus and the easter bunny. How about the Good Friday Bartender? Then we can poo poo all of the whining about how we aren't celebrating the true meaning of the holiday. Besides, who am I to begrudge somebody elses paid day off.

Good idea, kietht. Years ago when I taught public school, we always got the afternoon off. A group of us would gather at my house to "Tre Ore" it; that is, drink from 12:00 to 3:00.

Kilted Canuck

I work as a sandwich assembler at McDonalds *ducks* as a part time job, and we get time and a half for working on Good Friday and Easter Sunday(because it is a stat holiday). No one who works there would be going to church anyway, and the ones who would use work as an excuse to get out of it. We just consider it a good excuse to get paid more.

Dark Jedi

Hmm. I had the nice fellow at the drive through wish me a happy good friday.

I wished him a happy myth-on-a-stick day too.

I thought he was gonna faint.

Oresta

Recently my husband noticed that my desk appointment calendar doesn't note Good Friday or Easter.
"Hmm," he said. "An agnostic calendar."
"No," I said in my usual smart ass way, "It it were an agnostic calendar, it would say, 'Easter, Maybe'."