Surprise holidays promote a culture of fiestas and siestas

Recently, Jan. 31, Chinese New Year’s Day, was made a “non-working holiday.” Before, this day was observed publicly but it was never made into a national holiday.

Like everyone else, I love holidays. But I want my holidays to be known to me well ahead of time. This desire of knowing well ahead of time must be of wider importance.

“Holidays affect our plans and activities.” Activities are easier to schedule when we know all our public holidays in advance. This is true for business as well as for family and individual activities.

In our country, for the most part, we know all our holidays. Almost! However, it is possible for the Office of the President to spring surprises on the nation. The President, by proclamation, may designate a particular day into an official holiday. Some countries observe festivities without declaring them as holidays.

In general, a holiday is disruptive to the flow of work of any nation. It also affects the educational calendar. However, when well thought out and well-spaced within the year, a holiday could provide a meaningful pause for work, inspiration, as well as a recharging of energies.

Work that is rendered on a holiday must be rewarded with holiday pay. Scheduled activities are jeopardized. Thus, too many non-working holidays could lead to significant cost to the economy.

If we relate this to the case of local government holidays and other work stoppages due to force majeure (such as those due to natural calamities and local festivities), the number of holidays that the nation cumulates in a given year could be excessive.

Indeed, we could create a culture of laziness mingled with party abandon. Thus, we could adversely negate the nation’s effort to improve work culture and productivity.

“Extra pay for holiday work or no income day for workers in need.” When non-working holidays are declared, the work schedule of private establishments is affected. Those who go to work are entitled to receive overtime pay.

There is disruption of the work place. Some workers who want to continue to work to earn more are forcibly idled for the day. Companies that decide to open are also made to pay holiday pay.

In other countries, all holidays are fixed by law. The head of government has no power to add new holidays by proclamation. As a result, holidays are automatically known.

Let’s briefly study what they do.

“Holidays in China.” There are 11 public holidays. Seven of these days are allotted full days of celebration as “national holidays.” These are the New Year (Jan. 1), three continuous days of the ”Spring Holiday” (the Chinese lunar year period, including the Chinese New Year), and the National Day.

Another set of four days is for a half-day observation as holidays. There are other designated festivals that are observed, but they do not allow people to have time off from work. Such festivities include Arbor Day, Communist Party Day.

“Holidays in Japan.” The public holidays in Japan are fixed by law. Flexibilities in the law are allowed only within these fixed provisions. There are 15 public holidays that are recognized. However, when a holiday falls on a Sunday, its observation is moved to the following Monday.

When two holidays are a days apart, the in-between day is made into a holiday. This provision made possible a long national holiday tradition known as the golden week for hard-working Japan. In 2014, the golden week is in May, a succession of different public holidays with their proper names.

“Holidays in the US.” Like in most countries, holidays in the US are known fully in advance because holidays are fixed by law. Even elections – national elections – do not stop the work of the nation. Citizens are allowed their time to vote and, since elections are normally held on Tuesdays, they still go to work.

In a past column, I discussed the unique difference in US-Philippine holiday setting. This point – an important one – is discussed in my recent book, Weighing In on the Philippine Economy and Social Progress (Anvil, 2013). Our President has, and the US President does not have the power to declare a particular day a public holiday.

“Holidays in other ASEAN countries.” Our neighbors in ASEAN also have their holidays fixed by law. As elsewhere, their holidays honor important political events, anniversaries of honored national figures or cultural and religious events, including the recognition of international norms in holidays like New Year and Christmas.

Then, there are religious holidays. Some ASEAN countries have multiple nationalities controlling their politics, so there is some kind of cultural and religious rapprochement through holidays. The exception is Singapore, which is dominantly ethnic Chinese. Singapore has 10 public holidays.

Other ASEAN countries have more holidays. Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand honor Chinese holidays as they do Buddhist and Muslim holidays and, in the case of Malaysia, Hindu holidays. They tend to have more holidays as a result.

“In number of days, Philippine holidays are like an accordion.” Though in general, the number of holidays can be set by Congress, the President is given the power to make holidays through proclamation.

Thus, the number of Philippine holidays is like the length of an accordion. The character of Philippine holidays in recent years has been shaped more by presidential action than by any legislative act.

In 2007, Congress passed a law, RA 9294, which fixed and rationalized holidays. The law tried to fix the number of holidays, but it did not go to the root of the problem. It continued the old provision of law that the President could declare public holidays.

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as president abused the number of the country’s holidays through “holiday economics.” The revised law on holidays was passed under her watch, and soon, she made alterations on the number of major non-working holidays observed.

An extreme example of this effort was when she issued a presidential proclamation which closed government offices from Dec. 25, 2008 until Jan. 4, 2009.

Luckily, President Aquino has not followed this practice. However, he has continued to issue proclamations to change the color and aspect of Philippine holidays through the power to create holidays.

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