Holidays in Hell

Hoo-boy:

My own view — it is the view I take most frequently in this column — is that the eve and full twelve days of Christmas, plus Epiphany, should be public holidays. (Today being the 11th day of Christmas, tomorrow “Twelfth Night” and the eve of the Epiphany.) Also, for that matter, a couple of weeks around Easter, and perhaps thirty of the more prominent saints days, angelic and other feasts, the Pentecost of course, and so prominent a fast as Ash Wednesday. Call me mediaeval (it’s been done before), I long for the restoration of some pattern in our lives, some general acknowledgement of liturgical meaning in the times and seasons.

Would this be good for the economy? I shouldn’t think so. But then I don’t think everything we do should be good for the economy. There are enough days left to take care of that, and besides, our economy is much too efficient. There is a great deal of excess wealth around us, and this would help mop some of it up.

Perhaps the reader will object that not everyone is a Catholic Christian (that’s been done before, too), but I can’t say this bothers me.

That’s David Warren, writing — thankfully — -about Canada, not the US.

Sop up the excess wealth! Praise the Saints on government-mandated holiday time! Let not the heathens trouble your conscience! Canada for Catholics! (To be fair, Warren attempted to write a lighthearted piece. But with lines like, “I promise not to force anyone to take a holiday that might make him feel uncomfortable. And to ‘persons of no religion’ I shall be happy to grant no holidays at all,” it’s hard to laugh.)

What I can’t say bothers me, however, is that this country has a wall of separation between Church and State. It’s like a condom for your conscience — and I bet that bothers Warren quite a bit.