International Law

Happy National Day

By Stan

Starting tomorrow, we will be observing the National Day holiday, which confusingly lasts seven days.

Wait, let me back up. This deserves some explanation, and I know you care about things like this. A simple breakdown of the facts here should straighten you out:

Next Saturday and Sunday count as "holiday days" in most people’s minds, even though in the absence of a holiday, we would not be working on those days anyway.

That smells funny to me, but I try to be agreeable, so I’ll let that go for now.

Right. So that leaves Monday through Friday as "holiday days," yes? Normally those five days would be work days, so I can see some benefit here.

But wait, we worked yesterday and today (Saturday and Sunday, which are normally days off). Yeah, so we need to subtract those two days from the five days as they are just being exchanged — no extra time off is being created for these two days.

What are we left with here? Three days.

So, the fabulous 7-day holiday that is National Day is really a three-day holiday based on my math. Just keep that in mind.

Now, I have brought this up with several people over the years. Most of them ignore me, some laugh nervously and look for the nearest policeman, while others get angry. The latter maintain that seven days allows them to go home to visit their families, so there is real value to all of this.

I disagree. Notwithstanding the fact that I avoid my family like the plague that they are, I’m not saying I have seven days off when I really only have three days off (and I usually work half of that time anyway, like my 8:00am conference call tomorrow morning). Call me a purist.

By the way, the real "National Day," the anniversary of the founding of the country/government, is October 1, right in the middle of the National Day holiday. If you are wondering whether it is appropriate to say "Happy National Day" anytime next week, or just on Wednesday, I would suggest that you find something else to think about. And stop reading this blog.

By now you should have a raging headache. Best to take off work for a few days and recuperate.

Full post as published by China Hearsay on September 28, 2008 (boomark / email).