Religious holidays? should they be different

[Jimbob1989 10]

Our school is very multicultured and takes pride in having people from all different backgrounds studying there. As most will know, many muslims are currently celebreating EID and I believe towards the end of January, it will be Chinese new year. Most muslims usually take a day or two off for EID and most Chinese people take a single day off for Chinese new year. But people who are christian or do not belong to a faith have to stay at school, despite the fact the other religions have christmas off as well.

 

I'm not having a go at a certain religion, but it Kind of left me wondering, should schools and maybe work places not have time off on the religious holidays of all the major religions of the country. And in the case of schools, possibly make up the days else where in the year.

 

What do you think?

[spicey 10]

No, I don't think they should, else companies would lose out even MORE money on days off!

 

The only unfair thing is having to take days out of your paid holidays for a religious day, whereas xmas is a bank holiday.

 

Must be some way to compromise?

[Moon Maiden 10]

There is legislation in places for work places to allow for religious holidays...they are not supposed to disallow a holiday if it is for religious reasons.

 

Moon

[Snook 10]

I don't think that schools need two weeks or more off at xmas... more like two days, and a day for new year. Then have a nice long break in the summer... damn lazy kids, no wonder they are so thick!

[kay_cee 10]

Maybe firms should allot say, 5 days per year for religious holidays.

 

If you're; Christian take them at Christmas and Easter, Hindu - Diwali, Jewish - Hannukah & Yom Kippur, Muslim - Eid, No religious allegiance - whenever you want, etc etc.

 

Seems the only fair way to me.

[withnail 10]

Once you recognise one faith system you have to recognise them all; to do otherwise is to discriminate. If Christians, Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus then why not Satanists, Scientologists, Peruvian sun gods and that tribe in the Pacific who worship Santa Claus and Uncle Sam? (http://www.absoluteastronomy.com/encyclopedia/j/jo/jon_frum.htm). However, the logical conclusion of this is anarchy – anyone with any crackpot belief (i.e. all of them) system can demand a ‘faith’ holiday, very much as Muslims, Sikhs, Hindus etc are doing now. The fact is that until we achieve a legally secular state, any religion other than Protestant Christianity is de jure of second class (Head of State – the Queen- is the head of the Church of England and only Church of England bishops sit in the house of lords, not Muslims, not Hindus – there are Muslim peers but they are not there because of their faith as CofE bishops are).

 

Clearly then the only way forward is to recognise none.

 

We can still have national holidays but these can and should be purged of religion as we simply cannot provide national holidays for all belief systems. This thinking should also extend to time off at work for praying to Mecca or dancing round a tree at summer solstice. Why should schools/businesses/organisations have to cater for ‘faith’ and on what grounds do ‘believers’ demand special treatment? Your belief system is your business – do not impose it on others in the form of demands for preferential treatment– and if our modern life clashes with that, then that’s your tough luck.

[spiffymonkey 10]

Originally posted by withnail

Clearly then the only way forward is to recognise none.

 

We can still have national holidays but these can and should be purged of religion as we simply cannot provide national holidays for all belief systems.

 

I do wonder how many people see Christmas as a religious holiday anyway. Certainly many people I know would be annoyed at being deprived of their Christmas holiday even though they're not a bit religious.

[kay_cee 10]

"Withnail";

 

Please do not impose your Atheist/Humanist/Secularist views on the rest of us, and our society at large.

 

According to the 2001 census http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=395 70% of people in the UK identified themselves as Christian. Only 15% alligned themselves to no religion what so ever, So you're a fairly small minority to be dictating how we should run society.

[biggan 10]

Originally posted by kay_cee

Maybe firms should allot say, 5 days per year for religious holidays.

 

If you're; Christian take them at Christmas and Easter, Hindu - Diwali, Jewish - Hannukah & Yom Kippur, Muslim - Eid, No religious allegiance - whenever you want, etc etc.

 

Seems the only fair way to me.

 

but if it was like that then when english people took their days off for chrictmas there would hardly be any teachers there to teach the other religion students

 

in the school i go to there are only 2 teachers which are not english so it would cause a bit of a dilemma

[spicey 10]

Originally posted by kay_cee

"Withnail";

 

Please do not impose your Atheist/Humanist/Secularist views on the rest of us, and our society at large.

 

According to the 2001 census http://www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp?id=395 70% of people in the UK identified themselves as Christian. Only 15% alligned themselves to no religion what so ever, So you're a fairly small minority to be dictating how we should run society.

 

Looked at your post if 70% say they are Christian and 15 % are no-religion, that means only 15 % of the country are muslims, hindus sikhs, buddhists etc.

 

Checked out the link, you meant to say 70% of "white people" in the UK.

[banesmabes 10]

To be honest I think the system is fine the way it is. This is traditionally a Christian country - even if the vast majority of the population are not practicing Christians - so the public holidays have been built up around Christian festivals. As someone stated, people of other religions have certian rights to take holiday from work when there is a religious festival. They also get bank holidays at Christmas and Easter - so everyone gets the same number of paid days off work each year. Most companies simply cannot offer the flexibility of allowing people to take bank holidays when they like (and I actually think it would be harder to accommodate a small number of people working on Christian bank holidays than allowing people to take bank holidays at Eid - which would not affect too many workforces, as people are already taking annual leave on these dates anyway).

 

Schools are obviously different, because you can't take holidays as such! But one or two extra days away is hardly going to cause much harm, especially when it is planned.

[chickmonk 10]

Originally posted by spicey

 

Checked out the link, you meant to say 70% of "white people" in the UK.

 

I think if you look closer (under Stats of religion) you find that 71.6% of the OVERALL population identifies themselves as Christian. (I'm so sad...)

 

As for the holiday thing - more holidays for all I reckon!

 

Chicken Monkey