h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

...3rd October. Unification Day. This year is the 20th anniversary of the (re)unification of Germany and there are still plenty of people who want the wall back. There are also plenty of us in the West wondering why we're paying our "solidarity tax" when parts of the West really could do with the money easily as well as, or more, than parts of the East.

Still, I don't think we'd be without the New Bundesländer now.

Anyway. 3rd October is the day we celebrate it, and it's a public holiday. Only in typical German fashion the holiday is always on the actual day which is a thing I only understand for religious holidays. In this case nobody who works Monday to Friday (or indeed on Saturday) get's the benefit. People who work Sundays anyway usually do so because of some kind of shift work, and they will work anyway and get a day in lieu some other time. A lot of people like will have extra work because of extra bookings, and often don't even get a day in lieu.

Which, in my view means that nobody actually benefits from the "holiday" (except bosses...) I much prefer the UK way of taking the nearest Monday and having a long weekend.

But then as a desk-jockey I probably would say that, wouldn't I?

UK bank and public holidays are a very hit-and-miss affair, though. There are the ones that are almost universally observed, and then there are ones which are pretty much altogether ignored. Compare Easter Monday or the May bank holiday, for example, with the one at the end of August - if it didn't say on the calendar it was a bank holiday, most people wouldn't notice it was!

I have heard that the whole 'happening' was not advantageous to everyone. And in fact , has cost a lot of people in real ways, and not just financially. Still, I can understand a want to celebrate.

But it should be left to towns and cities to choose how to do it, and not make it a quasi-national event. Where and when only certain categories of working folks benefit and the rest lose. We have some such things here, the most recent being an official "Family Day" in February in Ontario. Federal workers do not have the day off, smaller stores and shops don't, but some provincially operated levels do. It just causes a lot of local dissention. (sp?)

Ah, the (re-)-unification....
I am not going to write all my thoughts about it, or I'll be sitting on the computer still tomorrow morning.

As to not having the next monday off - well Sho, you know, Germans are very accurate *errm* and if such a day happens to be on a Sunday, well, too bad for workers (we already had that problem on Mayday).
And as it looks now, we have to be glad, that they won't take Easter Monday or Pentecost Monday off from us - due to the "poor" companies loosing so much money on the holidays.....

They've already taken Buß und Bettag from us.
I don't think it helped them much. And anyway, how can they say that our economy is blooming, yet at the same time take a public holiday away?

To be honest, if they *need* to take one, they should take this very artificial 3rd October. It doesn't mean anything to me anyway.

Looking in as a neutral outsider, it seems not to mean very much to most folks in Germany, Bel. The idealism of 1989 seems to appeal only to a small minority now, on both sides of the country.

What's the Buß und Bettag? (I think it got mangled).

Leo says: Penance Day, or Day of repentance. It was on a Wednesday in November.

Buss & Bettag is a Catholic day I think and in some parts they do keep it (Bayern, probably)

I don't like the idea of Unification Day being on 3rd October it's meaningless. 9th November was the actual 'day' wasn't it? And for years and years we had Tag der deutschen Einheit on 17th June which was ok - but then we have all the May holidays (post Easter) so I suppose that one had to go. But 3rd October? Pfft.

Seems to be more an evangelical protestant holiday. They still have it in Sachsen, apparently.

Buss und Betttag is a very Protestant affair.

It seems unfair that the Protestants should have their only national holiday taken from them. Corpus Christi, All Saints, Ascension Day, are still there, and even a few more Catholic days in Bavaria and other Catholic states such as the Visitation of the Magi on 6 Jan and Ascension of Our Lady on 15 August.

In some predominantly Protestant States (Sachsen, anyway), they celebrate Reformation Day - 31 October.

As for 3 October, I have a very romantic view of it and am moved every year to tears when they show the footage in the Embassy at Budapest, especially as we know people who were actually there, sitting on the steps, cuddling their children, at the time.

Financially, the whole thing is a swizz, I do agree with that. Especially as everything in the East is 20 years old, and everything in the West is now 60 years old and is falling apart.

of course they would take the 17th of June and change it for the "real" unification day. But there were reasons not to take the actual date - which was 9th of November - because that is a day with more than one meaning in German history, and not only good memories are connected with it.

Repentance day was cancelled, so with that the companies would save some money on the social payments, in Saxonia it still exists, and workers pay a slightly higher percentage on the long term care insurance instead.

to be honest I don't mind 3rd October as otherwise we have a very long run between the last public holiday (can fall in early june) and Christmas (or 1st November)

Those states that have Reformation day don't have 1st November. I like having 1st November as we can have a halloween party for the girls and their friends and not worry about work the next day (that is - if I'm not in the office all night for month end...)

The thursday religious holidays are annoying if only because the schools close on the friday but my employers are really awful about days off...

No 1st November here. No reformation day here, either.

It strikes me that the stories behind a lot of these holidays would make excellent Guide material!

I think there are a few entries.

What we need is an entry about Martin Luther

Hmm. Fairly big omission!

I imagine it would be very difficult to write, and you never know, in the current climate, who would feel offended.

Happy unification day everybody

(I know, seeing the above comments it's probably not a useful thing to say, but I like it anyway, so there )

Z. Preisner, Song for unification of Europe:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBcwcMFNvsA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBcwcMFNvsA

Perview is your freind.

Happy unification day (and here's to next year when it falls on a monday! yaayy)

One good thing about it: the gym opens on holiday hours - 10 to 3 - so I didn't have to get up outrageously early.