margo, you get Groundhog Day off? Are there celebrations or any particular traditions that go with that?
gag me! Really???? Groundhog Day off? Surely you jest!
(Shirley, you just...
No offense intended, margo, but if you get Groundhogs' Day off, you people really need to come up with some better holidays. All we've ever gotten for Groundhogs' Day is that silly movie.
BTW, Walter, that list to which you posted a link a while back (the one that lists all the countries which celebrate Boxing Day -- rememner?) well, that list is not even complete. Unless it's changed in recent years, the three Baltic countries -- Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania -- always celebrated the 26th of Dec. as the Second Day of Christmas. If they've been left off the list, who knows how many other countries have likewise been slighted.
I can't take another minute with a nekkid MA - well, you know what i mean!
Happy Bday Merry Andrew. I better do it now before i forget.
Andrew
You are certainly correct! It's commonly known that Baltic people say at first 'Merry Christmas" and the next day "Merry Andrew"!
Another list for public holidays:
Jours feries
or here
Reuters alert - Country profiles
We sooooooooo don't get groundhog day off in Oz! - Margo crossed it - in a tick/cross dichotomy sort of ambience happening thingummy - however, we ought to get our unions onto it, in the spirit of multi-culturalism, of course - and while we are at it there are a whole lot of other cultures we ought to be honouring..... teehee...
ehBeth, where'd you that picture of my grandpa? If I knew how, I'd post that as my avatar right now!
Deb's right - as ever.
Of course we don't get Groundhog Day off - whenever it is - although it did make the news here this year - something about the timing of an election, I seem to recall.
My point is that we all get different public holidays, but roughly the same number. Annual leave (holidays), now - that's a different kettle of fish - we get heaps more, and rightly deserved they are, too!
Most Aussies are really good at holidays! And we need more. And we should celebrate our ethnic diversity more - especially if it means getting more holidays. A long weekend once a month should be the standard. And you should get a day off for your birthday (and your cat's birthday!)
Your last remark, margo, reminds me of a specific holiday for German civil servants and employees in public service: a half day of on one's birthday. This was done for nearly 100 years - until someone dicovered that there was no legal background at all for it.
Since 1995 or so, you can't this 1/2 day.
BTW: the so-called housewife's day was deleted as well - however, everyone got two days. (All public service only!)
I don't know if this is still true, but when I worked for United Press International back in the 1960s, the Newspaper Guild contract we had specified that one's birthday could be celebnrated as a paid holiday, provided one notified one's supervisor at least two weeks in advance that one intended to take this day off as a holiday. I believe the Associated Press newsmen had a simlar clause in their contract.
margo, if you start getting your cat's brithday off as a holiday there, let me know. I might make a really long move.
I used to work for an agency that had the Teamster's. Everything the teamster's got, we got, and that included our birthday. Hooray for the teamster's.
MA - about the pic of yer grand-dad, right click on it - go down to properties - that will show its origin. I think that if you have 2 able2know windows open you may be able to attach the pic as your avatar. Moderators? Help?
if that doesn't work - i think i can find my way back to the thumbnail it came from.
What about a Possum day holiday?
I think we have an Adelaide Cup day - or something - in October - dunno what. Gives one of my friends a long weekend every year for her birthday though.
How about Melbourne Cup day nationally?
It is a long, dry stretch though, fer sure fer sure - and in the middle of SPRING fer crissake!
Waaaaaaaah!
ehBeth, I was also in the Teamsters in my college days, but do not remember getting my birthdays off. Can I claim them now?
c.i.
In the state of Massachusetts there is only one month which does not contain at least one legal holiday -- August. In addition to the usual Federal holidays, we celebrate such off-the-wall holidays as Patriots' Day in April, commemorating the begining of the American Revolution. It is also the day on which the Boston Marathon is run. And in Suffolk County we celebrate something called Evacuation Day on March 17. It commemorates the British evacuating troops from Boston in 1777. The fact that it coincides with St. Patrick's Day, I'm sure, is just a coincidence.
For an August holiday, just go South to Rhode Island for VJ Day (I think they're the only state that still celebrates it). When I was living there, we called it "Rhode Island Saves the World Day".
hmmmm, months without stat holidays? January, February, March, June and November here. Winter is brutal.
:wink: 
