In the past few months, I’ve read articles about making Election Day a national public holiday (i.e. an official day off work) and making the Monday after the Super Bowl a national public holiday. And if St. Patrick’s Day weren’t on a weekend day this year, I’d probably be reading articles about making that a national public holiday.
So… if we were actually going to get a new day off, what day should it be?
I’ve broken down the cases for and against 11 contenders and, yes, I’m willing to speak before Congress and consult on this matter should it ever come up.
Here are 11 potential new U.S. public holidays, all of which should be days off work.
1 Super Bowl Monday.
Why it should be a public holiday: The Super Bowl is as American as any event gets… participation numbers around the country are massive… there’s a lot of drinking involved, which certainly makes the next day of work both difficult and unproductive… when the game goes long and we have work the next day, it really affects our ability to watch the very special postgame episode of Glee or Elementary.
Why it should not be a public holiday: The NFL is drunk enough on power already, if it had a national holiday we never would’ve gotten rid of the replacement refs… it’s a dicey precedent to start making holidays centered around the idea that Americans should feel confident about getting drunker.
