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One of the things that I’ve noticed over the past 20 years is that secular holidays have been emphasized while religious ones de-emphasized. As a child, Christmas was the 800 pound gorilla, as was Thanksgiving, then Easter. Events like labor day came and went without much notice.

I think in Britain Christmas is still the major holiday and certainly the money spinner as far as the shops are concerned.

Our summer holiday which is the weekend before yours (it used to be like the rest of Europe the first Monday in August now it is last Monday in August). The government moved it many years ago because they felt it spread the holidays more evenly through the year as this is the last public holiday before Christmas.

Somehow though after it was moved it was never quite the same, the first weekend in August I think is still the busiest with schools having broken up about a week previous most families tend to start their holiday (vacation) that weekend not the public holiday at the end of month. Schools normally start back the first few days of September so most families do not want to go on holiday straight upon their return it is back to school, they like a few days to consolidate and remember the holiday and then buy the school uniform and other supplies.

Good idea to spread the holiday out but in practice it has not stopped the beginning of August congestion on the road that much. Though it has helped a bit and that was the general feeling that is why it was moved as we were having so many accidents at the beginning of August.

One of the things that I’ve noticed over the past 20 years is that secular holidays have been emphasized while religious ones de-emphasized. As a child, Christmas was the 800 pound gorilla, as was Thanksgiving, then Easter. Events like labor day came and went without much notice.

You too, huh? I noticed the same thing, especially with Easter. When I was a kid, it seemed like Easter was tied or at least just "this much" ahead of Thanksgiving in the pecking order of holidays. Today, it seems like Easter is barely above the signal to noise ratio. B-( So far, Thanksgiving and Christmas have survived taking their hits but if we don't defend those (defend Easter too), they can diminish over time as well. As a kid, we had "Easter Break," now it is "spring break," we had "Christmas week" 9and some change) off, not it is "winter break." I vaguely remember Lincoln's and Washigntons birthdays were separate (I'm 41 years old) but now have been combined into Presidents' Day, we don't even get that off. B-P