On Wed, 2 Apr 2003, Rick Measham wrote:
> (Although maybe Australia is the only country where public holidays getbumped so they don't fall on a weekend!)
In the US, some (like MLK's birthday) do, and some don't, like July 4th ;)
Well, not exactly. MLK's birthday is a fixed observance, always the third Monday in January, regardless of when Dr. King's birthday really falls. Same for "President's Day".
A good example of one that does get seem to be bumped in the US is Veteran's Day, which is normally November 11 (what us oldtimer's used to call "Armistice Day"). However, for employers who give it as a holiday, it is celebrated on Friday the 10th if the 11th is a Saturday, or on Monday the 12th if the 11th is Sunday.
This leads to some interesting issues. The Veteran's Day holiday is, according to the FAQ on the "official" homepage (http://www.va.gov/vetsday/page.cfm?pg=11), always observed on November 11th, regardless of the day on which it falls. Holidays, in the sense of "a day off of work" are moved as described above. Veteran's Day is a Federal Holiday. Local observance is determined locally. For example, here in California, many employers do not give it as a holiday, but my employer does.
As a consumer of "calendar" information, I need to know both the "official" date of Veteran's Day and the actual date it is observed by my employer, in order to have my systems work correctly. I need to be able to recognize holidays that are not observed by my employer as days off, for example, Columbus Day.
Jerry -- Jerry Wilcox - Manager, Payroll/Personnel System Maintenance University of California, Office of the President Information Systems & Computing 415 20th Street (3rd Floor) Oakland, CA 94612-2901 -- 510-987-0516 -- FAX 510-763-5597 ``The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne.'' - Chaucer
