Three day weekends

Tomorrow is a national holiday in the United States, Columbus day, or I think in some states it has acquired the more PC name of Discovers' Day (this also means there will never be a separate Leif Eriksson Day, even if it does get its own declaration every October 9th).

Americans look forward to 3 day weekends with much anticipation, and all sorts of special events, often having nothing to do with the holiday in question, get scheduled around these long weekends. Whereas days off in Iceland seem to give everyone incentive to really enjoy being home and not go anywhere, Americans see them as the perfect time to get out of the house.*

Discoverers' Day, Presidents' Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, Martin Luther King Day, all of these are observed on a Monday so that people get a three day weekend, and a running joke in the United States is how completely the point of the day off is ignored. A big family barbeque is perhaps not the most solemn way to observe Memorial day, for instance.

Anyhow, I of course like Discoverers' Day because of its association with Leif Eriksson Day (the timing of which has always been explained as coming BEFORE Columbus Day, despite whatever links the White House Declaration might make with Norwegian immigrants 200 years ago).

There is no Columbus Day, or Leif Eriksson Day, here in Iceland, but I think maybe next year I should try to plan a program at Vikingaheimar for October 9th, just for the heck of it.

*even going to the extreme of moving, or moving out, on said holidays, as I did once. 

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