Why are there "government" holidays?

Question

Why doesn't everyone just get the same holidays off?

Answer 1

so people like me don't have to work on Columbus day.

We get 10 Hollidays in the year.

We actually get 13 sick days, and since I've been there 3 years, I get 20 vacation days.

Answer 2

Please tell me you are joking. Back before Unions there were no days off you worked 6 days a week and might have gotten Christmas off but if you did it was unpaid. The Federal Government in an effort to appease Labor granted Federal Holidays (see below) it was quickly copied by the private sector. Now days the private sector has more holidays and more vacation then the Federal Government. But I think in the next few years you will see that shrink. In Europe their vacations are measured in months not days or weeks! In any case it was tried to grant the day off for when most people would not show up or to honor a person or event that most of the population would like to have honored.

Monday, January 2* New Year's Day
Monday, January 16 Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.
Monday, February 20** Washington's Birthday
Monday, May 29 Memorial Day
Tuesday, July 4 Independence Day
Monday, September 4 Labor Day
Monday, October 9 Columbus Day
Friday, November 10*** Veterans Day
Thursday, November 23 Thanksgiving Day
Monday, December 25 Christmas Day

Answer 3

Government holidays are usually ones where government offices will be affected, like banks and the post office. They are the main holidays that everyone in that particular country usually takes off.

Answer 4

my father called them banker's holidays because most
businesses did not close for them.
i once worked for a company that gave us a bunch of
them but that was because management made the
decision that they preferred to do this rather than some
other perks. each is allowed to make it's own decision.