2
changed
Monday
following the third
in
to the
Sunday
November. Most of these celebrate either established
western
holidays,
traditional Chinese festivals or
or
specific events. One might perhaps argue for dropping the
Monday following the Queen's Birthday,
the Saturday
before Liberation day, but the purpose of these additional
is to provide two long holiday weekends during the
hot weather.
days is
In practice, therefore, it would be necessary to
introduce an additional holiday and we already have more
statutory holidays than most of our Asian neighbours, with
whom we have to compete economically.
holiday of course has a significant cost
cost in terms of lost
production.
year
be
Each additional
in
The major problem, however, is the number of
groups which, it can be argued, deserve recognition of
this kind. Mr TAM Yiu-chung, for example, proposed last
that
Day May
celebrated as a holiday,
recognition of the contribution of Labour to society.
More recently, the Association of University and College
Professors proposed a holiday on Confucius' birthday in
honour of teachers. If we start to grant new holidays, or
designate existing ones, for this sort of purpose, it is
difficult to see where the line could equitably be drawn.