|
|
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
Waitangi may well be a singularly apt name. It means, roughly, Weeping waters, sometimes tears. There are plenty of those shed on NZ's day of national introspection. I don't think there are many who would argue that the Maori did not get seriously shafted by The Treaty signed at Waitangi, Feb. 6 brings endless debates about how to move forward, addressing the wrongs of the past without becoming mired in them and balancing the rights of the indigenous people with the need to create a truly multi-cultural, not just bi-cultural, society. I don't know how many other countries in the world have a Race Relations conciliator, and I'm not sure why anyone here applies for the job, as the office and its holder are treated with varying degrees of scorn and contempt by opponents from all points on the political compass.
As an aside on Waitangi, the location of the lahar tragedy CapK mentioned contains the same Maori elements in the opposite order - Tangiwai - and has simiar meaning - very appropriate.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Waitangi Day is New Zealand's equivalent of the Fourth of July. It's the anniversary of the day in 1840 when over a hundred northern Maori chiefs signed a Treaty with the English Crown, represented by Captain William Hobson, at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands ceding sovereignty(!) to the Crown. Depending on your point of view, it was either a revolutionary approach to colonisation or a fraud perpetrated on the Maori by cynical Europeans looking for a cheap way to acquire the country.
There was one small problem with the Treaty: Under international law treaties can only be signed between sovereign states which the Maori most certainly were not. However, over the years that small fact was conveniently forgotten. Since then the Treaty has been passed into law by the New Zealand government, so the point is now moot.
The New Zealand Wars of 1845-1871 began over what was regarded as abrogation of the Treaty terms by the European settlers.
In point of fact, conquest rather than a treaty would have probably created fewer problems for us today, although the Treaty is still hailed as a great thing.
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981
Pooh-Bah
|
|
Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
>June (Somebody Else's Queen's Birthday)
Do you get a day off for that day (not sure of date)- is it her real or "official" bithday? That's funny - we don't get a day off!
I was similarly surprised that Edinburgh has a day off in May for Victoria day - I'd never heard of it in England, why does anyone need a day off to celebrate a dead queen?
On the subject of living queens. England is getting an extra day off in 2002. On 3rd June there is a day off for the Queen's Golden Jubilee, assuming that she is still with us, and then another day on 4th June (a week later than usual) for "Spring Bank Holiday". Spring Bank Holiday isn't taken as a holiday in Edinburgh as it is only two weeks after Victoria Day - so it looks like there will be a battle of the queens (living v dead) to sort out the ensuing May/June bank holiday chaos.
I'll just stick with International Workers Day on 1st May (or nearest Monday) and seek out a few republicans (or publicans would do).
I'll add a list of the English Bank Holidays to save a post:
1st Jan - New Year's Day; 2nd Jan - Scotland only (I assume, recovering from New Year's Day)
Good Friday; Easter Monday;1st Monday in May - Mayday; Last Monday in May - Spring Bank Holiday; Last Monday in August -August Bank Holiday; Christmas Day; Boxing Day (All the Christmas/New Year Bank hoidays get moved to a Monday or Monday/Tuesday if they fall on a weekend)
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
why does anyone need a day off to celebrate a dead queen?Jo, that holiday sounds about as unnecessary as Groundhog Day!  But, your-all's "Bank Holidays" kill me--to me, that sounds like your whole country is run by the bank. Which, I suppose, they all are, really. 
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,156 |
Canada has Victoria Day too. It's called the "May long weekend" or, more familiarly, "May Long", or, in Newfoundland, the "May 24th weekend". In fact we have a statutory holiday most months of the year, in most provinces...
January 1 - New Year's Day
March/April (depending) - Good Friday and Easter Sunday
May - the nearest Monday to the 24th - Victoria Day
July 1 - Canada Day
First Monday in August - Civic holiday (in most places, not everywhere) - just means a day off
First Monday in September - Labour Day
Second Monday in October - Thanksgiving
November 11 - Remembrance Day - slowly being legislated out of being a day of remembrance for those who died in the wars, now just a day off for any non-retail worker [bitter because my husband works at a heartless, national-prideless bookstore emoticon]
Dec. 25 - Christmas
Dec. 26 - Boxing Day - (see bitter anti-retail rant above)
Any representatives from other countries willing to give a little summary? I find this interesting - what do other countries find important enough to give a holiday for?
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771
old hand
|
|
old hand
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 771 |
Growing up with Norwegian heritage, I've always had a special place in my heart for May 17th... Norwegian Independence Day, which mainly seems to involve sitting around cursing Swedes.
When I was in Korea, Buddha's birthday was a big deal - April 30 or thereabouts, as was the Korean version of "Thanksgiving" (their choice for translation, not mine). More aptly described as an Ancestral Remembrance Day, the point is to go to the graves of relatives, bow ceremoniously, and leave offerings of food and flowers. With a roughly 50/50 split among Buddhists and Christians, this seemed to be the most unifying national celebration they had. I was partial to Buddha's birthday, though. Lots of lantern-lighting and biben-bop (a vegetarian rice dish traditionally served for the holiday).
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
I find this interesting - what do other countries find important enough to give a holiday for?
Here in the US of A the individual states zealously guard their holidays. Massachusetts still celebrates Bunker Hill Day which fortituously falls on Saint Patrick's Day (March 17) and for years New Hampshire observed Fast Day, intended as a day of prayer and fasting, but which turned into a day off work for all state workers, banks, etc. Most New Hampshire folk went to Boston for shopping and in that state it was nicknamed "Farmer's Day" because of the influx of NH farmers into the Big City. The holiday has been abandoned for a number of years.
May First is Lei Day in Hawaii and everyone wears and exchanges beautiful lei. There is a lei competition at Kapiolani Park with amazing examples of lei. Then, in June, there's Kamehameha Day to honor the King who united the Islands. It is a festive day and each year a group is chosen to decorate the King's statue with lei ... the chosen group gathers the flowers and makes the HUGE lei to adorn the statue, the Fire Department provides assistance in getting the lei around the King's neck. Perhaps some of you have seen a post card of the lei-draped King Kamehameha statue, it's quite famous. There is also hula dancing, singing and general merriment at the statue and similar festive events throughout the islands.
P.S. "lei" is not the word in the Pass The Parcel game. I am not a player, merely one of the cheering section.
Aloha, wow
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544
addict
|
|
addict
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 544 |
Here in the US of A the individual states zealously guard their holidays. Massachusetts still celebrates Bunker Hill Day which fortituously falls on Saint Patrick's Day (March 17)
Just for the record, Bunker Hill Day is in mid-June. March 17 is the wonderfully-named Evacuation Day. It is supposedly a celebration of when the Redcoats (i.e. the British soldiers) were finally driven out of Boston during the Revolution (what's this war called in England?), but this is really an excuse for Boston, a heavily Irish town, to have the day off on St. Patrick's day.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Oct 2000
Posts: 5,400 |
Columbus day is a state holiday in NY-- Oct 8, this year since it a "shopping holiday" that always get moved to the Monday. And while March 17 is disruptive, what with one of the world largest parades,on one of the city's busiest streets, it is not a holiday-- and school kids some time get picked up for truencey while at the parade.(every other parade in NYC is forced to march on the weekend closest to the holiday except for St Patrick--well not legal holiday parade like Memorial day or Vetern's day-- but Puetro Rician Day, and German and Polish )
Brooklyn and Queen school children get off June 6th (commemerating when these boro's became part of NYC), but it not a holiday for Manhattan, Staten Island or the Bronx schoolchildren.
|
|
|
|
|
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
|
|
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439 |
Hyla noted : Bunker Hill Day is in mid-June. March 17 is the wonderfully-named Evacuation Day.Oh, Hyla, I am prostrate at your feet. You are totally correct about Evacuation Day. How could I forget! Too many years away from my Massachusetts roots?  Aloha, wow
|
|
|
|
Forums16
Topics13,915
Posts229,845
Members9,197
| |
Most Online3,341
Dec 9th, 2011
|
|
|
0 members (),
437
guests, and
0
robots. |
|
Key:
Admin,
Global Mod,
Mod
|
|
|
|
