more holidays!!!

Here's to hoping everyone had a great Easter weekend!! no matter what persuasion you may be. That's how it is in Trinidad. It's unfortunate that America doesn't have more national holidays...it's mostly just each group celebrating their own thing. Back home it was a nice 4-day weekend for EVERYONE. Everybody 'celebrates' everything. Its not about imposing your religion or beliefs on anyone, its about everyone appreciating your beliefs. And its probably also about knowing some background since you're getting a day off on someone else's account hehehe. It's awesome! You get to learn about other's customs AND you get the food and the holiday! Trinidadians like to celebrate things. The neighbourhood where I grew up, it was mostly Hindus, some Christians, some Muslims...EVERYBODY has lights up for Christmas! My family and everyone else gets food and sweets from the Hindus at Divali (festival of lights) and we go help with their lamps. I remember we gave our old Xmas tree to one of them! how about that!? AND they would put it up on the porch too! Everybody knew they were Hindu but they were in the holiday spirit, not "celebrating" xmas per se. We have Christian, Hindu, Muslim, Baptist, Indian, African holidays, All public holidays. Like I said, we like to celebrate things. Plus all the 'regular' ones like Independence day and New Year's, O and Carnival! Its funny how Carnival is NOT an official holiday but everyone treats it like one, is two free days to do wha yuh want. A nex free 4-day weekend! I think we have at least one holiday a month:
New Years,
Carnival Monday & Tuesday,
Shouter Baptist Day,
Indian Arrival Day,
Good Friday,
Easter Monday,
Corpus Christi,
Labour Day,
Emancipation Day,
Independence Day,
Republic Day,
Divali,
Eid-ul-Fitr,
Christmas Day,
Boxing Day
Then of course we also find opportunities to take a half day, or leave work early. Or if a holiday falls on a Thursday, its not so surprising when half the office is empty on Friday! Yeah we LOVE our 4-day weekends! People need to chill out over here man! Doh be stress out! Just think... all the free days off... yup... island life is great, we're all (mostly) tolerant and laid back and chill. Just when things get hectic: O! there's a holiday coming up, nice! Definitely need some more of those over here.