18.05.2010

While waiting for school time to end (today is the first day of exam and I did not invigilate any exam as of current time), I flipped through a calendar given by a pair of MAA insurance agents given to me earlier this year. Well, it's not that I have finished all my work. It's just that I have too much in my head that I ended up not knowing which to start first.

I looked through until the last page that shows 2010 holidays around the world. Malaysia has 14 days of national holidays. Are holidays affecting the productivity of a nation's citizen? This was what r I thought when I noticed that USA only has a total of 10 holidays. But then Japan and China has 15 and 12 respectively (China celebrates Chinese New Year 4 days straight). My earlier inference: rejected.

Holidays are actually taken up more if counted individually. Last year, there were about 190 working days for teachers in our country. If converted into months, that's around 6.3 months. Almost half a year! The plus side of being a teacher is that teachers only work 5 days in a week (ini kalau tempat pedalamanla, kalau di bandar kadang-kadang hari Ahad pun turun jugak). And everybody knows that teachers are on holiday when their students get their school holidays. I'm loving it=)=)=)

Back to around the world holidays, each country celebrates its own event. Some sounds very unique:

UK > Boxing Day

Italy > Epiphany

Japan > Autumnal-Equinox Day

Korea > Arbor Day

New Zealand > Waitangi Day

Indonesia > Nyep Day

Whatever they are, these holidays are created to commemorate the eventful day. Thus by saying so, it builds up a feeling of patriotism, respect and appreciation. From individual perspective (more to my perspective), it simply means tons of rest and loads of TV-watching. Yahuu!