Holidays are a rare enjoyment for every tired office worker. You can relax, get away from the pressure of work, travel, play, rest. However, in China, holidays always seem to be insufficient. We often see the holiday arrangement issued by the State Council, deducting the original Saturday, Sunday and transfer, and only 11 days of actual vacation time a year. And these holidays have to be realized by "patchwork of everything".
What is "patchwork"? It is to link holidays with weekends or weekdays to form a small long holiday. For example, on May Day, there is only one day off, but it has to be pieced together into five days. For this small long holiday, two weekends will be sacrificed. Is this arrangement really reasonable? Can it really meet people's needs for holidays?
One might argue that the benefit of "patchwork" is that it gives people more time to travel or visit relatives. After all, a day or two is too short for many places to go. Tourism can also be an opportunity to grow and promote economic growth.
However, the drawbacks of "patchwork" are also obvious. First of all, the premise of "patchwork" is to adjust the working day. This means working overtime beyond the normal working day. This is undoubtedly worse for office workers, who are already physically and mentally exhausted. They may feel like robots are drained of energy and life.
Secondly, the result of the "patchwork" is congestion and tension in transportation, accommodation, and attractions during the short holiday. Phenomena such as "crowds of people", "heavy traffic", "difficult to find a bed", and "ticket price increases" are not uncommon. In order to get a head start, many people leave early before the festival and return after the holiday. "May 1st" becomes "Fifteen" and "Eleven" becomes "22". This not only brings unnecessary troubles and risks to oneself, but also creates difficulties in social management.
Finally, the effect of "patchwork from east to west" is to weaken the meaning and value of the festival itself. "May Day" was supposed to be a holiday to recognize the achievements of workers and protect their rights and interests; The "Eleventh National Day" was supposed to be a festival to celebrate the prosperity of the country and the unity and progress of the nation; "Spring Festival" was supposed to be a festival to inherit Chinese culture and enhance family affection... But under the "patchwork" holiday arrangement, these festivals have become indiscriminate small long holidays, people only care about how to play, and forget why they have a holiday.
To sum up, the "patchwork" holiday arrangement not only cannot meet people's needs for holidays, but will bring more burdens and troubles to people. I believe that the holiday time should be reasonably arranged according to the nature and significance of the holiday, neither too long nor too short. At the same time, the publicity and education of festival culture should be strengthened, so that people can feel the charm and value of festivals while enjoying the holiday.