It's about to be May Day again, and these days the topic of May Day Golden Week and holiday has once again become one of the hot spots on the Internet.
Speaking of which, the concept of "Golden Week" is actually not very long for Chinese people, the earliest "Golden Week" began to appear in 1999, and it has only a history of more than 20 years. In developed countries, such holidays have long appeared. For example, in Japan, there was a long holiday in the first week of May decades ago, and even the term "Golden Week" was invented by a Japanese journalist in 1947.
The increase in public holidays is actually an important sign of an affluent society, and it is also a major progress for society. It is important to know that entering a society of abundance is not only about enriching products at the material level, but also about meeting the public's requirements for a balance between leisure, rest time and working time, which also belongs to the category of social progress. If we look back at history, we will know that the struggle for social welfare such as shorter working hours has been achieved through many struggles, and if nothing else, let's say that this May Day, which was established to commemorate the Chicago general strike for workers' rights. Our country did not have a high level of economic and social development in the past, so when we were young, there were many fewer vacations than now. Prior to 1994, we worked 8 hours a day, 6 days a week. At that time, every weekend, the family would concentrate on the housework they had saved for a week, which was jokingly called "Sunday of Battle". At the same time, there are few other holidays. According to the state regulations at that time, there was one day off on New Year's Day, three days off for the Spring Festival, one day off on May Day, two days off on National Day, half a day off for all women on Women's Day, half a day off for all children on Children's Day, half a day off for students above secondary school level on May Fourth Youth Day, and half a day off for the army and military organs on August 1 Army Day. On March 1, 1994, the state introduced a new work and rest time, implementing a working hour system of eight hours a day and an average of 44 hours per week, that is, the "1+2" leave system. During the big prayer, you can take two days off, and during the small prayer you can take only one day off. On May 1, 1995, we had this weekend. In 1999, the State Council promulgated the new "National Annual Festival and Memorial Day Holiday Measures", and decided to combine the rest time of the Spring Festival, "May Day" and "Eleventh" with the weekends before and after, so as to form a seven-day long holiday, which brought about the Golden Week that had long appeared in developed countries.
Practice has proved that the setting of these three Golden Weeks is actually very scientific, mainly because the spring and autumn seasons of "May Day" and "Eleventh" are the most suitable seasons for the whole family to go out for leisure, and the Spring Festival is the time for busy people to return to their hometowns for family reunions. It is precisely for this reason that after the Golden Week policy came out, it was widely welcomed by the society, especially by parents of school-age teenagers. The reason is also very simple, because for children, although there are winter and summer vacations, but because most parents do not have the corresponding holidays, so there are few opportunities for the whole family to travel together, and now with the country's unified Golden Week, you can finally go out with the whole family to relax.
Unfortunately, in December 2007, the State Council made it clear that from 2008 onwards, the "May Day" Golden Week was cancelled, and it was changed to a short holiday, a total of 3 days, and added one day each for Qingming, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, so that the total number of statutory holidays increased from the original 10 days to 11 days. In fact, if we carefully recall the background of this decision, we will know that there is an indescribable strangeness in it. I don't know if you still remember, at that time, the government also conducted a "public opinion poll" on the Internet, but this "public opinion poll" could only be a "survey" in quotation marks, because there were only two options at that time, one was in favor of retaining the May Day Golden Week but the legal holiday time was 10 days, and the other was to add one day of legal holiday and cancel the May Day Golden Week. As long as anyone with a little brain understands, this is called "bundled voting", just like the line in the French comedy movie, the mayor in order to get votes for himself, directly asked the bride and groom who witnessed his marriage: "Would you like to marry this gentleman and vote for me?", so that the chosen person has no other choice. In this case, the May Day Golden Week was ruthlessly "abolished".
If we could recall more things, you might find out why it's so "weird". It turned out that before that, South Korea's "Dragon Boat Festival" was listed as a world cultural heritage, and this matter was suddenly mourned by some so-called "cultural people" who did not know the truth, as if the sky had fallen, and felt that our traditional festival Dragon Boat Festival was robbed by Koreans. In fact, many people later understood that the Gangneung Dragon Boat Festival in South Korea is indeed the same day as our Dragon Boat Festival, but that festival does have its own unique aesthetic and cultural value, which deserves to be included in the world cultural heritage. But back then, our "cultural people" (and there are quite a few today) "ignorant nationalism" burst out, as if they had been touched by the G-spot, and immediately shouted and strongly demanded that the Dragon Boat Festival be taken back from South Korea. In fact, the countries around the mainland or the countries that belong to the same Chinese character cultural circle will have our traditional festivals, and no one else can snatch the right to invent these festivals, and because of cultural differences, each country will derive its own festivals and customs when they celebrate these traditional festivals, in fact, we should treat our festivals and culture with a more confident attitude, and share the beauty with other countries and nations. However, due to the noise caused by these unconfident "cultural people", the state has added the Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival to the statutory holidays when making decisions, and it seems that this can regain the "exclusive rights" of these festivals. Now that we look back and think about it, is this a bit excessive?
After losing the May Day Golden Week, three small long vacations that can be taken for three days have been added, and what is the result? This kind of three-day long holiday is actually a chicken rib, which is tasteless to eat, and it is a pity to abandon it. Take advantage of these three days to travel, the time is too short, you can only come to a City wolk, rest at home, and feel bored. Moreover, the folk customs of the Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival themselves belong more to the agricultural era, and the new customs of these festivals cannot be found in today's urbanized life, so they become very "tasteless". As a result, many people simply don't take this small long vacation, and it's time to work overtime as usual. As for the children, it is even more unhappy, and the reasons are self-explanatory.
As a result, some experts have put forward extremely "politically correct" suggestions for these problems, that is, to strictly implement the paid leave system. My good man, these experts basically belong to the "why not eat minced meat" masters, do they know that in our "industrious nation" there has been a "shame of vacation" since ancient times, in this cultural background, asking for more vacation is basically connected with the words "good and bad work". Think about it, even the leaders don't take vacations, do you ordinary workers dare to say the word vacation to the leaders? In particular, at a time when the pressure of employment is extremely high, if you don't take the lead in taking paid leave, it will become an unpaid permanent vacation.
As a matter of fact, our society has already begun to enter a society of abundance, and under such circumstances, why not give people two or three more days of vacation? You must know that people have been looking forward to the lost May Day Golden Week for a long time, and now they are using this method of compensatory leave to squeeze out so many days of vacation, at the cost of working six days in the two weeks before and after May Day, which makes everyone feel tired and feel a little angry. Why bother!
Add two more days of public space to return the May Day Golden Week to migrant workers and their families. I think this request is both legitimate and feasible.
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