Hey there and welcome to the BigAppleSchool podcast. My name is Sam.
And today we’re asking what’s the craic about public holidays. So guys, we’re gonna look into the public holidays in our respective countries, the UK, the US. We’re gonna start with the US and talk about different holidays there, compare them to the UK.
We’re gonna look at what might be unusual if you’re visiting it for the first time and if you were a kinda alien from another country. What would you find strange? What’s most popular in our countries? What is our favorite holiday of all? Might not be?
What about New year, Christmas, International women’s day? Is Christmas too early? I mean, in the UK, in the US does it come too early? Is there too much too soon in the shops? And we’re gonna look about what we think should be a holiday, maybe something that could be celebrated that isn’t yet.
So we’re gonna look into all that good stuff. And Barbara’s gonna help me. So, you are from the United States of America and you’re here in Siberia, but tell us more about your culture. About the public holidays that you celebrate throughout the year.
Yeah we have, I guess, unusual holidays – we have this May holiday for Memorial day, when people do cookouts, they like to barbecue stuff and be outside. And then we have Labor day – that.. it’s like two bouquets of the summer.
So the Memorial day is at the beginning of the summer, and the Labor day in September. And that’s the same thing – we have our barbecues and our cookouts. And back in the day you weren’t allowed to wear white after Labor Day.
After Labor Day? For the rest of the year?
Through the rest of the year?
White was considered a summer color. But that was when women paid attention to certain…
Was it a strict thing or just a fashion faux pas?
Oh definitely a strict thing and a fashion faux pas. Yes. But now you can wear white all year round.
But I don’t want to wear white. But maybe I will. Maybe a white shirt or something with a nice bowtie. And so, I am from the outside looking in, I mean you’ve got New Year as every, I guess every country has, right?
I mean China celebrates it at different time, some countries celebrate it at certain times, but I think as far as I know, not being super knowledgeable, but every country I think has new year. But you’ve got Valentine’s day – is it a thing in the US?
Yeah it’s a big thing, it’s a big marketing thing. I mean, the stores love us to celebrate Valentine’s day.
The card companies really want to…
The chocolate, the little stuffed animals..
Is it too commercial do you think?
I don’t think so. I think people should make their money.
That makes a chance for those. I would… personally my point of view is it’s a good thing even if.. I mean of course I probably won’t go out for dinner on St Valentine’s Day with my wife, because… I hope she doesn’t disagree with me on this.
but it’s more expensive at that time and I think it’s better to take her out for dinner when it’s more economical. Not to say that I won’t do it on St Valentine’s, but I’d probably choose another time and have a special… Still treat her, of course. But maybe not go to the extreme of burning money.
Sometimes expectations are higher on Valentine’s Day, cause you have to give a certain piece of jewelry.
Well of course I will, of course I will celebrate it and I’ll give her a present. But I might not choose that specific day for dinner, because it’s not only the price, but it’s crowded as well. And I mean, not so comfortable even – you’re paying more for, you know, less of an experience, I think so.
I might be too practical to be romantic, I don’t know. So the Valentine’s Day – as do we in the UK, I think it’s a commercial thing. I think it’s a chance for men to get their act together and treat their significant other. Easter? Is it a big thing in the US?
Yeah, Easter’s big. Little girls love their Easter dresses, Easter bonnets and their baskets.
And you’ve got that egg search, don’t you?
An egg, yeah, right. Egg hunt is what we call it. And sometimes there’s some money in there, and sometimes there are real eggs. But usually they’re plastic eggs with chocolate in there or something.
Okay. And in the UK we don’t… well in my experience in childhood we didn’t do a lot of different activities around Easter, but I remember getting big chocolate eggs, hollow inside, but big chocolate eggs. And maybe seven or eight of them from aunts and uncles and grannies and mom and dad.
And I mean, my goal was to try to eat as many as I could on Easter Sunday. Eat this chocolate – eat till I was sick maybe as well. As a little boy, you know. But yeah, I certainly enjoyed Easter. It’s a little different in Russia – I’m not sure if you’ve experienced it yet.
But they don’t have chocolate eggs, I mean, yes you can get Kinder surprise here and couple of other things, but they don’t have these big chocolate eggs and actually they paint eggs instead. Like a chicken’s egg, if you like.
So they paint those instead and it’s so simple here of the holiday. Okay. Good. We’re done with a few. We’ve got to the sort of spring time, Easter time. Mother’s day, Father’s day?
Yeah, that’s big. I taught my daughter to celebrate me on Mother’s day. Yeah, I definitely wanted the card, I wanted to be recognized. And a Father’s day is a big thing, a dad gets a tie or whatever.
Dad has to get something, some recognition. I think the difference, I don’t know if you know, but Father’s day, mother’s day are definitely… Mother’s day, I can confirm, are at different time in the UK. In fact I think it’s maybe Aprilish and as I understand it’s June-July in the US.
We have the second Sunday in May.
Really? Okay. Oh it’s not so.. maybe not so different. But as I understand, it’s a different time, so they have Mother’s day – it’s the same in principle, just at a different time of the year I think. Okay.
So where are we now? Into the summer. 4th of July? It’s a big thing. Will you celebrate the victory over Britain, the UK?
Yes, definitely. Oh yes, we had to kick that George III out. We had to protect ourselves.
And speaking of Northern Ireland – it’s not so much in the UK, but in Northern Ireland there are some people who like to celebrate the 12th of July. And it’s a controversial one because it’s not for everyone, not everyone is comfortable with it, but it’s important for many people in Northern Ireland.
So 12th of July is kinda like a… It’s about a historical event battle, that happened way back in 1690. And it had a lot of repercussions for Ireland and Northern Ireland.
Was that something along with English channel, right?
It happened in Ireland, different places, but the main event that they speak about was – it’s now sort of just a little bit south of Northern Ireland at the Boyne river it’s called. It was a battle between protestant and Catholic kin, so it’s for some people depending on their religious beliefs or their historical connections.
How they identify themselves - it’s a very important thing. And it’s part of their tradition and culture, and these guys are called Orangemen, and they’re not orange color, but they have a sash, animal clothing that goes over their chest and under their arm.
And they celebrate theirs and there’re people that play the flute, different traditional music and it’s a big day, and it’s usually good weather. It’s July so it’s usually not too bad. And it’s… Well I would say that if you’re going to visit Northern Ireland, it’s an interesting cultural event to witness, at least once in your life if you ever go there.
You’ll see these big parades going past, different music and bagpipes and flutes and drums. And this day is interesting and enjoyable to watch. It’s something anyway. Not so much in the UK, it’s not really celebrated in other parts, but in Northern Ireland mainly. But I forgot, I went past St Patrick’s Day! And as I understand it’s celebrated in the US too.
Yeah, St Patrick’s day’s big. I was there in New York city when it was St Patrick’s Day I guess, and there was a big parade. Yeah, Paddies day it’s what we call it.
Yeah. We say, you know, kiss me, I’m Irish.
Yeah, I’ve seen, and it is huge in New York. Actually maybe… Well, New York’s bigger city than Dublin, but I would say that it’s bigger in the US than in Ireland. But definitely in Dublin, I was there once for St Patrick’s Day and I loved it.
I was telling you already – I don’t really identify as Irish, I mean I call myself Northern Irish, so… But I really enjoyed the celebration in Dublin. The atmosphere was fantastic! Great fun, great craic as I say. Everyone was having a laugh with each other.
Strangers having a joke one with the other, and joking about their clothes and all kinds of things. And it was great! It was really good and enjoyable, just for the atmosphere alone. And the parade.
The parade was good too, but the atmosphere was just fantastic. So, I’m sold to St Patrick’s Day. And it’s great that it’s celebrated in other places too. Okay. So where are we now?
In September. Now, being a Cali gal, from California, we celebrate admission day when California was admitted to the United States in 1850.
That was later than most of the others did?
Not necessarily later, but it was later from the original 13 states, the original British colonies. We were moving westward and so California was… We have admission’s day off, and I really can’t remember if it’s September 9th or September 11th. I think September 9th was our day. And with other states I don’t really recall it, if they have admission’s day off as we do.
Right, right. So it’s unique think to that region too.
Yeah, at least back then, I don’t know what’s going on today.
and so you have Memorial day – when’s that?
Well that’s last Monday in May, so it could be on the 29th or 30th, however that falls. 00:12:20 S: Right. To remember soldiers as I remember.
Here in Russia it’s on the 9th of May, it’s called Victory day and it’s maybe more positive, and there are military demonstrations and tanks and planes. And it’s quite impressive and interesting. And also people hold placards of their loved ones who fought or served.
It’s a big big thing in Russia because of course hardly a family, if any family, wasn’t someone involved in their family in the world war II particularly. The great patriotic war. As for the Northern Ireland or the UK, we have our main… I would say…
My opinion anyway – I know we have other events at different times of the year, but for me the main event is remembrance day which happens in November. So that’s the time when we… Usually I go to church and went to church while growing up and we would have Remembrance Sunday and there was a minute silence, and you go to church and it’s part of the service, part of the tradition there.
So you stand for a whole minute and if you’re a little boy, standing for a whole minute and being quiet, but….
Yeah we have the same thing. We have Veterans’ Day, which originally was honest to state, which was the end of World War I, so we were gonna remember all those who fought in world war I. And as the wars stomped on other wars, we now call it a Veterans’ day and we commemorate our veterans of all wars.
It’s important to remember the people who lost their lives. And what do you have in the US that we don’t have? It’s a thing we call Thanksgiving.
Cause it’s not celebrated in the UK. Canada has it, the US has it. I don’t know if anywhere else has it. Well, tell me more about that.
Well you know, I didn’t read up on the history and every time Thanksgiving comes there’s something on Facebook of what the history was. But it was proclaimed by the president that it was on a certain day and then there was a change in that later on.
But this is the day that we are to give thanks to our country, our family. Now what I don’t like about it is this poor little turkey, mister turkey that has to be slaughtered. I’m completely against that. And so there’s the president show pardon for thanksgiving – there’s this big turkey, that’s put on the news, and we’re pardoning this turkey.
Well the turkey’s innocent, guys. He did not need to be pardoned. So I don’t like that. And I’m usually Thanksgiving with me personally is this is the time that I’m getting ready for the Nutcracker. So I’m in rehearsal in class.
Of course we have Thanksgiving off, but I like to do my own practice, and so I would be disturbing my family by ‘No I’m gonna go to my class first. I’m gonna do a little rehearsal and then I’ll come later’. And then…
So you do celebrate it but you also take… So it’s a busy time coming up, the Christmas.
Yeah it’s a busy time for me, rehearsing the Nutcracker during that time. Sometimes Nutcrackers are performed right before Thanksgiving or right after. But the best Thanksgiving I had was when I was a teenager and my mother invited vegetarians over.
And there was… And they all brought different potluck things, and someone brought this wonderful stuffed pumpkin. They dug out all the innards of the pumpkin and then they stuffed it with rice and soy beans and vegetables. And that was the best thing ever. And I wish every Thanksgiving to be as wonderful as that one.
So.. this uncomfortable things of this poor turkey.
It is pardoned and then killed at the same time.
Well the presidential part means that that one is not killed. He’s pardoned.
We’ll need him for next year.
Yeah, exactly. It’s national, the whole process. But people do like to eat turkey, sometimes they like to have a ham on Thanksgiving. And people love to stuff themselves and then undo their belts and their pants. And then take a big nap or turn on a football game.
Yeah. And you’ve got Black Friday – is that about Thanksgiving thing?
Yeah, so Black Friday. So Thursday is Thanksgiving, and the next day is Black Friday.
That’s usually a holiday for a lot of people.
It is, because of Thanksgiving. And so people go shopping.
Take off from work and go shopping.
Yeah, right. So that’s that first day, official Christmas shopping day.
And there’s some notoriety about black Friday.
Some violence, some people getting stumped on.
And people camping out like hours before.
Right. And it’s got… I’m sure it’s not everywhere, but I mean the publicity, the media shows the nasty parts, and I guess people enjoy. There’s certain more of a curiosity to look at that ‘oh those Americans! Black Friday! They’re crazy!’ And they’re far worried about.
It does happen, they fight over things.
But thankfully now Black Friday… I mean, Black Friday actually now is kinda coming into the UK. But I mean, well, I’ve seen it on amazon.co.uk – we’ve amazon in the UK, it’s a website for buying books… Well, pretty much everything. And it has a kinda Black Friday thing, or a black Friday week maybe or a Black week or something.
That’s called… Well Black Friday here is Cyber Monday. That’s the day.
Maybe Black Cyber. So it’s got a period when things are on sale, but thankfully you don’t have to fight anyone to get it, but… So it’s starting to become a thing actually in the UK, but no we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, it’s starting to translate, transfer over there.
That you get things, big deals.
Right. I’ve heard of that too actually. And it’s good. I mean, it’s coming up to Christmas, you need to get those things for family. And actually it’s good. I think in the future I’ll be watching out for those days.
Not to fight anyone, but to find some deals online. Okay. So yeah. And then of course we’ve got Christmas coming to the end of the year, 25th of December. Well, so we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving. To speak about Northern Ireland, we have a little bit difference in that.
We don’t have the 4th of July, of course. But we do have 12th of July and especially in Northern Ireland. And we do have some certain holidays, you know, days off. Mayday. I think you have Labor day, don’t you?
Yeah, we actually have a Mayday. May 1st is Mayday. We have cinco de mayo too.
And it’s generally… Well, in Northern Ireland it’s generally just a day off, we don’t do anything. But do you celebrate anything?
On Mayday.. We have May poll and little festivals, and kinda part of a thing.
So it’s a celebration. Whereas in the UK we usually just stay at home.
Yeah so you get the day off. No we don’t get a day off, no.
Oh, okay. We get the better of it. and we have a Bank holiday. We call it a bank holiday or a day off, it’s at the end of May too I think actually. It’s usually on a Monday. So we call them Bank holiday Mondays. We have a few of those throughout the year – in May I think a couple, and in August there’s a couple too.
Well that sounds strange to me. But things are always gonna be open.
I think they’re actually still to this day, even supermarkets are closed on those… But you can do your internet by….. it is not so important for people. And Christmas is huge, but we don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, so I guess that’s the big difference. In the UK summer holidays are a little bit different.
Thanksgiving we don’t have. And maybe mother’s and father’s days are different, and at different time. And how… This is a burning question for me, cause I’m curious about this Thanksgiving – I mean, how is it or is it different from Christmas? Cause turkey – you’ve got turkey or ham for some people. Isn’t it the same on Christmas?
Yeah, it would be the same. Actually it would be the same kind of meal. But we just do different things. There’s a big football game on Thanksgiving.
I don’t… I’m not sure, that might be January. I’m not sure.
I don’t know much about Superbowl.
I don’t quote any bad calendar football. So I’m not sure.
Whenever Superbowl is, I think it’s actually almost like a holiday too, they almost include that as well.
Yeah it’s huge, and it’s something I avoid and I don’t even know what’s going on.
Right. I’m not big into sport myself if I’m honest, and I don’t follow it. But it’s usually on… If you live in the UK, and usually it’s in the middle of the night, I don’t wanna watch sport in the middle of the night, I prefer to be in bed sleeping.
But you’re right about the meal, the Thanksgiving meal and the Christmas meal. There’s nothing different, right.
I think some people might eat Brussel sprouts. I haven’t seen one in a long time, I don’t know.
You can find them here, well, frozen, I the frozen department. I am a lover of Brussel sprouts.
Which is a shock to me, because as a boy I never loved cabbage. But Brussel sprouts – even as a boy – loved them. Couldn’t have enough of them. We didn’t eat them too often, mostly on Christmas time.
Okay, so our meal would be cranberry sauce, that’s a big thing.
Yeah, I enjoy that too. If your turkey is a little dry… Not for you, but for me if my turkey is a little dry, I’ll put a bit of a cranberry sauce or whatever. Do you have stuffing?
Well the stuffing would go inside the turkey, so you have to have the stuffing, just stuffing.
Right. Well you can do it separately.
Right, right, with the bread. That’s good, I love stuffing.
I’ve made… Even I… I’m domesticated now – I’ve made my own stuffing since I’ve lived in Siberia. And a little bit of bread crumbs, a little bit of herbs as I say. And bit of onion, a bit of butter. And it’s quite delicious. Okay.
So we say New Year’s, we don’t say New Year. Cause I heard you say New Year, we say New Year’s.
Like New Year’s celebration.
New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day, New Year’s celebration.
That’s good thing to remember guys, if you’re interested. I would say New Year. New Year’s Eve I would say, but if I’m talking about holiday I’d say New Year.
Well we have to say the, the New Year, that would be different.
So it’s a little bit different. Same culture, different in pronunciation. If I were from another world or just introduced to the world for whatever reason, what holiday would you say is the most unusual? Would just blow me away, would be crazy?
I think we were talking about New Year’s. And I think that’s weird, because you know in New York city what do they drop? An apple or something? Or a big ball?
Something comes down, electronic mechanical count down.
Yeah, mechanical count down. And then so different towns have gotten on board and they’ve dropped something. It might be some back wood place that would drop a car. In Atlanta.
Yeah, a car. And then Atlanta drops a peach, cause we’re the peach state. I generally don’t look up anything else, I just think dropping the car, I think that’s weird – oh that’s cool! I think there is somebody who drops a real raccoon or real animal. Something like that.
Is it hurt or maybe just uncomfortable?
I don’t know how. But I think animal right activists don’t get on with this dropping some kind of animal. So I think the foreigner would come to the United States and if they see things being dropped on New Year’s Eve – I think that’s strange.
Even for me that would be strange.
Yeah, that’s strange for me!
You know what we forgot? I just remembered. We forgot to talk about Halloween.
See, I never really liked Halloween, but my daughter loved Halloween, so then I started liking it. And her first Halloween when she was three years old or less than three and I taught her ‘We’re gonna go to the door, and we’re gonna ring and you have to say trick or treat’.
And so she fell asleep and she missed it. And I said it’s too late to go out, and she cried and I said let’s go, at 9 o’clock at night. So we rang the door, she was too afraid to say trick or treat, but she got candy and she loved it.
It’s bribery isn’t it? So maybe you know maybe you don’t, it’s originated from Ireland.
And it’s called Samhain but it’s written differently. I think it’s come from Celtic, the word actually, so it’s called Samhain and it’s originated form Ireland. But actually, if I’m honest, I never trick or treated.
I maybe dressed up once or twice. I think, and maybe I’m wrong, but I think it’s not as popular in Northern Ireland as the impression I get that it seems to be quite popular in the US.
Well in the US schools would celebrate it. We would go to school in our costume and we would have a parade. So the sixth graders would come and we’d watch them, then the fifth graders would come and watch them.
But, see, the thing down in the South is, there are religions that are against the Halloween looks evil or… Then they are against any kind of Halloween. So when I was teaching dance I would say ‘okay you can wear Halloween costumes on Saturday’ and then I quickly saw that there are some parents who’d say ‘oh no we won’t be there’ and I realized okay.
Yeah I think that’s maybe why it’s not.. I mean, from memory at least I don’t think it was a thing in my school year, and that’s the reason. Cause there were some parents not so comfortable with the idea because it’s seen as the celebration of evil.
I don’t think it’s like that – for me it’s just fun. And I think for kids it is just fun, but it was seen by some, like this is evil.
But what it’s celebrating is really our old souls, that we die.
But for kids it’s just ‘let’s get candy or sweets’, but I think the old old tradition of it was to chase the ghosts. Don’t come near me, I’m a ghost too, you know, I’m dressed as well. They kinda chased them as well with fireworks …..
But then the next day is All Saints Day, November 1st.
It’s got some connection as well. Okay. So I wanna ask – is Christmas celebrated too early? I mean, not celebrated, cause it’s 25th of December and that’s it or the 24th is Christmas Eve.
I don’t know how it is in the US, but in the UK Halloween’s over and then the Christmas decorations start. Every shop starts to put them, maybe even before Halloween they start to put up Christmas decoration. Is it the same?
Yeah they definitely start to put up Christmas decorations before Halloween, and then you always hear someone grudge ‘oh that’s too early!’ But see, you’re talking to someone who keeps their Christmas lights all year round.
So it’s not a problem for you.
That’s not a problem for me.
Honestly, I did keep for a time some Christmas lights. Not Christmas tree, but Christmas lights in my room when I was younger, so I like the colors. I just kinda say that. But when I was younger, when I was a boy, maybe 14 or so, I actually worked for a while in a grocery shop and I…
coming up to Christmas… Okay, so November, December -you got two months of the same music if you work in a shop. Now, I didn’t work every day, I worked kinda weekends and evenings and things like that, but it was enough to hear the same one or two CDs continually.
So I think for a long while I was tired of the kind of Christmas, and it was far too early in my opinion. But now that I’m a little bit separate I’m not spending a lot of time in shops, I think that it’s nice.
I miss having the Christmas music that little bit earlier, and I’m missing decorations that are a little bit earlier. And I think it’s okay, for me it’s not a problem, but I guess it depends on whether you work in a shop or a café.
Yeah, and it’s also a different feeling when you hear country Western singers sing Christmas music. So if you’re tired of more churchy kinda song, then you can kinda go into country Western…
Maybe new music released and stuff. I’m a big fan of Christmas. So, I should ask what is your favorite holiday.
I’d have to say that 4th of July is my favorite holiday. And Christmas, because of the lights. And I don’t have my lights up now, but when Christmas time comes, I’ll buy some and they’ll stay up all year.
And as for me – Christmas is definitely my favorite. When I was a little boy.. I’ll tell you this story – I talked about record players earlier. When I was a little boy, it was around October, I maybe saw something on TV or maybe heard some music somewhere or saw, just a hint of Christmas somewhere.
And it got into my little mind – Christmas is coming, right. And I used to… And when I got this idea that Christmas isn’t so far away, and for me… Maybe as a little boy it seemed far away, but I still thought – it’s coming, we’re getting there, we’re going towards the end of the year.
I had a record, or my parents had a record, which was Christmas music, and it was Jimm Rings I think it was. Lovely voice, like really really nice rich voice. And he used to sing different Christmas songs on this record.
And I used to put it on as soon as I thought about Christmas in October. And I used to dance around. Maybe not so much dance as jump and run and destroy my mom’s sofa. And I just loved the idea of Christmas – it’s only two months away.
But then the day after Christmas how did you feel?
Well I had lots of toys, I think it was okay. I mean of course I was a little bit - it’s over now. No, we’ve Boing day and it’s still a holiday, and I’ve still toys to play with, so I guess it depends on how good Santa was, you know.
But I think it was okay, I mean, I guess I’d enjoyed the experience. I still got the sweets and the food and the toys, I think I was still enjoying it. Haven’t longed for New Year’s as well, so.
People nowadays after Christmas, the day after Christmas they’ve got all their gift cards, so they have something to do. They’re gonna go out and everything’s on sale. So they’re gonna spend spend spend.
Not it’s like boxing day sales. So I mean, in the UK shops are still closed on Christmas day, and maybe it’s the only day of the year that they are closed, but it’s that one day when shops are definitely not open.
But then now it’s started to become, yeah, Boxing day sales, so you know, that’s kinda of a thing too. And people become a past time, okay, we spend too long sitting, eating food, chocolate, whatever, let’s go out, get motion and maybe do a bit of shopping and spend the money we’ve got. Yeah, that’s a thing too. Right. International Women’s day – have you ever celebrated that?
I never went out and celebrated with other women, or.. I just see it on Facebook and I go ‘oh, wow! Today’s international women’s day’. That’s a really important day, because we were denied to vote for a long time, and we were, you know, stuck at the kitchen and whatever. And so I know that’s something that wasn’t around when my mom was alive, and my mom would definitely love it.
So, it’s a big thing in Russia. It’s very important. And me – I’m married to a Russian lady, so it’s very important for me to remember it. And it’s kind of….
8th of March, I better remember. 8th of March. And it’s very important… It’s kind of like an equivalent of Valentine’s day in a modern translation. It’s a time when you’ll give presents well not just to, you know, someone romantically connected, but you’ll give it to maybe women colleagues as well, you’ll give flowers or chocolates. For me it’s a lot like having another Valentine’s day.
Valentine’s and mother’s day.
It’s a lot like that, because I will give my wife present as well, and she always wants flowers and that’s okay. And so it’s a time, I think, for flowers. For Valentine’s day she doesn’t mind what I give, a real gift or whatever.
But for international women’s day it’s important to her, it’s kind of a tradition to get flowers. That’s what I did. So it’s a big thing, here it’s more important than Valentine’s day.
I think I only thought of that as a very important holiday.
it’s a good one I think, it’s a good one. And it’s… I mean it’s an additional way to celebrate women in your life – a mother, a daughter, colleagues or whatever. So it’s a good thing. Is there anything, in closing, is there anything in the US that you think should be a holiday? Or, for me, in the UK?
I don’t know. It seems like every day there is a certain national something, like we have a national cat day, we have national dog day.
Yeah, there might be an international dog day actually.
I think it is, I think it is. I don’t think anyone’s left out and if you do feel left out, well you just get on Facebook and proclaim it to be your day.
Right. It’s international Sam day. As for me, coming from the UK, there’s St George’s day, I think it’s for England or Wales, there are certain, for different areas of the UK there are certain holidays to celebrate that area of the UK.
But maybe we could have a kind of more of a national day to celebrate a nation. Cause we don’t really have that. Don’t know if it’s super important, but it might just get out of hand – we have enough patriotism sometimes, but maybe we can have that if I’m gonna suggest anything.
But there you go. Good talking, very interesting. So we’ve had a good long talk about public holidays. We found out what’s the craic about that. We’ve talked a lot about all the different holidays throughout the year, particularly in the US, but we’ve compared that to the UK.
We’ve talked a little bit about Northern Ireland and some uniqueness there. We’ve talked about what’s popular, our favorite holidays which is of course Christmas. And 4th of July for Barbara. We’ve talked a little bit about International Women’s day and Thanksgiving and Christmas and how it’s a little bit early. And that’s not a problem. So that was a craic about public holidays.
