If we remove religion from all government sanctioned holidays, but none of the holidays change, isn't that hypocritical?

I think it’s pretty silly, but not necessarily hypocritical. I mean, if the students are celebrating a religious holiday at home, and not at school, does it matter what the school calls the holidays? They can call it “Day Off” as easily as anything else.

I don’t know how it is hypocritical. Different beliefs for different folks. As a body, it has been decided the holidays should be referred to in obscure manner, but what each family chooses to do with the various times is up to them. It seems government is trying to accommodate the desires and beliefs of many people, without offending other people. It seems commendable to me.

Well, like Easter is at a different date every year. If spring break follows Easter, then how is it not Easter break? Government employees traditionally aren’t given Easter weekend off, as it is a religious holiday and falls on Sunday.

Christmas being winter break, I have less problem with.

Thing is, most Americans are of European descent, and the vast majority of us Americans are either Christian, Pagan, or Agnostic/Atheist. Many “Christian” holidays are rebranded Pagan holidays (compare Christmas to Yule, or Easter to Astara), while us non-believers get the day off just because religious belief (or lack thereof) is not a legal reason to discriminate.

That said, I’m used to it being referred to as “Winter break” myself.

What’s your Easter spring break referred to, @jerv, if you get it one?

No, absolutely not! The Christian religion usurped all the good holidays in the first place! By renaming them we are only taking them back.

It is a practical matter for the school to have a holiday if there will be a lot of students who will be absent for religious reasons. To keep clear of separation of church and state issues, it is best not to mention religion.

I just heard about a school district in Maryland which did give religion as the reason for their holidays. It was being asked by Muslims to include their holiday in a case where a major Muslim holiday happened to fall on the same day as the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. The school board got around this by no longer associating religion with the school vacations. The school district did the right thing, though not for the right reason.

Easter. How do you explain the roving Good Friday without Easter?

As Easter and Good Friday are parts of the same multi-day uber-holiday, you really can’t.

Maundy Thursday – Last Supper
Good Friday – Crucifixion of Christ
non-holiday Saturday – Burial of Christ
Easter Sunday – Resurrection of Christ

A four-day event.

It should be noted that many Pagan religions had/have a celebration of rebirth around the Spring Equinox as well, often a multi-day one. Most of them celebrate the rebirth of the planet as life returns following a barren winter though; they don’t have a literal return from the dead the way Jesus allegedly came back. And rabbits play into the whole Easter/Ostara holiday as symbols of fertility.

We didn’t really call it anything; we just took a few nameless days off around that time.

My Catholic friend observes Holy Saturday, @jerv. We were talking about this question earlier today, and that was the first I’d heard of it.

“Roving Good Friday” What a great band name!

Ha! Excellent @rojo.

In all the schools around here, “Winter break” is in February. They get a week in February and then “Spring break” which is a week in April.