Is Whit Monday a public holiday where you live?
Whit Monday or Pentecost Monday (also known as Monday of the Holy Spirit) is the holiday celebrated the day after Pentecost, a moveable feast in the Christian calendar. It is moveable because it is determined by the date of Easter. In the Catholic Church, it is the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church.
Whit Monday gets its English name from "Whitsunday", an English name for Pentecost, one of the three baptismal seasons. The origin of the name "Whit Sunday" is generally attributed to the white garments formerly worn by those newly baptized on this feast.
The Monday after Pentecost is a holiday in Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla, Austria, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, The British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, Denmark, Dominica, France, Germany, Greece, Grenada, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Ivory Coast, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montserrat, The Netherlands, Norway, Romania, Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Solomon Islands, Switzerland, Togo and Ukraine. In many of these countries, Whit Monday is known as "the second day of Pentecost" or "the second Whitsun".
Why would you need a public holiday to celebrate a particular holy day? Loads of key religious dates don't have public holidays, especially for the non-mainstream religions. All their follows seem to manage all the same.Is it a privilege of pious Anglo-Saxon Christians to disdain and ignore this day?