Calendar: USA: A four-day Fourth of July this year?

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One community, the nation's capital, is actually trending to a four-day Fourth of July this year, according to Jacqueline Palank, writing in Washington Times (Jun30,2k6).

This Independence Day, many private-sector employees in the Washington area will have additional cause for celebration: a four-day weekend.

Because Independence Day falls on a Tuesday, many local offices have made Monday a paid holiday as well.

Employees of Corporate Executive Board, a D.C. company that assists corporate managers, will be off both days, said Melody Jones, the chief human resources officer.

The company gives nine paid holidays per year, Ms. Jones said. After accounting for traditional paid holidays such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Presidents Day and the Fourth of July, the company allocates the remaining days.

"We rearrange two or three of [the remaining paid holidays] to try to be advantageous to the employees," Ms. Jones said.

I'm wondering if this trend will get a foothold in other parts of the USA, since a real lively Fourth seems strangely crammed when isolated to a single day between two workdays, in this day and age. A Tuesday celebration would still have Americans travelling if like, so many, your family has gathered from far-flung places for so important a patriotic celebration. Fireworks after dark on the evening of the Fourth are de rigeur, almost a necessity, an iron-clad rule of the celebration. "Bombs bursting in air." It's the next morning that we see that "our flag was still there."

- Owlb

Further Resources:

Happy Birthday America
4th of July Celebrations Database