Government Observances of Good Friday & Easter
Constitutional Questions
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When people challenge state and local laws or policies which create holidays on Good Friday, they are arguing that such actions violate the separation of church and state - a constitutional requirement that the government of all citizens not pursue policies or goals which favor the religion of some citizens over the religions of others. The question is, are such arguments sound? Is there a case to be made that making Good Friday a public or school holiday is unconstitutional?
An Establishment of Religion?
Many argue that creating a public holiday where schools and/or government offices are
closed amounts to an establishment of religion when that holiday is based upon a purely
religious holy day - and especially when that day is holy to only one religion or part of
one religion. This, then, is one of the principle arguments against having a public holiday
on Good Friday or for Easter.
This is not a trivial matter because Good Friday falls on a regular work day; thus, making it a public holiday entails paying government employees just as if they were working. Is it appropriate to spend taxpayer money to support what appears to be an endorsement of a religious holy day? After all, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Shintos, and many others do not receive a paid holiday to commemorate their religious holy days. If they want those days off, they have to take a personal or vacation day - only Christian employees receive an extra paid day for their religion.
Supporters of making Good Friday a public holiday argue that this is appropriate when there is also an important secular purpose to the creation of such a holiday. In cases where Good Friday alone is specifically singled out, however, no such secular purpose is likely to be forthcoming - Good Friday is not generally celebrated in any secular manner.
Businesses remain open and most people are expected to be at work - a real problem if their children are given a day off from school, further penalizing non-Christian parents. Although there are certainly many regions of the country where it may be convenient to close schools or offices on Good Friday simply because so many people won't be around anyway, that is actually changing as the religious and social makeup of the United States evolves.
Secular Purposes?
One possible secular purpose sometimes used for making Good Friday a public holiday is the
idea that if so many Christians absent themselves on Good Friday anyway, there is be little
point in keeping the schools and/or government offices open. In such a situation,
non-Christians should understand that closing the schools is not an attempt to promote
Christianity, but rather a matter of practicality because it is more wasteful to have
classes or open offices when hardly anyone is around.
This, however, is a question of fact for which supporters must provide evidence. Even if true, however, it would not necessarily justify spending taxpayer dollars on paying teachers and employees as if the schools were not closed. Why not an unpaid day off, thus eliminating a financial benefit available only to Christians?
Another possible secular purpose is the idea of creating a Spring Holiday around a long weekend for the purpose of encouraging shopping and recreation. That was an argument made in Hawaii and accepted as the basis for the ruling in Cammack v. Waihee that, at least in that state, Good Friday had become secularized and had acquired a secular purpose, thus allowing the government to make it an official holiday.
Under this argument, Good Friday can be picked over any other Friday or any Monday in spring if it could be shown that many students would be absent from school anyway, thus making Good Friday a choice of convenience. Once again, however, it is necessary for supporters to demonstrate that there really would be enough absences on that day anyway - otherwise, there is no basis for choosing Good Friday over other days and opponents have a basis for challenge.
Excessive Entanglement?
One further problem with picking Good Friday as a date for a general school or public
holiday is that it involves the government unnecessarily in a religious dispute between two
different Christian traditions: Western (Roman Catholic and Protestant) and Eastern
(Eastern Orthodox). The reality unrecognized by many is that there are usually two Easters
and two Good Fridays: Western and Eastern.
This is due to the fact the two Christian traditions use different calendars when it comes to assigning dates to their liturgical holy days. Sometimes they fall on the same dates, but usually they don't. Because of this, if a government picks Good Friday as a "secular" holiday, and even if valid secular purposes can be articulated, it cannot avoid picking one tradition's Good Friday over that of the other.
In the case of Koenick v. Felton, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a public school holiday on Good Friday by arguing in part that because the school board obtained the date for Easter and Good Friday from a secular source there was therefore no entanglement in the dispute between Western and Eastern Christians over the dating of Easter.
Such "reasoning" is simply nonsense. The secular calendar's source is, ultimately, religious authorities. If the calendar contains both Eastern and Western datings, then the government must choose the Western dates at the expense of the Eastern dates, communicating that the Western dates are preferable. If the calendar only offers the Western dates, then the government knowingly uses an incomplete and biased source, something which cannot excuse them from the consequences of their decisions - namely, to tell the community that the Western Christians' dates for Good Friday and Easter are the preferable ones.
Other Religious Holy Days
Although not strictly speaking a legal question, it is worth asking how people would react
if the situations were reversed. What if the holy day of some other religion were made into
a public or school holiday while Christians were left to take a personal or vacation day if
they wanted to observe something like Good Friday?
This is not an entirely idle question. Many religions other than Christianity are increasing in size across the country and their influence on American society will grow proportionately. Although small enough in the past to acquiesce to the demands of Christians that Christianity receive favorable treatment, that is slowly coming to an end.
One day, perhaps some regions of America will have so many Muslims or Hindus that the "secular purpose" argument currently used to defend a Good Friday holiday will indicate that the government should create an official holiday to accommodate the high absences of Muslims or Hindus. If the government doesn't do that, then arguments that Good Friday holidays have a secular purpose are a sham.
If, however, the government does create official holidays for Muslim or Hindu holy days while forcing Christians to take personal or vacation days for Good Friday, would Christians feel put upon? Would Christians object if schools were closed for a Hindu or Muslim holy day while their children had to get a special excuse in order to be absent on Good Friday? If the answer to either of those is "yes," then perhaps Christians shouldn't cause the same to happen to Muslims, Hindus, and adherents of other minority faiths today.
Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, right?
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