Mullings: An American Cyber-column By Rich Galen

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Victory Day

Monday, September 29, 2003

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You may remember reading that during this past summer there was a heat wave in Europe. During that heat wave some 15,000 elderly French people died. That is not funny. That is a tragedy.

Before we go any farther, let me respectfully suggest that the United Nations adopt a resolution denouncing the French Government for being so criminally indifferent to its elderly citizens that it would allow this tragedy to occur.

That's not going to happen, so let us proceed.

In the US, we have five official Monday holidays: Martin Luther King's Birthday; Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Columbus Day.

In addition, many US workers take as a holiday: New Year's Day, Independence Day, Veteran's Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

That's 10 days in all, with most of us working at least some of those. The Friday after Thanksgiving doesn't count as a national holiday but for most of us, it is. Similarly, when New Year's or Christmas falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday it's a four-day weekend for many people.

In France there are 11 official national holidays. To help increase the amount of federal funds available for the elderly an idea has been floated to do away with one of the holidays - Pentecost is most often mentioned as the one French workers would give up.

The idea is, that by working one extra day the money generated in withheld taxes for Social Security would be earmarked for senior programs.

Ok so far. But that's not what got my attention. What got my attention was the list, in a New York Times article by Elaine Sciolino, of the other holidays:

New Year's Day, Easter Monday, Labor Day, Victory Day, Ascension, Bastille Day, Assumption, All Saints' Day, Remembrance Day, and Christmas Day.

The words "Victory" and "France" are not ones we typically see in the same century, much less the same sentence, so I investigated the nature of "Victory Day."

I assumed it must celebrate the one day, maybe in 778, when Charlemagne's armies weren't actually in full retreat.

That wasn't it because, in 778 Charlemagne's army was, in fact, nearly wiped out by the Basques while retreating through the Pyrenees.

Actually, Victory Day is celebrated on or about May 8 which is the day marking the end of World War II in Europe.

This, too, is ironic, as the French Army had not actually been involved in World War II in Europe after June 22, 1940 when - exactly 1,162 years almost to the DAY after Charlemagne lost much of his army, and five long WEEKS after the German army crossed the French border - his successors surrendered to the Germans.

One of the reasons the French economy is going down le' tubes is because of the many, many vacation days, the mandated 35-hour work week, a retirement age of 55, and the fact that much of the workforce is made up of people who are � French.

Earlier this month the French Finance Ministry announced proudly that the economy of France was set to grow by a total of 0.3% for 2003.

Compare and contrast this with the following from Reuters last week regarding growth in the US economy: "Many forecasters anticipate [US] GDP growth is set to accelerate to rates of 4 percent or higher in the third and fourth quarters."

So, giving up a holiday to actually work might � work, but comes now the mayor of the French city of N�mes who appealed to the prime minister to change his mind, asserting that the plan would damage the city's tourism industry.

And what, you ask, is the foundation of N�mes' tourism industry? According to the NY Times piece, "The annual running of the bulls takes place there every Pentecost weekend."

Maybe N�mes should, in honor of Pentecost, switch to the "annual running of the Paschal Lambs."

On the Secret Decoder Ring page today: Dozens of links and explanations today. Including what Pentecost represents and what a Paschal Lamb is, a short WWII timeline for 1940; a very short history of the reign of Charlemagne and a Mullfoto of the BIRTHPLACE of the REPUBLICAN PARTY!

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