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The Muslim Christian comparison doesn't really hold up, holy days they actually get off happen 2-3 times a year but Muslims have to pray five times a day every day. I would hope if a Christian or any other religion (or heck non religious students who need a mindfulness break) would be respected for a prayer break. Otherwise it would be unfair.
That said more holidays sounds great so by all means give us the Muslim ones off of school too 😎
You are missing the point.
Easter this year is the 31st of March.
The ENTIRE COUNTRY (the UK this is) will be forced to SHUT DOWN for the weekend, whether they are Christian or not. Banks. Businesses. Everything will close for the entire weekend.
But wait -- it gets worse.
The school year is split into three terms -- Winter, Spring and Summer. And because Easter is so early (because a bunny looked at a gopher's shadow or something) the Spring term starts in January (with the New Year) and ends on the 24th of March (I think). That's barely enough time to get kids settled in their classes. Then the summer term is like A BILLION WEEKS LONG because Easter is so early.
Then --- when Easter is a lot later -- you get the two bank holidays in May (one of which is religious, one of which isn't) that fuck up the summer term and make it almost not worth going back for the one week before you are off again.
This is entirely because of Christian holy days
And on top of all this there is the fact we still keep "Sunday special" -- a day that only one religion gives a crap about. Thankfully we are getting over that and starting to treat Sunday like every other day of the week. But if you ask most people they think it should still be "a rest day" because it is Sunday.
This entire country bends over backwards to accommodate Christianity in everything it does, and yet the Little Englanders always feel Christians are hard-done by.
Well like I said I have no issues with the holidays being changed! Either adding more or changing the dates so everyone can celebrate their own religious or non religious traditions on the same days. Agree with you about Sundays too, nobody should be forced to work that day but otherwise I don't think it should be treated differently. I don't think that changes the leaving class to pray points though.
You entirely disagree with me about Sundays, as it turns out, but I can see how you could have misunderstood that :)
This entire country bends over backwards to accommodate Christianity in everything it does, and yet the Little Englanders always feel Christians are hard-done by.
Might be one of those "you don't respect me as an authority but I'm going to act as if you don't respect me as a person" kinda things.
It is not legally required for places to close for any of these holidays, and a large amount simply do not (whether it's the majority or not I cannot say). I have worked in many places where I don't get these days off.
On these holidays... most people go out and go places which need people working, so businesses choosing to close on these holidays is their own decision, which they should do in my opinion, it's nice to know that you and everyone you know is off. I don't really care why we're having the holiday.
I'm pretty sure Sunday trading laws do actually require businesses to close early on a Sunday.
Yeah I've just looked it up;
any shop that is over the size of 3,000 sq ft (somewhat arbitrary size but there you go) may only open on a Sunday between the hours of 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Attempts to remove this restriction have historically been politically blocked
The rest of the time they can do what they want which usually means 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. or just 24 hour
Most supermarkets will be 24-hour except on Sundays when they weirdly close at 4:00 p.m. - if they were legally allowed to be open longer I'm sure they would be.
This is true but we're talking about holidays, not Sundays.
Personally I think having a day where you can't do anything except chill is quite good honestly, would rather everything just be shut on Sunday.
Christians by the bible and old customs are also supposed to pray in the morning noon and evening. Thats why the churches ring the bell at those times.
So it is only by not taking their religion all too serious anymore that christians dont ask for their noon prayer.
There seems to be a misunderstanding here. I assume you're referring to Psalm 55. Psalm 55:16-19 (NLT):
But I will call on God,
and the Lord will rescue me.
Morning, noon, and night
I cry out in my distress,
and the Lord hears my voice.
He ransoms me and keeps me safe
from the battle waged against me,
though many still oppose me.
God, who has ruled forever,
will hear me and humble them.That's not a mandate, it's a description of how often David prayed. But there is a mandate in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:
Always be joyful. Never stop praying. Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
God is always listening, and He doesn't like it when prayers (as in people who pray) babble just to check boxes. The same almost certainly applies to scheduled prayers. If there's a legitimate purpose, there's nothing wrong with that, but praying just because it's praying time doesn't make sense. Especially since we're supposed to keep the comms open all the time anyways.
Thanks, i thought it was explicitly stated.
Not sure how you are interpreting the Thessalonians verse, which EXPLICITLY says “never stop praying” as god doesn’t like it when people pray for no reason. Seems to me that, at least for this specific verse, this is exactly what god wants.
I didn't mean that was how I was interpreting Thessalonians. That bit instead stems from Jesus talking about how to pray. He said something along the lines of "don't babble like pagans, who think they'll be heard because of their many words."
"Never stop praying," depending on how you read it, either means "be praying at literally every moment," "never abandon the practice of prayer," or some more vague "be in the attitude of prayer all the time." I always thought it was the latter, as some translations say "pray without ceasing." The first just doesn't make sense. I'll have to do some more research later. But that's why I said "we're supposed to keep the comms open all the time anyways."
I'm back with more research. In the original Greek, the word used there was "adialeiptōs," which is typically translated as "without ceasing." Looking up its definition, I got "without intermission, incessantly, without ceasing." The word was also used as part of the following verses (KJV because it's a more direct translation):
For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my prayers (Romans 1:9)
We give thanks to God always for you all, making mention of you in our prayers; remembering without ceasing your work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight of God and our Father (1 Thessalonians 1:2)
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe. (1 Thessalonians 2:13)
And in adjective form:
that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. (Romans 9:2)
I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day (2 Timothy 1:3)
The most common interpretation among theologians seems to be the "keep the comms open" kind of thing, but it looks like another valid interpretation, especially given that last verse, is more like "don't take any days off from prayer." Nor periods of the day. In other words, be praying a lot, and never pause that practice.
Morning, noon, and night I cry out in my distress, and the Lord hears my voice
That's just playing The Sims.
I know Catholics and Anglicans have liturgy of the hours, but based on what I learned in my studies they have never been mandatory save for priests and nuns! Contrasted with Islam where praying five times a day is one of the five pillars of the faith and salvation is seen as dependent on those.
For daily prayers, yes that is a daily occurance. We pray 5 times a day but only the afternoon prayers are something we'd need to take a break for.
But you can work around it and you might only need to take a 5 minute break once a day. So like the post and you have mentioned it's not that much of an interruption.
However, Fridays are a different story. We have to go our sermon which might be an hour so. In the US Saturday+Sundays are off so that's not something that would interfere with a work/school schedule. Personally, in our high school we held our own prayers after school on Fridays. But I know for a fact that didn't work for all my Muslim peers.
Holidays are another issue, we'd need to take 2 days off a year to observe our holidays. I wouldn't go as far as so say this is systemic oppression. You just get an excused absence or use pto lol.
Where it would become a problem is if your requests to take off work/school were to be denied. But thankfully that isn't usually an issue in the US.
Besides, in some school districts non-Christian holidays are starting to become recognized and may already be off.
Overall there is a consistent minor friction causes by daily schedule differences. And especially in school a student may never even ask for accommodations for fear of being "different". Even though when you ask generally when you ask you will be accommodated.