Business Takes a Holiday Wherever It Can
With Easter falling in March this year, the holiday calendar for April is pretty thin. After April Fool’s Day on the first, the only other widely celebrated holiday on the horizon is Tax Day. And while it is heartwarming to see pale accountants emerge from their winter travails in hopes of seeing their shadows, April 15 is usually not a cause for wild celebration.
But the holiday calendar in April as far as business and the economy is concerned is as bare as Old Mother Hubbard’s empty cupboard, putting a fine point on T.S. Eliot’s contention that it is the cruelest month.
While there are days devoted to administrative assistants and bosses and even the month of December is celebrated in some parts as Write a Business Plan Month, there is only a small handful of holidays celebrating business enterprise throughout the year.
Sure, there is Mom and Pop Business Owners Day in March, and American Business Women’s Day in September, along with Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Day in June, but that is about it, outside of the Small Business Saturday in November. But that last “holiday” seems more like a few crumbs left over from Thanksgiving and Black Friday than a day devoted to celebrating small business. After all, small-business owners have to work on Small Business Saturday.
There are a few days set aside for business-adjacent festivities, but how much fun is Fair Trade Day in May likely to be, or Work From Home Day bear the end of June. And do employees working from home go into the office that day as part of the celebration or do they just put in a full day in the home office as usual?
To be fair, there are a lot of holidays that imply a business component – some more of a stretch than others. There are at least 120 days devoted to foods of all kinds and more than 30 celebrating beverages from iced tea to whiskey. All of those have at least some connection to business in that they were grown, distilled, brewed or otherwise created by someone running a business. Even eating utensils have their day in the sun in February for Chopsticks Day.
But business and commerce, the driving force of the American economy and foundation of vital and sustainable communities is virtually ignored.
While we are not likely to see a National Board of Directors Day or C-Suite Week or even Human Resources Appreciation Month anytime soon, it is worth considering that there should be room in the cornucopia of holiday celebrations to take a day to reflect on the role of the economy in our lives.
Perhaps it could be tied to Adam Smith, author of “The Wealth of Nations,” one of the first accounts of what builds a nation’s wealth and seminal work of classical economics. Or maybe John Maynard Keynes, the English economist whose ideas reshaped macroeconomic theory in the 20th century.
Until then, we can only lament the paucity of business-related holidays and wait for Get Over It Day next March. Or we can celebrate another holiday that deserves more attention, National Columnists’ Day on April 18. It’s as good a reason as any to have a party.
