Public call for more paid holiday

Tongzhou residents were not feeling particularly joyful on Lantern Festival Monday, after they claimed some local officials were given the day off, even though it was not a public holiday.

Meanwhile, there has been a groundswell of public opinion calling for a day off for the celebration, even to the extent of asking for the Spring Festival break to be extended to two weeks.

Several residents went to Yongshun township government in Tongzhou Monday, but were told that "all the officials had the day off since it was Lantern Festival," according to the Beijing Times yesterday.　

"I went all the way to the government office to do business, but there weren't any proper officials handling things, except for two people on duty who told me to come back the next day," said a resident surnamed Liu.

"How come the officials got the one day off as everybody else still had to work?" said Liu, "This is outrageous."

The local government denied anyone had been given a day off, saying that there were fewer people in the office because they were working outside.

"There was at least one official in each department that day. The residents might feel there were fewer people there, because many officials were sent outside to supervise fireproofing work," said a publicity official for Tongzhou district, surnamed Wu.

The Lantern Festival is not a public holiday, although it is considered to be as important as other traditional festivals like Qingming Festival, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid-Autumn Festival, which are all public holidays.

"Since the other traditional holidays are public holidays, why is Lantern Festival an exception?" said a local resident surnamed Shen, "Making Lantern Festival an official holiday will promote awareness of its significance."

Yesterday, 96 percent of almost 3,000 Web users on Sina Weibo strongly felt that the day ought to be a legal holiday, and were critical of those who objected to the idea.　

"If we could make it a public holiday, together with Spring Festival, the huge stress of traveling during the holiday period might be decreased," said Zhou Yu, a 29-year-old resident.

"Since it's very close to the Spring Festival, people won't need to rush to book tickets over just those few days," Zhou said.

"From a cultural perspective," said Fei Sheng, who specializes in history as a PhD candidate at Peking University, "it's also a festival for family reunion, so we have enough reason to make it an official holiday.

Fei also agrees that the holiday could be extended to two weeks, as compared to many other countries, Chinese workers do not have so many paid annual vacation days.

"According to international standards, employees in Western countries have at least 45 days annual paid holiday. In some European nations, they even have up to three months holiday," he said.

According to Chinese labor laws, in China, in addition to public holidays, most employees only have 5 days paid annual leave, until they have worked for 10 years at the same company, when it rises to 10 days annually.

"The Spring Festival break is not enough, and people cannot concentrate their mind on working, that's why people waste time playing things like mahjong at work," Fei said.

More official paid vacation days should be given, so that people have a better quality of life, Fei remarked.　

But some employees did enjoy a day off or shorter working hours Monday, such as those working at the China Geological Survey Bureau. However Guan Xin, a researcher from Beijing Folklore Society does not think it is a good idea to extend the holiday.

"We all know every traditional holiday represents part of China's cultural heritage, but that doesn't necessarily make it a legal holiday," said Guan.

Guan feels that during the week-long New Year holiday, the nation is already overstretched as it is. If the holiday is extended, a number of industries would suffer from staff shortages, in particular the service sector, he said.　

"If we make it a two-week holiday, how are we going to handle problems like a lack of staff to work in catering or as cleaners?" Guan noted.