Music Monday - Easter Monday should be a holiday!!!!

Easter Monday is an official holiday in 117 countries. Including the US Virgin Islands. (would love to be there right now - 3rd Monday in a row that it is damp, rainy, yucky!)  It is celebrated as a day of rest, a day for many to enjoy the time outdoors in countries such as Australia and Canada. Easter parades occur in some parts of the world on Easter Monday. It is known as Dyngus, or Splash Monday, among many Polish communities where children often play water games.  In fact there is the largest Dyngus Day celebration up in Buffalo, NY!

Easter Monday was formerly regarded as unlucky and was therefore known as Black Monday (White Monday in Greece). Many sources attribute this expression to great losses of life during military expeditions but Monday itself was generally considered unlucky. It meant returning to school after the Easter break for many school children and was also known as Bloody Monday.  In medieval England women were allowed to haul out of bed any man they found there. Even Kings Edward I and Edward II went through this tradition. It was traditional for men to lift women three times by the arms and legs in northern England, where women would return the act on the following day. Easter Monday was known as the Day of the Easter Egg Bundle or the Day of Feasts in Ireland.  “Easter sprinkling”, a tradition that lives on to this day in Hungary, is based on the belief in the cleansing power of water, and it is connected to a fertility rite. Easter Monday is also called “Dousing Monday”, because the young men used to go around the village and drench the girls with buckets of water freshly drawn from the well. 

There is a big egg rolling race held on the lawn of the White House in Washington DC on Easter Monday. Sometimes even the President takes part in the "White House Easter Egg Roll”.   You guessed it, eggs are rolled down a hill or slope.

So why is this not an official holiday here in the US?  I have tried to find a good answer, and have found nothing but others wondering the same. It is celebrated in certain areas of the US, and Easter Monday was even a public holiday in North Carolina from 1935 to 1987.

I for one would vote to have it re-instated as a public holiday nation wide.  Or maybe I will fly away to the US Virgin Islands next year!  Happy Music Monday! (video will open in new tab when clicked twice)