That's a question which has been lingering in my mind for some time. I mean, it's a day all the government servants look forward to. Not only Christmas, the Government employees also look forward to Id, Mahavir's birthday, Guru Nanak's birthday, Bhuddha Purnima, Onam, Pongal and Holi etc. It comes down to nineteen holidays in 2008. And, mind you only three of those holidays are of national significance, Independence day, Republic day and Gandhi Jayanti, the rest are all to do with some religion or the other.

Sixteen holidays to placate various religions? It does not end there. There is Ambedkar Jayanti, which is always announced as a holiday one day prior to the actual day. That is to take care of the Dalits, the backward classes.

I have a feeling it is the holidays that unite the country. Now what would happen if the holidays of the other religions, I mean, any religion were just stopped. Do you think anyone would even come to know of the important days in other religions. If someone's kid is not going to get a gift from Santa, do you think the kid will even bother to ask who Santa is. The boss, in the office, do you think he would bother about a person's religious requirements. One can always pray after work hours, can't he?

Will someone burst crackers on Diwali if the day is not a holiday? They can always get away saying they did not have time. Even the kids will site home work for not being able to join friends for bursting crackers.

Ultimately, since our childhood we all have been brainwashed into thinking that all the festivals are a good thing because we get holidays for them. All the religious greats have been etched into our memory as greats, because of the holidays we have been getting all this while. If they had not been great, we would not have got holidays for them. The holiday makes the person or the occasion great. No one could care less otherwise.

It has it's positive side. We all are united even with different religions, customs and traditions because of the single fact that all of us get a holiday irrespective of who is celebrating the occasion and by that we are also encouraged into trying to understand the greatness of the occasion and also partake in the festivities. God bless the man who thought of such a wonderful idea to unite the people of this country.

What would happen if the festivals of one particular religion were not given importance in the schedule of closed holidays? I shudder to think of the answer. That religion will be slowly erased from the memory of the people and then from the history books and finally from this land. The phrase Unity in Diversity will not be able to stand for long and become Unity in Known Diversities.