Spring Holiday

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This article is about the use of a secular term for religious holidays. For the seasonal vacation time, see Spring break.

Spring Holiday is a generic term sometimes used in place of Easter or Good Friday. Sometimes, "spring" or just "holiday" will replace Easter with combinations such as "The Spring Bunny" and "Spring Eggs."

This term is used primarily in the United States, and, to a lesser extent, in Canada. The use of the term is somewhat controversial, as many people believe it is being used to avoid recognition of, or to secularize, a religious holiday^[1]. Others suggest that the term is being used in an attempt include non-Christians who may not celebrate the holiday in question, or to enforce a separation of Church and state.^[2]

1 Usage
2 Controversy
3 See also
4 References
5 External links

[edit] Usage

The term "Spring Holiday" has been used by universities^[3], grade schools^[4], government offices^[5]^[6]^[7], and public media^[8]. In 1999, in Bridenbaugh v. O'Bannon, an Indiana state employee sued the governor over giving state employees Good Friday as a day off. The US Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against the plaintiff, citing, in part, that referring to Good Friday as "Spring Holiday" was evidence of a secular purpose and therefore not unconstitutional^[2]^[9].

While the term is often used to replace the name of Easter, some institutions use it for a springtime vacation that does not necessarily fall on a religious holiday, and others have attempted to include the Jewish holiday of Passover in their Spring Break^[10].

[edit] Controversy

Use of this term is often seen as part of, or as an expansion of, the secularization of Christian holidays^[1] and opponents claim that renaming this Christian holiday is an overzealous application of political correctness. After Good Friday and Christmas Day were replaced with "spring holiday" and "winter holiday" on the city calendar for Greencastle, Indiana, approximately 200 people protested the name change, some by singing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" at the council chambers. City councilman Mark Hammer said, during a meeting, “I believe this was political correctness run amok. When we use the terms ’winter holiday’ and ’spring holiday,’ we’re not being inclusive, we’re being exclusive.”^[11].

As recently as the mid-2000s, some retailers and government establishments have renamed and relabeled the secular aspects of the Easter holiday, including the popular mythological Easter Bunny, even though these secular aspects—and the word "Easter" itself—are not necessarily associated with Jesus or Christianity. These secular events and traditions are still celebrated, only with the term "Spring" replacing "Easter." This alternative generic terminology includes "Holiday Bunny," "The Bunny," "Children's Egg-Hunt" and "Holiday Eggstravaganza"^[12].

In the United States and Canada, it is rare for any religious holiday other than Christmas and Easter to be used as the basis for time off from school or work, which may explain why this controversy has only affected those days.

Conservative commentator Bill O'Reilly has stated he does not believe there is any secular conspiracy against Easter^[13], as he believes there to be in regard to Christmas.