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- HOLIFEDS.BAT
- ============
- by Stephen Ferg 1992 Dec 11
-
- HOLIFEDS.BAT is a companion batch file to HOLIDAYS.BAT. It is designed
- specifically to be useful to employees of the Federal government.
-
- The purpose of HOLIFEDS.BAT is to aid Federal employees and managers in
- planning for holidays by calculating a list Federal holidays for a given
- year. It calculates both Federal holidays and days that -- because they
- fall between a holiday and a weekend (or another holiday) -- are likely
- to be popular as annual-leave days.
-
- The #mod function was added to Fdate version 7.0 to support the
- calculation of Inauguration Day in HOLIFEDS.BAT. Now that it is
- supported by FDATE, the #mod function can be used to deal with any kind
- of event that occurs at fixed intervals.
-
-
- FEDERAL HOLIDAYS
- ================
- Calculating Federal holidays is a tricky business because there are
- three different types of Federal holiday:
-
- 1. Holidays that are fixed to a certain calendar date, such as July 4.
- These are what OPM calls "date-certain" holidays.
-
- 2. "Floating" holidays, that are attached to the Nth day-of-the-week
- in a certain month. Labor Day, for example, is the first Monday in
- September. A minor variation on this theme is Memorial Day, which
- is specified as being the LAST Monday in May.
-
- 3. Inauguration Day, which is in a class by itself.
-
-
- Here is the official Office of Personnel Management (OPM)
- description of how Federal holidays are determined for a given year.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
- begin: OPM Federal Holidays Documentation
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
- FEDERAL HOLIDAYS
-
- Federal holidays are always the same regardless of the calendar year.
- That is to say, the language of Title 5, United States Code, Section
- 6103, can be applied to any year simply by comparing the list of
- holidays to a calendar and marking the calendar. There are two things
- to keep in mind regarding holidays that are date certain (e.g., January
- 1, July 4, November 11, and December 25); first all such days which fall
- on Saturday will be celebrated on the preceding Friday and, secondly,
- all such days which fall on a Sunday will be celebrated on the
- succeeding Monday.
-
- Here is the list of Federal holidays for each year (there are 10):
-
- 1. New Year's Day, January 1
- 2. Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the third Monday in January
- 3. Washington's Birthday, the third Monday in February
- 4. Memorial Day, the last Monday in May
- 5. Independence Day, July 4
- 6. Labor Day, the first Monday in September
- 7. Columbus Day, the second Monday in October
- 8. Veteran's Day, November 11
- 9. Thanksgiving Day, the fourth Thursday in November
- 10. Christmas Day, December 25
-
- Additionally, for employees employed in the District of Columbia,
- Montgomery and Prince Georges Counties in Maryland, Arlington & Fairfax
- Counties in Virginia, and the cities of Falls Church, and Alexandria,
- VA, January 20 of each fourth year after 1965, Inauguration Day, is a
- legal public holiday. If it falls on Sunday, it shall be the next
- succeeding day selected for the public observance of the President's
- inauguration.
-
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
- For more information, write:
- United States Office of Personnel Management
- Washington, DC 20415
- or telephone OPM at (202) 606-2858.
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
- end: OPM Federal Holidays Documentation
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
-
- There are some interesting aspects to this formula.
-
-
- NEW YEAR'S DAY
- ==============
- A holiday may be celebrated in a different year than the one in which
- it occurs. Specifically, if January 1 falls on a Saturday, it is
- celebrated on the preceeding Friday, which is December 31 of the
- preceding year. An example is New Year's Day, 1983, which was
- celebrated on the last day of 1982.
-
-
- INAUGURATION DAY
- ================
- Every 4th year is Presidential Inauguration year. Inauguration Day is a
- date-certain holiday occurring on January 20. Federal employees who work
- in Washington, DC and the surrounding metropolitan area get Inauguration
- day as a holiday, primarily to minimize traffic congestion on the day of
- the big event. For Federal employees working in other locations,
- Inauguration Day is not a holiday.
-
- Unlike other date-certain holidays, if Inauguration Day occurs on a
- Saturday, it is celebrated on the Saturday.
-
- Like other date-certain holidays, if Inauguration Day occurs on a Sunday,
- it is pushed to the following Monday, January 21. The interesting thing
- is that if January 20 or 21 falls on a Monday, it is the third Monday in
- January, and therefore it is also the occasion for celebrating Martin
- Luther King's birthday. So there are four different scenarios for
- Inauguration Day:
-
- Falls on a Saturday, so there is no special Federal holiday : 2001
- Falls on a Sunday but moved to Monday (same as MLK birthday) : 1985
- Falls on a Monday (same as MLK birthday) : 1997
- Falls on Tuesday-Friday, Federal workers get an extra holiday: 1993
-
-
-
- CHRISTMAS EVE
- =============
- There is also an unofficial holiday tradition that the OPM formula does
- not mention. Traditionally, when Christmas Day falls on a Friday the
- President grants leave to Federal employees for the afternoon of the
- preceding Thursday, Christmas Eve. There is, however, nothing official
- about this tradition, and there have been presidents who did not adhere
- to it. Lyndon Johnson, for instance, did not grant leave to Federal
- employees on Thursday, Dec. 24, 1964.
-