I don't mind holidays. In fact, I'm a huge, HUGE fan of two types of holidays: the ones that mean a day off from work, and the ones that mean some kind of home decorating is in order. The other holidays? Not so much. Mostly I don't even pay attention.
This year, though, I've heard a few mumblings about Patriots' Day. (NOT to be confused with Patriot Day, which is September 11th.) Around the same time, I heard more mumblings about the tax filing deadline being extended this year. And in my mind, I linked the two. Now this seemed really odd, because I'd never even HEARD of Patriots' Day before--what the heck is it, some sort of new holiday? So I looked it up on the internet (what did we DO before the internet?!), and I found it's a holiday in only a handful of states that is celebrated to commemorate a couple of Revolutionary War battles. Really? The Revolutionary WAR? Why am I only hearing about it NOW? And what does it have to do with the tax filing deadline?
As most of you here in the U.S. probably already know, the tax filing deadline was extended this year to April 18th (normally it's on April 15th). So, thinking the extended period had something to do with this Patriots' Day thing, I looked further, and this is where my research gets a little hinkey. Here's what Wikipedia says about Patriots' Day and the tax deadline--
"Tax Day occasionally falls on Patriots' Day, a civic holiday in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and state of Maine, or the preceding weekend. When this occurs the tax deadline is extended by a day for the residents of Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont, and the District of Columbia. This is because the IRS processing center for these areas is located in Andover, Massachusetts, and the unionized IRS employees get the day off."
Now the weird thing: Patriots' Day is April 18th and so is the tax filing deadline. Huh?! What about those unionized IRS employees?
Of course, I then started wondering WHY the tax filing deadline was extended from Friday, April 15th, to Monday, April 18th, and guess what? It's yet ANOTHER holiday--Emancipation Day! Yep, a fairly new holiday, begun in 2005, that's celebrated only in Washington, D.C. Is that weird, or what? (And why does everyone back east get a couple of random "holidays" when all I get is a lousy extension on the tax filing deadline?!)
Oh, well, at least I have Administrative Professionals' Day to look forward to on April 27th. Now THAT's what I call a REAL holiday!
Posts
6 comments:
Kim,
Monday, April 18th is the day of the Boston Marathon - pretty much everything shuts down for that!
we CPA's however, normally celebrate the unknown holiday .. APRIL 16th .... the day to clean off the desk, empty the trash and not answer the phone! plus -- I can check out the accumulation of fabric I bought over the internet!!!
Some of these random holidays bust me up!! Very soon there will be so many we just can't keep track of them!!
But hey...you got a little bit of a history lesson out of it I guess right!!
As always i love to hear your thoughts!
Might I just say, that you have entirely too much time on your hands! LOL! I'm at work today and again on Friday, so these 'holidays' don't do much for me. But thanks for the lesson!
It's a good thing that I read your blog every day, or I wouldn't know what was going on. I had no idea about those holidays. Thanks for the history lesson.
cindy
Verra Interesting!
Post a Comment