They have the right idea about holidays here in Japan.

If the holiday falls on a weekend, then the following Monday is automatically off work as a “Substitute Holiday”. This should definitely be adapted in the States (if not the rest of the world). I cant tell you how many times holidays fell on the weekend and I was unable to reap the benefits of an extra day off.

Well, in Mexico we blow shit up on almost any holiday. Seriously, I can’t imagine why, but for many mexicans holiday=”blow as many things as you can even if you are a 3 years old” It can get very annoying on religious holidays, overall if you live in a small town. Some guys blow up explosives that are very similar to fireworks, just they don’t produce colorful effects: yep, they just make a horrible noise. Believe me, they can blow up hundreds of these explosives (named cohetes) in just one day. Nevertheless, there are also better things to watch:

In India, we celebrate Diwali (or Deepavali, if you are from the South), the Festival of lights. It commemorates the return of Prince Rama (an incarnation of Vishnu) to his kingdom after he rescues his wife Sita from the Evil Ten-headed demon Ravana, the King of Lanka. It is celebrated by burning lots of oil lamps and bursting truckloads of fire crackers manufactured by factories of tiny child-labourers from poor families in horrible working conditions.

In nz we celebrate Guys Fawkes Night, the failed assaination attempt of King James. It largly sucks now, since all the good fireworks have been banned, cause of morons (stronger words are probably needed) putting them in body cavities of cats etc.

@ Alphast:
All of this sounds pretty much like Denmark :)

Has it been a year? Really? I still remember your last independence day post XD I also maintain that yours are the best in the blogosphere =P

Here in Sweden we usually blow shit up on New Years Eve and Walpurgis Night. We also burn shit in huge bonfires on the last one =)

I kinda wish we celebrated your independence day here too. Swedish national day celebrations just don’t measure up…

@ MrPete:

Well on New Year’s Eve you can shoot rockets and stuff, and right now, during a Soccer-World Cup, pretty much anything is acceptable, when Germany wins ;)

Germany is LAME considering fireworks.
Sure, there’s nice things like “Böllern” before a wedding in my area when you use a gas-filled tube to produce loud bangs (it’s said to scare ghosts and since I never see any it seems to work. Oh, and it’s totally annoying the neighbours!).
But whenever you want to blow something up that’s larger than a single firecracker you need permission…

You have to have a license here in Israel to use fireworks, and most, if not all, the citizens abide to that rule – the only time you see fireworks is when the municipal authority uses them, or in large events by trained people.

you may see some small firecrackers, usually small kids buy them illegally, but it seems that there are less of those now than 10 years ago.

anyhow, this reminds me of this video:
http://www.milkandcookies.com/link/60440/detail/
:)

We have ‘Bonfire Night’ or Guy Fawkes Night (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guy_Fawkes_Night) here in the uk. Although alot of the time we can blow shit up anytime we want – although thanks to the terror laws you can get in trouble for it these days. We also blow shit up on new years eve.

I hope all you guys over in the US had an enjoyable, drunk and, most importantly, safe time.

Remember kids, it’s always funny until someone gets hurt… then it’s hilarious!