Katy Gallagher is reminding us that 27 September is a public holiday for the sweet fun of it, aka Family and Community Day.
In saner polities public holidays are held in commemoration, remembrance, or to serve a specific purpose.
But here in Canberra we’re having one because we haven’t had one in a while and everyone else in Australia gets this many so we’re not going to miss out.
Which, some could say, rather devalues the commemoration entailed in the other days. (Although to be fair Katy considers FAC Day a remembrance of the union picnic day).
Some of you might recall that Family and Community Day started life as a holiday for the Melbourne Cup, until the public made clear that they preferred a day they could get pissed at work and failed to turn up at the Labor Club in sufficient numbers to make it worthwhile.
As a cunning compromise we now don’t have to spend the Melbourne Cup with our families, and can instead eat cold chicken and drink cheap sparkling white while flirting with the hottie from four desks over who always looks when we walk to the printer.
But we also get a holiday in September!
Katy suggests you might want to spend it at an ACT Government owned enterprise, Floriade.