Easter Monday is a public holiday in the following countries…

Albania (Eastern Rite Easter), Andorra, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Australia, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Botswana, British Virgin Islands, Bulgaria (Eastern Rite Easter), Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Canada 4, Cape Verde Islands, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Chad, Cook Islands, Côte d’Ivoire, Croatia, Cyprus (Eastern Rite Easter), Czech Republic (Pomlázka), Denmark, Dominica, Egypt (as Sham El Nessim) (Coptic Church), Equatorial Guinea, Faroe Islands, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia (Eastern Rite Easter), Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece (Eastern Rite Easter), Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guatemala, Guinea, Guyana, Haiti, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Isle of Man, Italy, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Latvia, Lebanon, Lesotho, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Republic of (Eastern Rite Easter), Malawi, Madagascar, Martinique, Moldova (Eastern Rite Easter), Monaco, Montenegro (Eastern Rite Easter), Montserrat, Namibia, Nauru, Netherlands, Netherlands Antilles, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Niue, Norway, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Romania (Eastern Rite Easter), Rwanda, Senegal, Serbia (Eastern Rite Easter), Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa (Family Day), Spain (in some autonomous communities), St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Pierre and Miquelon, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine (Eastern Rite Easter), United Kingdom, U.S. Virgin Islands, Vanuatu, Western Samoa, Zambia, Zimbabwe

….but not in the United States.

American conservatives love to say that America was “founded on God” – I can’t tell you how many times I hear this in a week – and yet, while they honor presidents and veterans and the workforce and their independence with public holidays, there is no holiday whatsoever to mark the foundation of the Christian religion, the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ!

This struck me as a hugely fun thing to say on American radio. So here it is. Does the lack of a U.S. public holiday for Easter owe more to America’s work ethic or its underlying heathenism?