And while it's all fine and well to talk about the number of long weekends - we can't ignore the historical and cultural significance of those holidays.
Days like Settlement Day on November 19th, and Independence Day on September 21st, have to be observed on those specific dates.
And the Tenth of September used to be one of those - an observance that could not, for historical reasons, be moved.
But this year, in what is a first according to our records, the observance of the Tenth - which falls on a Tuesday - is falling back to Monday the ninth.
One group that is not happy about this is the St George's Caye Day Society, which issued a release stating that " We hope that the change in date for the Battle of St George's Caye celebration was an oversight and was not done with malice. It is the duty of the Government and people of Belize to safeguard nationalism and patriotism in commemoration of all our national heritage."
Today, the press asked the minister about this change in the public and bank holidays for 2024, and he says that the 10th is a moveable holiday which he claims has been moved before.
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"I believe it falls on a Tuesday if I'm not mistaken, and so the holiday will be celebrated on the Monday the 9th."
REPORTER-
"Some would say you that you know the day is the 10th. We've never had the 10th in Lieu?"
"The tenth is almost sacrosanct we shouldn't change that."
Kareem Musa, Minister of Home Affairs
"No if you look at whenever we do have the 10th holiday I am pretty sure this is not the first time we are moving it to a Monday and that is during our September celebrations and so you normally have events that are planned for that long weekend normally the 10th and the 21st if they fall close to a Monday or a Friday that is when the holidays normally celebrated and so you would have events like the Belikin Fest the carnival and those types of events are normally held during that time and so that was the thinking behind it to move it to a long weekend and make it The Monday Holiday instead of Tuesday."
"We took into consideration, as you know, Ms, Marin, Yaya Marin has been advocating for the observation of that holiday. I had promised it on the last occasion about a year ago because they wanted it to be shifted last year, but so many people had already made adjustments to their calendars. The schools had already made adjustments the workplace had already made adjustments, and so now that holiday in particular will be observed on the day itself, which I think is a Thursday I believe."
