For many Belizeans, the Christmas holiday weekend just wasn't long enough.
It's a debacle brought on by both holidays, Christmas Day falling on a Sunday, and Boxing day falling on the Monday.
Advocates for what they felt should have been a four day weekend say that by law, Christmas Day has to be observed on the Monday - thus pushing Boxing Day's observance to the Tuesday - which they say should have also been a holiday.
Today the Minister of Home Affairs explained that it's a matter of too many holidays casing the cost of business operations to go up.
Kareem Musa, Minister Of National Security
" Um, what the law says it that whenever a holiday falls on a Sunday the holiday is granted on the Monday but in this case Boxing Day was also a holiday that fell on a Monday and so by law there was not neccesairly the need to have a holiday on the Tuesday. It is only if there wasn't a holiday on the Monday and I think one could say that 2022 has been a year of many holidays and so we certainly would have caught the ire of the Chamber of Commerce had we granted a 15th holiday for 2022 but we can make it up of course for the new year, next week Monday is a holiday."
In 2023, there will be a four day weekend for the Christmas holiday.
