Sources: Asia News and Hong Kong Public Holidays. The Chinese deputy director of the State Administration of Religious Affairs, Qi Xiaofei, indicated yesterday, for the first time, that Beijing was in support of replacing one of Hong Kong's 3 Easter-related public holidays (Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday) with a public holiday to mark Confucius' birthday.Analysis: As set out last year by Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Donald Tsang Yam-kuen, the proposed change would hinge upon the acceptance by Christian religious groups, of the removal of one of the current Christian holidays. However, already contacted on the matter, both Catholic and Protestant groups have said that they were not opposed to it.
Since Easter 2007 has already passed, it is unlikely that a public holiday for Confucius' birthday would be celebrated in 2007, making it more likely that the holiday would first be observed as an official public holiday in Hong Kong, on Friday, September 26, 2008.
As to which Easter public holiday would be removed, there are no indications. As Holy Saturday is sandwiched between 2 other public holidays, it would not make much sense to cancel it. Therefore the choice is between Good Friday and Easter Monday. If we had to guess, we would venture that it would be Easter Monday that would be cancelled, bringing Hong Kong's Easter-related public holidays in line with those of Macau and, most importantly, with most of its financial and trading partners such as Singapore, and to a lesser extent, Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the USA.
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