{"id":5887,"date":"2017-08-05T14:10:02","date_gmt":"2017-08-05T14:10:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/?p=5887"},"modified":"2017-08-05T14:10:02","modified_gmt":"2017-08-05T14:10:02","slug":"minister-says-no-holiday-for-emancipation-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/minister-says-no-holiday-for-emancipation-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister says no holiday for Emancipation Day"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The calls for Emancipation Day to made a public holiday has gotten the red light from Festivals and Culture Minister E. P. Chet Greene.<\/p>

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Ministers told state media that the day should not be used for any other activity but sober reflection.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything can\u2019t be a holiday, emancipation is so significant a day that we need not put it in the frame of what public holidays are\u00a0in Antigua.\u201d<\/p>

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Greene said public holiday in Antigua and Barbuda are traditionally used for \u2018jump up\u2019 and \u2018fetes.\u2019<\/p>

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\u201cWhat do we have as public holidays in Antigua is jam and wine, Emancipation Day is not that, it is a day for reflection. It is a day when we think about our fore bearers, our ancestors, the struggles that lead to emancipation; it’s a day when we introspectively reflect on where the country is and where we are going. We don\u2019t need to put that in the frame of a jump up,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n

The significance of having Carnival and emancipation around the same time is significant, and Greene explains why,<\/p>

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\u201cThe concept of having emancipation in the park within the carnival is a deliberate and strategic intervention to have more culture exhibits in the national festivities. Carnival, for the most part, is a song and dance, a lot of our other cultural exhibits are left out of Carnival celebration, and we are saying no bring that into the Mele’ as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

So instead of a public holiday, Greene wants to make the day a super productive day.<\/p>

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\u201cWe should be glad to work on Emancipation Day. It is about our freedom and our taking the rights and responsibilities for our own destiny. That’s the day when productivity should be at peak and so rather than taking a holiday to go to the beach and to go to jump up somewhere in a J’ouvert, we’re suggesting that we buckle down as a country and give value to the work of our fore bearers, by having that being a super productive day,\u201d he said.<\/p>

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Emancipation celebrations were held in the botanical gardens during a week-long observance.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The calls for Emancipation Day to made a public holiday has gotten the red light from Festivals and Culture Minister E. P. Chet Greene. Ministers told state media that the day should not be used for any other activity but sober reflection. \u201cEverything can\u2019t be a holiday, emancipation is so significant a day that we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2114,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","category-featured"],"yoast_head":"\nMinister says no holiday for Emancipation Day - Antigua News Room<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/antiguanewsroom.com\/minister-says-no-holiday-for-emancipation-day\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Minister says no holiday for Emancipation Day\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The calls for Emancipation Day to made a public holiday has gotten the red light from Festivals and Culture Minister E. 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