Lanka pushes for full-fledged UN holiday for Vesak

UNITED NATIONS - Sri Lanka is leading an effort to have Vesak declared a full-fledged UN holiday.

The proposal will first go before the Administrative and Budgetary Committee and finally before the 193member General Assembly, the highest policy making body at the United Nations, for approval.

Currently, the UN annually commemorates a Day of National Observance for Vesak, a move that was successfully initiated by former Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar on the recommendation of the International Buddhist Conference in 1998.

In 1999, Sri Lanka and 15 other countries requested a UN holiday for Vesak, a sacred day to the world’s more than 500 million Buddhists and a national holiday in Buddhist-majority countries.

The UN advised that there would be financial implications and the countries concerned settled for the UN acknowledging the importance of the day.

Recently when Israel requested that Yom Kippur be declared a holiday, the UN revising its position, advised there would be no financial implications.

As a consequence, a number of Buddhist and other countries, led by Sri Lanka, have revived the request that Vesak be declared a UN holiday. Currently the matter is being dis- cussed at the highest levels at the UN.

Following Sri Lanka's initiative, India has suggested that it may ask that days sacred to Hindus, Jains and Sikhs also be declared holidays by the UN.

Saudi Arabia has proposed that uniform criteria be adopted by the UN for declaring religious holidays. These would include the number of adherents of a religion and whether a particular day is observed as a national holiday by many countries.

Currently, the Christians have two full-fledged UN holidays: Good Friday and Christmas, and Muslims enjoying holidays for Eid ul-Fitr (Ramadan festival) and Eid ul-Adha (Haj festival).