Calls for day off work to celebrate Seniors’ Day
Print Edition
Experts and senior citizen organizations are lobbying for a day off on Seniors’ Day, which falls today this year, so Chinese can visit their parents.
The Chinese government made the ninth day of the ninth lunar month — or the Double-Ninth Festival — a day to honor senior citizens in 1989.
But this year’s Seniors’ Day will be the first time the holiday will be observed since written into the newly revised law on the protection of the rights and interests of the elderly.
Professor Zheng Gongcheng at Renmin University of China said the government should consider one day off on Seniors’ Day so people could have time to actually enjoy the holiday — just like Tomb-Sweeping Day and Mid-Autumn Festival.
“Seniors’ Day is not an occasion that only senior people should celebrate. Most elderly Chinese appreciate the company of their children,” Zheng said.
The current law requires adult children to regularly visit their elderly parents.
“A one-day national holiday for all on Seniors’ Day would send a signal from the state to encourage respect and care for the elderly,” Zheng said.
Dang Junwu, deputy director of the China Research Center on Aging, backed Zheng.
“Seniors’ Day should be a festival for every Chinese family and every citizen, because everyone will get old,” Dang said.
However, there were also calls for the full implementation of paid vacations instead.
“A one-day national holiday won’t help much. It would be better for my children to actually enjoy the paid vacations their employers promise,” said 80-year-old Xu Zhi.
China over-60s numbered 194 million last year.
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