Give us a day off!

British workers are hard done by when it comes to public holidays - and it seems they will miss out on a new proposal to have an extra day off to mark "Europe Day". So when should we be given a break?

Is one more day so much to ask?

New public holidays are popping up in calendars around the world. Indeed, the very first action of the new Iraqi governing council was to scrap all the days of celebration linked to glorifying Saddam Hussein and declare that workers can down tools on 9 April to mark his recent downfall.

In Europe, holiday hopes were raised last week by a suggestion that 9 May should become Europe Day - to commemorate a 1950 speech by Robert Schuman calling for the creation of a European coal and steel organisation.

Although the rather dry pretext for such a holiday might not encourage anyone to put up the bunting and have a street party, an extra day off would not go amiss in the UK - which has fewer public holidays than many other nations.

The United States has public holidays in January (Martin Luther King Day), February (Presidents Day), May (Memorial Day), June (Flag Day), July (Independence Day), September (Labor Day), October (Columbus Day) and two in November (Veterans Day and Thanksgiving).

While some of these days are rather controversial - particularly Martin Luther King Day and Columbus Day - and observance is patchy, this tally of days off beats the five days in April, May and August Britons enjoy.

The Japanese celebrate their older citizens

The Japanese fare even better in the holiday stakes - taking more than a dozen days off for such things as to honour the Emperor, to respect the aged, to ponder nature and to improve their physical fitness.

While Germans enjoy about the same number of public holidays, they are spread across the year more evenly, with some areas celebrating Carnival in February and the nation joining together to mark National Day in October.

It seems doubtful that Europe Day - put forward by the EU's Constitutional Convention - will be adopted in the UK and will only mean a day off for those who work for EU institutions.

Anyway, the last thing we need is another public holiday in May, says Cary Cooper, professor of organisational psychology at the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology.

"Why the heck are they all in spring? The critical time for an extra bank holiday would be either in February or in October. It wouldn't kill us to have another day off and it would help productivity to have another long weekend."

---

So when should we have a day off? Spring, summer, autumn or winter? And what event should it mark? A historical event, a notable person's birthday or something more abstract?

Send us your suggestions using the form below. Some of the best will be selected and BBC News Online users will have the opportunity to vote for their favourite.