Vermont pauses in August for Bennington Battle Day, to honor its revolutionary forefathers. Louisiana takes Mardi Gras off, surely to engage in sober pre-Lenten reflection.
Some state employees in California take a day off to honor labor leader Cesar Chavez. And many Chicagoans can thank Revolutionary War hero Casimir Pulaski for letting them sleep late on the first Monday in March.
So suffice it to say that Suffolk County's Evacuation and Bunker Hill days - criticized for epitomizing Beacon Hill entitlement - have plenty of company, even as the so-called hack holidays come under fire for providing an undeserved day off.
In the holidays' defense, the Boston City Council yesterday passed a resolution of support, noting the days' purpose: "so our citizens may reflect and remember the sacrifices of those who gave gone before us." The action was taken after the holidays narrowly escaped a move by Beacon Hill lawmakers to abolish them.
An estimated 35,000 Suffolk County employees get Evacuation Day, celebrated March 17, and Bunker Hill Day, June 17, off, and all state employees receive two floating days off. All told, Massachusetts has 13 state holidays, two more than the typical state worker enjoyed in 2008, according to the US Labor Department. Private-sector employees average eight holidays.
Nonessential public holidays, written off as a tolerable excess when the economy is humming, are increasingly under siege in some states, in the face of grass-roots anger over tax hikes and perceived bureaucratic waste.
California, for example, just scrapped Lincoln's birthday and Columbus Day for state employees, reducing their holiday slate from 14 to 12 and saving the state an estimated $27 million for the upcoming fiscal year.
"With the size of the budget gaps states are facing, anything and everything is on the table," said Meagan Dorsch, a spokeswoman for the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Employee unions lobbied against cutting holidays there, but the depth of the recession made it a relatively easy sell in the Legislature.
"Weigh it against what's happening in the private sector," said H.D. Palmer, deputy director for external affairs of California's Department of Finance. "Given the environment we're in, losing two paid holidays didn't seem that heavy a lift."
The issue has also arisen in Alabama, where the 13 paid holidays include Confederate Memorial Day, Mardi Gras (in two counties), and the birthday of Jefferson Davis, Confederacy president. In 2007, Governor Bob Riley gave state workers two additional days off - the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. Last year, Riley took back Christmas Eve, citing budgetary pressures.
Riley's spokesman, Todd Stacy, said the governor had previously proposed eliminating three state holidays but could not persuade lawmakers to go along.
"There was a lot of resistance to the idea, as I'm sure there is everywhere," Stacy said. "People get used to the way things are."
Yet one Alabama county bucked the trend last fall, naming the second Monday in November a holiday to honor President Obama. About 40 workers will get a paid day off.
Despite the disparity, resistance to holiday reductions is predictably robust. In Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty's proposal to eliminate Emancipation Day, a four-year-old commemoration of the date Abraham Lincoln freed slaves in the district, has met with stiff resistance.
Holidays such as Confederate Memorial Day, observed in Georgia and Mississippi in tribute to Civil War soldiers, and Virginia's Lee-Jackson Day, set aside to remember Generals Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, have not been challenged.
But in 1996, Maryland abolished Lincoln's Birthday and Good Friday, along with two state-specific holidays, Maryland Day and Defender's Day.
Maryland Day, explained Mimi Calver, special projects manager for the Maryland State Archives, marks the anniversary of settlers landing on Maryland soil in 1634. Defender's Day commemorates the defense of Baltimore from the invading British during the War of 1812.
Losing the holidays, Calver said, was no great sacrifice.
"The thing is, we got extra personal days, so we really didn't lose anything," she recalled. "If we had, that would have caused trouble."
In Rhode Island, Victory Day has escaped criticism akin to the Massachusetts squabble.
"It's all about having a free day to enjoy all the beauty that is Rhode Island," said Amy Kempe, press secretary to Governor Donald L. Carcieri, who acknowledges that she envied the holiday in her years in the private sector.
In Massachusetts last week, legislators in a tie vote rejected an amendment that would have abolished Evacuation Day and Bunker Hill Day as legal holidays. That followed a Senate debate on the issue (one that few would liken to Lincoln-Douglas) with Jack Hart, a South Boston Democrat, insisting that ending the holidays would create a slippery slope that could ultimately claim Christmas and Thanksgiving. Robert Allison, chairman of the history department at Suffolk University, said holidays should mean more than just a day off, at least in theory.
The quintessential New England nature of Evacuation and Bunker Hill days, he said, makes them all the more worthy of observance.
"We would lose part of the distinctiveness of New England culture," he said. "We would lose a central part of our heritage."
But Naomi Allen, a reference librarian at the State Library of Massachusetts, said historical commemorations sometimes need a helping hand. Evacuation Day has its happy overlap with another mid-March celebration.
"James Michael Curley wanted to make St. Patrick's Day a holiday," she said. "So they looked through the history books to find something that coincided with March 17. That's my understanding."
Michael Levenson of the Globe staff contributed to this report. 
