MediaTechnics Corp (MEDT)

[sensible]

The NYSE is, and always has been, a private institution that sets it's own holidays. Good Friday was, and remains, the most solemn day in Christianity (when Christ died for our sins, and Sunday is our day of rest, instead of Saturday, as it was for Jesus, because he rose from the dead on Easter Sunday (no religion based on Judaism would have countenanced his rising on the Sabath), and as most Americans during the 18th Century (and arguably today as well) were deeply religious persons, the idea of having any business conducted on Good Friday was an anathema to them at their cores. No business could legally take place anywhere in America on Sundays until the latter part of the 20th Century. In many places it still doesn't.

Federal holidays only apply to the Federal Government. Individual states and localities control the actual closures of business, and private employers are not bound by these laws except in a few specific instances.

The Federal Government is not permitted to make any law respecting an establishment of religion and no federal law exists making any religious observance a Federal Holiday With the exception of LBJ's exemption of churches from paying taxes in order to silence their political speech (a devil's bargain the churches have broken ever since) and the enactment of, "In God We Trust," and "One Nation Under God," in the 50's to battle the godless Commies (By the way, both these acts are massively unconstitutional, but no one has been able to prove "standing" (you have to prove you were hurt to sue) to overturn them, the latest decision having occurred during the last few months.) There is no federal law enacting Christmas as a holiday, Ulysses S. Grant did it by proclamation and it is entirely unconstitutional, but only a madman would challenge it in court and would have to prove standing ("Christmas is illegal and oh, by the way, can someone please stone me, I really want to die!").

Contrary to the meme of, "this is a nation founded on Christian Values," the founding fathers were not "Christians" as we see them today, but rather "Deists". Thomas Jefferson was almost certainly an atheist and his personal writings reflect this. He wrote a bible (still in print) which removed all references to the divinity of Christ and removed all of his miracles. He was most certainly in the minority of thinkers at the time. Franklin was right there with him, but most citizens were Christians of a puritanical bent, but for whom religion was a personal, not political issue, and none of them wanted a "national" religion for they were all far too familiar with the histories of religious wars in England and France that were not of a past that any could claim as "distant" in 1783.

Regardless, in my church we state, "Christ is Risen, Indeed He is Risen"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paschal_greeting

Happy Easter!