There is no dearth of festivals in a country as vast and diverse as India. But the calendar is too fragmented to have a common holiday for the entire nation, like in many countries, including the US, China and Japan, where people travel back home and spend time with family. Like America's Thanksgiving, China's Lunar New Year Festival and Europe's long Christmas-New Year holidays, Indians lack such a pause. Diwali, celebrated from Dhanteras to Bhai Dooj, could be one time of the year that entire India could take a five-day holiday, or can it?
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When you think of it, it almost seems impossible to have 140 crore Indians pause together. But countries with similar demographics have been doing this for decades.
Let's look at the West first. In the US, Thanksgiving week in November is a near shutdown. The focus there is on family gatherings. Christmas and New Year follow within a month, and there is another extended break.
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