It really depends on what your job field is. Many salaried jobs have it off, while many hourly jobs get holiday pay rate.
There's 365 days in a year, you literally cannot plan something without it landing on a significant date for somebody.
USA is only country confirmed OP.
I work in a post office and I'm at work today, wrap your head around that one
the u.s. government has been slowly defunding the post office for years so i am actually having a hard time wrapping my head around it.
Sometimes the world doesn't revolve around the USA.
Public holidays are often on a Monday!
http://i.imgur.com/Y11uorc.gif
But ya it's just chance. I mean, chances are however if there is some kind of government sponsored holiday, in a part of the world that has the weekend off, then usually monday is first pick for a holiday. As far as the government and businesses go, I would suggest they are not going to pick friday as that is usually payday for most people and if Human Resources(HR) is off then people aren't getting their money. So where if a three day weekend is a goal, monday is the only solution for a holiday. I know there are plenty of holidays that fall on other days of the week and you can't control when a holiday falls though. Well unless you do control it like this current one.
In the case of the current American Holiday, Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, it is actually January 15th! So it's observed on the third monday of January each year so it will create a three day weekend: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin...r_King_Jr._Day
I wondered the same thing, so looked up world holiday's calendar information.
MLK day does not seem to hit the radar from a recognition point of view very much outside of the U.S.
Of course there are many players that are likely in high school, college, some federal and most of these have the day off, so it is understandable that they wish the game was up during that time.