And *I* thought that it was cool that I got Columbus Day off...
September 18, 2007 7:06 AM   Subscribe

Last Wednesday, residents of the Ulyanovsk province of Russia took the day off work in celebration of their newest holiday, Sex Day.
posted by Afroblanco (41 comments total) 4 users marked this as a favorite


 
I like that the Reuters URL files this in the /latestCrisis directory. But, as a gay man, I feel shorted by this new holiday.
posted by me & my monkey at 7:17 AM on September 18, 2007


What a great fucking holiday.
posted by psmealey at 7:19 AM on September 18, 2007 [2 favorites]


"So... doing anything Wednesday?"
posted by Pope Guilty at 7:20 AM on September 18, 2007


In my world every day is sex day!
Although I seem to be the only one celebrating....
posted by Floydd at 7:24 AM on September 18, 2007


What's more depressing than being alone on Sex Day?

Being alone, on Sex Day, in Ulyanovsk.
posted by aramaic at 7:26 AM on September 18, 2007 [6 favorites]


In about half an hour, I'll be taking my own little sex holiday.
posted by Astro Zombie at 7:26 AM on September 18, 2007


Nobody's pointed out that Wednesday is hump day?
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:31 AM on September 18, 2007


Finally, Valentines Day done right!
posted by DU at 7:40 AM on September 18, 2007


My former roommate from Kharkov would sneer at this.

"Waugh! You not need holiday to make the sex, Beel. You find a girl, and then you FACK her! You only use calendar to clean up if there is no rags or toilet papers. Who think of this? He kiss my zhopa."
posted by Mayor Curley at 7:41 AM on September 18, 2007 [18 favorites]


Ah, and a romantic reason for the Holiday as well:

Russia wants to reverse a trend in which the population is shrinking by about 700,000 people a year as births fail to outpace a high death rate boosted by AIDS, alcoholism and suicide.
posted by Muddler at 7:52 AM on September 18, 2007


In Russia, the sex has you.
posted by pardonyou? at 7:55 AM on September 18, 2007


...pr: In Russia, vacation day gets YOU off.
posted by jquinby at 7:58 AM on September 18, 2007 [28 favorites]


"...or"
posted by jquinby at 7:58 AM on September 18, 2007


Does decreasing population hurt anything other than big business (and perhaps by extension, foreign policy)? Seems to me Russia is spurning a blessing.
posted by Citizen Premier at 8:01 AM on September 18, 2007




ed, the reason that Russia is in such deep crap now is because of the Soviet state. Decades of failed communism, destruction of the natural world, ignorance of AIDS and alcoholism...all of these are legacies of the Soviets. (Muddler)

Right, but how does having MORE PEOPLE solve those problems in any way?
posted by Rock Steady at 8:28 AM on September 18, 2007


9 months before Labour Day!
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 8:30 AM on September 18, 2007 [2 favorites]


In Russia, vacation day gets YOU off.

jquinby wins!
posted by gurple at 8:41 AM on September 18, 2007


ed, the reason that Russia is in such deep crap now is because of the Soviet state. Decades of failed communism, destruction of the natural world, ignorance of AIDS and alcoholism...all of these are legacies of the Soviets.

Nice oversimplification-- Russia was a feudal state up until the early 20th century, and was going to be a shithole through the 21st century no matter what course it took.

If contempt for the environment, failure to address AIDS and destructive substance abuse are symptoms of Soviet government, we need Scooby and Shaggy to set a trap and pull George Bush's mask off to reveal Leonid Brezhnev.
posted by Mayor Curley at 8:44 AM on September 18, 2007 [2 favorites]


Failing to reproduce causes the social pyramid to invert, leaving few young healthy people to care for the old. A declining working population is also disastrous for many industries, particularly mid wage ones like construction and manufacturing. A contracting workforce is unstable, and creates a poor environment for investment as there are neither entering workers nor mobile young people ready to work for new firms. It may also be an accelerating process: there being few young causes the existing young to emigrate.

Furthermore, it's a sign of a loss of faith in the future of your society/nation. Parents have a large investment/stake in the future, and that people opt out en-mass from continuing the society suggests upheaval.

Also, while you're soviet-bashing, remember that GDP dropped 50% following the fall. This did not help.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 8:46 AM on September 18, 2007


School is in session but mom and dad get to stay home? That would work.
posted by caddis at 8:47 AM on September 18, 2007


More like mom and dad go to work but school isn't in session...
posted by Citizen Premier at 8:50 AM on September 18, 2007


Failing to reproduce causes the social pyramid to invert

I've never understood this argument. Yes, I get that a lowered birthrate means fewer workers for each retiree. I see how this is a bad thing for the near term, and how a higher birth rate means more workers per old person.

However, does this argue for raising the birthrate? If you raise the birthrate, you maintain the population growth level that led to this problem in the first place. Eventually something has to give. Either you allow the birthrate to fall and have some really bad economic times for a few decades, or you continue to grow the population until you run up against real limits on natural resources and the population crashes horrifically.

Neither option seems like good times, but why is it obvious that having more babies is the best way to deal with the problem?
posted by gurple at 9:17 AM on September 18, 2007


If contempt for the environment, failure to address AIDS and destructive substance abuse are symptoms of Soviet government, we need Scooby and Shaggy to set a trap and pull George Bush's mask off to reveal Leonid Brezhnev.

Nice oversimplification. At least reporting on the oligarchy in this country won't result in Shaggy and Scooby looking for your body.
posted by yerfatma at 9:29 AM on September 18, 2007


Nice oversimplification. At least reporting on the oligarchy in this country won't result in Shaggy and Scooby looking for your body.

No, they won't even hear that I went missing because I'm not a pretty, well-to-do white woman. Unless my disappearance affects the financial markets.
posted by Mayor Curley at 9:45 AM on September 18, 2007 [1 favorite]


In other news, last wednesday an unprecedented headache epidemic broke out among the women of the Ulyanovsk province.
posted by lifeless at 10:03 AM on September 18, 2007


The Russians Are Coming, the Russians Are Coming!
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 10:04 AM on September 18, 2007


For the unlucky singletons it's a Barclays Bank Holiday (with sincere apologies to Cockney rhyming slang).
posted by MuffinMan at 10:09 AM on September 18, 2007


Gurple: Because if you drop growth really fast the effect is much worse. If you slowly decelerate the population, it gives the society time to adjust and never an extreme pyramid.

In addition, I don't think that it would be sane to attribute any of Russia's problems to overpopulation, given that they have incredibly vast stretches of unused land and resources. Along the boarder huge numbers of Chinese are clamoring to come in and fill the empty space.

In addition your original question of why growth would help their problems (aids, alcohol, depression) consider that much of what the former USSR suffers from is caused in part by extreme and rapid cultural/economic change and failures of education. Young people are much more adaptable (having never known the old ways) and easier to educate.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 10:19 AM on September 18, 2007


while you're soviet-bashing

It's no longer ok to soviet-bash?
posted by psmealey at 10:30 AM on September 18, 2007


In Russia, Soviets bash ...

(And suddenly he was silenced, with the sound of a small caliber revolver gunshot echoing in his apartment; SMERSH had done its job for, perhaps, the last time.)
posted by Astro Zombie at 10:58 AM on September 18, 2007


ed, the reason that Russia is in such deep crap now is because of the Soviet state.

If you're going to make this argument, you have to come up with some evidence to back it up, because on its own, it's weak. It was weak enough to blame all of the USSR's problems on communism to begin with--there are many areas of the world that face geographical or social difficulties under any system of government, and it's perfectly plausible that Russia & other previous soviet states are among them. (To blame Russian alcoholism & suicide, for one, on any government policy is pretty ridiculous, and completely ignorant of the culture. I mean, just read some Dostoyevski).

It seems clear now that communism exacerbated rather than alleviated difficulties they faced, but it's not as if Russia would have been just another first world country if not for Lenin, or something. The reason communism was successful there to start with was because the people were so desperate. The naive western response that as soon as communism was overcome and capitalism implemented, all their troubles would melt away, turns out also to have been missing important factors. I really don't think we can blame all their troubles on a misguided national experiment. What used to be East Germany seems to have easily integrated into post cold-war Europe, and the Czech Republic is in pretty good shape after about 40 years as a communist state. Russia has its own special problems because it's Russia, not because it used to be communist.
posted by mdn at 12:11 PM on September 18, 2007 [1 favorite]


The holiday quickly loses its erection when we realize it's really Conception Day, not Sex Day.

Sex Day would be all about fucking anything that moves ... or looks like it might start moving.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:19 PM on September 18, 2007


Low population growth? Encourage immigration.
posted by limnrix at 1:07 PM on September 18, 2007


Sex? Yes. Babies? Not so much.
posted by bardic at 2:16 PM on September 18, 2007


Now THAT'S a holiday I can... get behind.
posted by dbiedny at 2:54 PM on September 18, 2007 [1 favorite]


My God, the Ruskies have developed a Sex Day! How did we fall behind on this one? Johnson, get down to R&D, tell them to put on their thinking-caps and fast. Maybe Blowjob Day, or something, I don't know.

We can't allow a Sex-Day-gap to exist. If they decide to use this to exert pressure, it could produce some kind of 'domino effect' which turns the entire western world into some kind of crazy pinko fuck-fest.

And if there is going to be a fuck-fest, by God it's gonna be an American fuck-fest!
posted by quin at 3:29 PM on September 18, 2007 [3 favorites]


You still get workman’s comp if you’re injured that day?
posted by Smedleyman at 4:53 PM on September 18, 2007 [1 favorite]


no, they no longer all work for the government
posted by caddis at 5:48 PM on September 18, 2007


Low population growth? Encourage immigration.

Russia already has quite a high rate of immigration I believe. Above a certain rate immigration is just going to create social conflicts, exacerbating the neo-Nazi backlash against immigration that is already a problem in Russia. Watering your garden is a good thing, flooding it ain't so good. People aren't fungible.
posted by L.P. Hatecraft at 6:22 PM on September 18, 2007


Actually there is a good argument to be made that Russia's woes come straight out of Harvad.
posted by dopeypanda at 11:34 PM on September 18, 2007


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