Calling in ‘sick’ for the Feyenoord celebration: do we take a day off?

Are you attending the celebration of Feyenoord in the KNVB final cup in the Binnenrotte of Monday 22 April? Last week EM opened a discussion to know whether people are taking the day off from work or university to celebrate the festivities.

The celebration of the win of Rotterdam football club Feyenoord against Nijmegen-based NEC for the KNVB Cup has taken over the town on Sunday. But the official celebration ceremony takes place on Monday, the dreaded first workday after the weekend. The city council made an estimation that less people would attend this year’s ceremony, which seems to align with the decision of many of our commenters to not attend Feyenoord’s inauguration at Binnenrotte.

The right occasion

Commenters seem to agree that skipping the work or school day to indulge in festive activities depends on the occasion. What has taken prevalence over work in the eyes of students and employees? Anonymous commenters state carnival as a highly anticipated and attended occasion they have skipped work or school for. “Birthdays are a joyous occasion to take the day off”, writes another commenter. Yet it looks like exams have taken students in its iron grip, as taking the day off is not being considered during exam season.

People who could not take the day off were still able to participate in the celebration by watching the livestream. This way students were able to watch the ceremony silently from their laptops during lectures or even put it on blast for everyone to enjoy. After all, who would want to miss Lee Towers’ final performance?