The Telegraph reports on what seems to be a rather minor matter, a Pagan parent removing her child from school to attend a religious celebration.

“A primary school allowed a mother to take her child out of lessons to attend a summer festival because the family say they are pagans. Newington Green Primary, in the north London borough of Islington, gave permission for the three-day absence last June after the mother of the six-year-old argued that the child should be allowed to attend the celebrations because of her faith … The family visited the solstice festival that is held each year in Avebury, Wiltshire, near Stonehenge.”

But now a school officials says they are “clamping down” on absences, and hinting that Pagan holidays may not make the grade any longer.

“‘The three days were put down as authorised absence, but we have subsequently explained to all parents that they will not be given authorised holidays within term time unless there is a very good reason for it,’ she said.”

A spokesman from the Campaign for Real Education goes quite a bit farther than a hint.

“Nick Seaton, the chairman of the Campaign for Real Education, said: ‘This is the kind of situation we get into by bending over backwards to try to please everybody. One of the main duties of parents is to ensure that children miss out on as little school as possible and, on balance, I don’t think they should be missing school for this.’”

Which brings us to the question: are Pagan holidays a “very good reason” to miss school for a few days? If not, why not, and if schools are going to start denying excused absences to Pagan children will they start doing the same to Catholic, Muslim, or Jewish children? One can only imagine the uproar if a Jewish child was denied an excused absence for Yom Kippur because it wasn’t a “very good reason”.

With there being around 40,000 Pagans in the UK (making it the 8th-largest faith grouping, so long as you don’t count the Jedi), it seems completely strange that schools would suddenly have a problem making religious exemptions for a Pagan holiday. Perhaps schools should adopt a “cultural flextime” policy as the British civil service has done. That way we can avoid arbitrary judgment on which holidays are worthy enough to merit a day off.

There was quite a bit of reporting recently on the decision by Marshall University to allow excused absences for Pagan holidays. It prompted discussion on how such a system would work, and if it could be abused. Can the variety of holy days from modern Pagan religions be reasonably fit into a largely Christian-oriented holiday calendar? What about Hindu, Buddhist, or Muslim holy days? Would inefficiency reign as every faith demanded their holidays be honored?

Leave it to Britain, where the influence of minority religions are more keenly felt, to come up with a compromise measure to address the growing numbers of non-Christian workers.

“Civil servants will be able to take bank holidays on the religious days of their choice under moves to introduce “cultural flexitime”. Officials in the education department will be allowed to work from home on statutory days off and take the time owed to mark their own religious traditions. It means staff will be able to work at home on Christmas Day for the first time this year and swap it for a different religious festival such as Eid or Diwali. The pioneering arrangements also apply to cultural traditions, meaning a Welsh employee could move a bank holiday to St David’s Day … The arrangements also apply to minority religions such as Baha’i and Zoroastrianism, and staff could ask for time off to mark pagan festivals such as the summer solstice … Staff choosing to swap bank holidays for other key dates will not be required to prove that they follow a different faith.”

With the growing adoption of “cultural flexitime”, Britain is slowly moving into adopting a post-Christian calendar. For instance, while Christmas may be one of the most important Christian holidays (next to Easter), Yule as celebrated by some Pagans, or Hanukkah as celebrated by most Jews, don’t hold the same level of importance in their ritual years as other holy days. In this new “flexitime” scenario, a non-Christian could work through the winter holidays and instead take time off for Samhain or Yom Kippur instead. No questions asked.

As this system gains in popularity, it will no doubt be adopted by civil and private businesses in America as well. Especially if it is painted as a way to solve all the holiday “problems” caused by the needs of religious minority workers. In the long run it could mean a more secular society as religious observance becomes are more private affair, and less an assumed cultural norm for everyone. Christianity will still be dominant in numbers and influence, but it could slowly cease to be seen as the only religion that “matters” when asking for a day off of work or school.