It is not entirely clear to me how they figure it out and with such precision, but polls and country rankings consistently recognize Puerto Rico as one of the happiest places in the world. In 2005, one year before the start of the recession that still cripples the island's economy, Puerto Rico ranked first in happiness according to the World Values Survey.

I suspect that this correlates with its large number of holidays and festive days. By law, Puerto Rico's commercial establishments must remain closed on 21 holidays (22 on election years). Its Christmas season, which de facto begins on Thanksgiving Day, runs into Jan. 24, the end of the Octavitas (eight days after the Octavas, another eight days of festivities that begin on Jan. 9).

Before the internet, it would have taken me days of work at a good library to find how many public holidays are observed in each country, but thanks to Wikipedia — as President Ronald Reagan said about the Soviets, "Trust but verify" — I found what I was looking for with a few keystrokes, clicks and scrolls.

Online listings of public holidays by country provide different and expectedly inconsistent sets of information. But let's stick with Wikipedia, whose list is topped by Myanmar, with 32 public holidays — this surprised me given the country's long history of military dictatorship; followed by Nepal with 30. Other sources recognize Cambodia as having the largest number of holidays. Cambodia, Myanmar and other countries with overwhelming Buddhist majorities tend to observe large numbers of holidays. They don't rank high on the happiness list, however.

At the bottom of the "most public holidays" list are the Netherlands and England with eight. Protestant nations in contrast with Catholic countries tend to observe few holidays — the Dutch's Belgian neighbors, who are Catholic, observe 14.

Think about Max Weber's classic book "The Protestant Work Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism." Each holiday means one less day of work, which translates into one less day of profits and/or salary. "An idle mind," the aphorism goes, "is the devil's workshop." And besides, holidays bring many expenses, and each English pound spent is one less English pound saved.

Tied with the Dutch and the British are Mexicans — another surprise from the country that has gifted the world with mariachi music, pinatas and margaritas. Mexico is, of course, Catholic but had a prolonged and deeply anti-clerical revolution (1910-1920). Its official holidays are mostly patriotic: Independence Day, Constitution Day, Revolution Day ... Mexicans, however, celebrate numerous religious feasts, i.e., Virgin of Guadalupe Day, which are not official. This in contrast with the Day of St. Willibrord, the Netherlands' patron saint, which passes virtually unnoticed.

PUERTO RICAN HOLIDAYS

Somewhere on the top quarter of the list is Puerto Rico with 21 observed holidays that reflect the island's complex history and contested political status: a former colony of Catholic Spain; territory, since 1898, of the predominantly Protestant United States; a Hispanic society with a Catholic culture, with close cultural ties to the United States and more churchgoing Protestants than churchgoing Catholics; and a country divided into partisans of three different political status formulas: commonwealth, statehood and independence.

The fact that Catholic societies observe more public holidays than Protestant ones stems in part from the Catholic veneration of numerous saints and the Virgin Mary. A secular, culturally Catholic nation, Puerto Rico mandates commercial closings on six religious holidays, all of which, with the exception of Good Friday and Easter, have become profoundly secularized: Three Kings Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.

Though not official holidays, Puerto Ricans are also fond of celebrating fiestas patronales (week-long festivities in honor of each of the patron saints of the island's 78 municipalities). Each Feb. 2, for example, Mayaguez and three other municipalities celebrate the Virgin of Candelaria Day, a tradition with roots in the Canary Islands; and on July 25, which is also Constitution Day, five towns have Santiago Apostol (St. James) Day. Santiago Apostol Day festivities in the village of Loiza Aldea reflect the strong African cultural presence characteristic of the village.

More to come. Feliz Navidad!

Luis Martinez-Fernandez is author of "Revolutionary Cuba: A History" and "Key to the New World: A History of Early Colonial Cuba." Readers can reach him at LMF_Column@yahoo.com. To find out more about Luis Martinez-Fernandez and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate website at www. creators.com.

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