Our National Day is coming. We shall have days of rest,presumably weeklong holidays again just like the weeklong May Day holidays. Many people welcome weeklong holidays and are busy planning where and how to spend the seven days;whereas many other people do not applaud.

As to me, weeklong holidays mean a span of dullness, boredom, melancholy and helplessness, and I think anyone who had experienced the holiday sufferings in May would share my feelings. I well remember that from May Day, to be more exact, a few days earlier than May Day, the shopping season started.Most shops extended their shopping hours to respond to their overwhelmingly enthusiastic customers. There were special sales with discount coupons and instant lucky draws and various sales promotions in nearly every big store to lure po tential customers into spending more. Crowds of shoppers flocked towards department stores, enjoying their high purchasing power. There were traffic jams almost everywhere, people waited in long queues at bus-stops:and taxi-stands? looking entirely exhausted.Tempers flared when people gotpushed or if someone else cut the queue.Impatient drivers honked at each other every now and then. The railway station was congested with travelers who rushed to the platform like a swarm of bees and then squeezed their way into the train for seats as if there would be no tomorrow. In the restaurants, tables were shared. A platoon of waiters filed out from the kitchen armed with various containers of eatables. Orders were taken feverishly and then shouted across to the kitchen. Excitement reigned everywhere as waiters ran hither and thither to fill the orders. The above are just some vivid scenes that happened a few months ago.

Everywhere was chaos and chaos everywhere. I am really afraid the drama will soon be repeated. True,weeklong holidays help activate economy, but what about after-holiday depression? No doubt, people can have a lot of leisure, but leisure does not always bring a lot of pleasure.