HAPPY PIONEER DAY! WHAT???

I am drunk, so if this post makes no sense to you or offends, so be it. You have been warned!
Today at work I had the opportunity to attempt to explain to our out of state customers about Pioneer Day and why we are closed for it. See, when I told them we would be closed for Pioneer Day, of course their reaction was "Um, what's Pioneer Day?" but I could tell in their voices they were actually thinking "WTF?" I had a really hard time explaining it, since I am not Mormon nor celebrate this traditional state holiday. I mumbled something like: "It's a celebration of when the Mormon settlers came to Utah and either kicked out, converted or killed all the Indians and laid claim to the land." Maybe not those exact words, but I got a laugh out of it anyway. Tonight at the Owl after party, we were discussing this topic and Max (a good friend and pickle sharer) said "It's no different than other state holidays". WHAT? Is there other states that celebrate similar holidays? PAID time off other than the regular federal holidays? REALLY?? I don't mean to be ungrateful here, cause hell...like anyone else I'm not going to look a paid day off in the eye, but this makes no sense to me for many reasons. First of all, the company I work for deals mostly with out-of-state customers who would probably prefer us to be open on a mid-week day since they couldn't care less about our state holiday. Second, can you say "separation of state and religion?" Oh. And I don't get drunk often because I'm old and my body doesn't recuperate as well as it used to, but tonight I had good reason to celebrate. I got a promotion to another department at work today. I'm stoked. I get to learn something new! YAY ME! Passing out now...