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Someone has to do all the unpleasant work. In antiquity, that was generally the slaves. Today, it's everyone who isn't independently wealthy and wants more out of life than living out of a shopping cart.

To tag on iirc Hawaiians used to take multiple month breaks from working hard when they were done harvesting

Nundinae was only for the ruling class to go shopping

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nundinae

So sorry, you still get to bake bread all day.

And Greek festival days involved.. lots of food, baths had to be hot, etc. So someone has to run the event. It wasn't the common people getting a day off.

What do you think the Hebrew Sabbath is, exactly?

But 90% of the common people were farmers and were not bakers or bath tenders or vendors or the like so would be enjoying the day off. Although farmers didn't really need dedicated days off because their only schedule conflictions would be the main planting and harvest months, the festivals would just be a good way to bring all the farmers together at similar times to party and spend money or trade.