Public Holidays around The World

In the beginning of a new year many people check their calendars to see how much free-of-work days there will be. The amount of holidays and work-free days shows a great variation among the countries of the world. In Russia all the years are greeted with a ten-days long holiday since 2005. During the ten days following the 30th December most of the offices and work places are closed. Experts of economics and health care doubt the usefulness of so many free days in a row. Would it be more useful to have less free days at once, but more often during the year? I think if we assume that people want to visit their relatives living far away, then – given the huge distances in Russia – these 10 days in-a-row are justified.

Columbia holds the world record in the amount of holidays with their 18 free days. Columbians are free of work on 12 Christian holidays and 6 state holidays. The second place is shared by three countries: Lebanon, Malaysia and India with 16 holidays for each. In Europe Cyprus and Slovakia share the first place with 15 holidays. In Hungary we have 9 holidays, 3 national holidays (15th March, 20th August, 23rd October) and 6 others, based on originally Roman Catholic holidays. Mexicans have the least holidays, only 7 throughout the year, none of them in the summer.

Agnes Kelemen, Nationalism Studies, Hungary