Tuesday, January 29, 2008

Happy holidays...

When is a holiday not a holiday? Well, for a while the answer was... when it is Pentecost Monday in France!

Traditionally a holiday, in 2004 the French government declared this a 'day of solidarity', abolishing the day off in the interests of channelling extra funding for the elderly, following the difficulties of the heatwave the previous year. However, in the face of the inevitable protests, the holiday was later reinstated for public sector workers - but it was left it to private sector businesses to decide if they would work that day or not!

So, then, aside from some people being entitled to a holiday and others not (or perhaps not!), this resulted in the strange situation of companies, and their staff, being unsure as to whether they should be taking the holiday or not... and the general public not knowing which firms would be open, or closed, on the day... chaotic really. Well, it seems that sense has prevailed as it is widely reported today that the Pentecost holiday (also known elsewhere as Whitsun) has been totally restored for all!

Great that we now all know where we stand, with a holiday weekend for all - and especially good for those wishing to celebrate Pentecost Sunday, the 50th day after Easter...

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! Here in the States every company can choose which holidays we can take off. Some get every holiday off while others do not, they only get some holidays off. Must be nice to have it where everyone gets all the holidays off together. How did the people of France do this? I think I would like Having all the Holidays off allot.

Love and Blessings,
AngelBaby

Keith Pow-Williams said...

Yes, I've heard that in the States holidays from work are much less than in other countries, but I didn't know this about public holidays there. In France I suppose many of the holidays have originally been religious festivals, so everyone has been entitled to those - and now the people are known for pushing hard for their rights on all fronts!