The New Year holidays in 2017 will be shorter than usual. Russians will begin their vacation on December 31 and end on January 9. Life has prepared a comparative selection of New Year holidays in different countries.

Belarus

Oddly enough, there are no New Year holidays in neighboring Belarus. Only January 1 and January 7 are considered holidays.

Germany

In Germany, as in most European countries, Catholic Christmas is more popular than New Year. Holidays here are December 24, 25, 26 and January 1.

United Kingdom

The British love Christmas and New Year equally, so the weekend here lasts from December 25 to January 4.

Spain

In Spain winter holidays last from December 25 (Catholic Christmas) to January 6 (Epiphany).

Italy

Israel

In Israel, the European New Year is not celebrated, so December 31 and January 1 are working days. The Jewish New Year has a floating date and is celebrated for two days in September.

Saudi Arabia

In Saudi Arabia, celebrating the European New Year is officially prohibited. New Year according to the Islamic calendar is celebrated on the day spring equinox March 21.

India

The European New Year is not officially celebrated in India, but in some places you can see familiar attributes on the streets. New Year according to the unified national calendar is celebrated on March 22.

China

The European New Year in China is called Yuan Dan, and on January 1 the Chinese do not work. It is not customary to celebrate this holiday in the country, although you can find Christmas and New Year symbols in large shopping centers. New Year's Eve eastern calendar comes between January 21 and February 21 and is celebrated on the first new moon. On this occasion, the Chinese rest for three days.

Japan

New Year (O-shogatsu) is still celebrated in Japan. The Japanese go on vacation on December 28th and rest until January 4th.

USA

The USA is not known for its long New Year holidays. Official holidays are only December 25-26 and January 1.

Brazil

New Year's Day in Brazil falls in the summer (the winter months in Brazil are the hottest). Official holidays are December 25 and January 1.

The New Year is already very close, and many people are gradually becoming in a non-working mood: after all, even adults have real holidays ahead of them! The Russians are truly lucky in this regard. How are things going with holidays in other countries?

New Year holidays in Russia

IN modern Russia It didn’t take us long to arrive at the New Year holidays in today’s form. In the original version Labor Code, which began to operate in 2002, in connection with the onset of the New Year and Christmas, three days off were provided: January 1, 2 and 7. In 2004, in this regulatory document, a prototype of modern holidays appeared, so to speak: the days from January 1 to January 5 were declared days off, followed by the working day of January 6, and on January 7 Russians rested, celebrating Orthodox Christmas.

However, the same article 112, which contained information about holidays, stated that a holiday that coincides with a weekend is generally subject to transfer to the next working day. Thus, in practice, January 6 also always turned out to be a non-working day, and employees of Russian enterprises received seven continuous days New Year's holiday- a whole full week.

But this was not the end: in 2012, it was decided to extend the New Year holidays until January 8 - while maintaining the rule on transfer holidays coinciding with the weekend. True, in the same 2012, an additional condition was introduced into Article 112 of the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, specifically relating to the postponement of weekends that fall during the long winter holidays. Paragraph 10 of this article explains that two holidays from this period are transferred to other dates during the calendar year: these are usually May holidays. The rest of the weekends during this period are postponed as usual. As a result, Russians now return to work after a long rest on January 9 or 10.

The role of the New Year holidays in the economy

The long holiday in January does have a serious impact on the country's economy this month. So, at REU im. Plekhanov, economic losses from the fact that almost the entire first half of January was non-working amounted to 1.32 trillion rubles in 2018. This is approximately equal to 1.25% of annual GDP. Year after year, this figure tends to increase: for example, in 2017, experts estimated it at 1.2 trillion. Moreover, every day of downtime costs the Russian economy approximately 150 billion rubles.

The industrial sector predictably makes the largest contribution to these losses. It is here that the effect of underutilization of production or its complete stop becomes most noticeable. Losses for this industry amount to about 2.5% of total output. But retail trade partially compensates for these losses, since Russians devote a significant part of the New Year holidays to shopping and making purchases. Also, growth during this period is shown by such areas of activity as the provision of catering services and accommodation in hotels: domestic tourism becomes popular at this time, and in addition, the number of foreigners visiting Russia is increasing.

New Year's holidays in other countries

It must be said that the idea of ​​a full holiday in connection with the New Year holidays has not yet gained serious popularity in other countries. In most countries, only a few days are allocated to celebrate the dates of New Year and Christmas. At the same time, they find themselves separated by working days, so that the overall rhythm of work activity suffers insignificantly - well, except for the general festive atmosphere, which is quite difficult to translate into specific numbers.

It is interesting that even the states that are part of the Eurasian Economic Union take different positions on this issue. Thus, in Azerbaijan, as in Russia, long New Year holidays have been established - all days from December 31 to January 6 will be non-working. But in Belarus holidays Only January 1 and 7 are considered, and in Kazakhstan - January 1, 2 and 7. True, the legislation of these states, as in Russia, suggests the possibility of postponing weekends. As a result, in Belarus, for example, in the period from January 1 to January 7, employees of enterprises have only one working day - on Saturday, January 4, which they will work on Thursday, January 2. True, then they will have to work another Saturday - January 11, for the formal working Monday, January 6.

Europeans also celebrate two main holidays in winter - New Year and Christmas, but it must be taken into account that Catholic Christmas is celebrated on other dates. So, the official day of the holiday is December 25, but most often for festive events allocate two or even three days: so that employees have time to meet with all relatives and friends. For example, in Germany January 24 and 25 are set aside for this, but the more common practice is to rest on January 25 and 26: the second day of rest is sometimes timed to coincide with another religious holiday - Stephen's Day. This option is used in Hungary, Croatia, Luxembourg and many other European countries. But in Lithuania, Latvia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and some other countries they rest for three days - from December 24 to 26.

After this, in most European countries, several working days follow - up to and including December 31st. This day, which is commonly called New Year's Eve here, is a holiday only in Iceland and Latvia. But on January 1, they rest almost everywhere - not only in Europe, but also in the USA, Brazil, Mexico, Hong Kong, Lebanon, Japan, South Korea and other countries.

Finally, another holiday option new year holidays- these are full-fledged vacations, sometimes of no less duration than in Russia. It is most characteristic of southern European countries, which are famous for their taste for life and love for the afternoon siesta. For example, in Italy and Spain people vacation with Catholic Christmas before Epiphany - from December 25 to January 6. In the UK, vacations also begin on December 25, but they go back to work earlier - already on January 4. In Japan, the holidays are even shorter - from December 28 to January 4.

Total number of days off

Thus, the situation with the New Year holidays in Russia is not something outstanding: in some countries there are even more holidays than ours. This situation becomes even more revealing if we compare the total number of days off by country: here Russian Federation finally loses its leadership. This is largely due to the fact that our country has adopted the practice of separation of church and state, which automatically translates most popular church holidays into the category of ordinary working days - whereas in Europe it is customary to rest on such days. As a result, according to Public Holidays Global, the overall statistics on the number of days off in 2017 looked like this.

	Number of days off per year
Colombia
Argentina
Slovakia
Iceland
South Korea
Slovenia
Croatia
Montenegro
Bulgaria
Portugal
Macedonia
Singapore
Luxembourg
Norway
Finland
Belarus
Germany
Ireland
Saudi Arabia
Brazil
Netherlands

By and large, it is quite difficult to identify any distinct specificity among regions of the world in this regard: for example, some Latin American countries, for example, Colombia and Argentina, lead the ranking in terms of the number of weekends per year, while other countries from the same region, for example Brazil and Mexico are at the very bottom of the list. In fact, the fact is that this is not at all an indicator of how hard working the people of these countries are, since the key criterion here is the total number of hours worked during the year.

Number of working hours during the year

The length of the working week in hours is perhaps the most objective criterion for assessing labor performance. The difference here can reach colossal values, which at the end of the year give very impressive figures. For example, in Austria, the maximum working week established by law is 50 hours, but in agreement with labor collective it can be increased to 60 hours. Moreover, literally in neighboring Germany the average working week is about 40-48 hours, and in France - 35 hours.

Such figures, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation (OECD) for 2016, result in the following data on the total hours worked by employees of enterprises during the year.

Thus, according to official data, Mexican workers can be called the most hardworking in the world: they work significantly more than specialists in recognized developed countries such as the USA or Japan. Obviously, two key factors played a role here: the total length of the working week, which here is about 45 hours, and the minimum number of days off per year. In addition, the short duration of the vacation, which here is only six days, leaves its mark.

It is noteworthy that the work schedule of Russians looks very solid even against this background - despite the impressive number of holidays and the duration of vacation established by law at 28 calendar days. Russian workers work harder than most European colleagues and employees of Asian enterprises. In October, it became known that discussions were continuing to reduce the length of the working week. Therefore, proposals to reduce the number of days off, primarily due to the long New Year holidays, which are expressed every year by political and public figures, predictably do not find support - neither among the population nor in the government.

Moreover, this year it was proposed to make December 31 a day off - it is well known that even in those years when this day is a working day, it is clearly not possible to talk about full-time work during the day. In November, a group of deputies even submitted a corresponding bill to the State Duma for consideration, but a final decision on this issue has not yet been made. However, the Ministry of Labor noted that the current legislation gives employers quite broad powers in this matter - they can declare the last day of the year at their enterprise a shortened working day or make it a complete day off. Moreover, since in 2019 December 31 is the last working day before public holiday, the duration of the work shift of all employees must be reduced by one hour without further work.

SWEDEN
1. New Year (January 1)
2. Epiphany (January 6)
3. Long Friday (Friday before Easter)
4. Easter
5. Monday after Easter
6. First of May

8. Pentecost (varies)
9. Swedish National Day (June 6)
10. Midsummer (Saturday between June 20-26)
11. All Saints' Day (Saturday between October 31-November 6)
12. Christmas (December 25)
13. The day after Christmas (December 26)
TOTAL: 13 holidays, 9 of which are church holidays.

NORWAY
1. New Year (January 1)
2. Palm Sunday(varies)
3. Maundy Thursday (varies)
4. Good Friday(varies)
5. 1st day of Easter (varies)
6. 2nd day of Easter (varies)
7. May 1 (Public holiday)
8. Constitution Day (May 17)
9. Ascension of Christ (varies)
10. 1st day of Trinity (varies)
11. 2nd day of Trinity (varies)
12. Christmas (December 24)
13. 1st day of Christmas (December 25), the 2nd day of Christmas is also celebrated.
TOTAL: Out of 13 holidays, 10 are church holidays.

FINLAND
1. New Year (January 1)
2. Epiphany or Epiphany (January 6).
3. Good Friday (Friday before Easter, varies)
4. Easter (This holiday has 4 days off - from Friday to Monday)
5. Bright Monday (Monday after Easter, varies)
6. May 1 (Spring Festival "Vapunpäivä", Walpurgis Night or Spring Festival, also known as May Day)
7. Ascension Ascension (40th day after Easter)
8. Trinity or Pentecost (50 day after Easter)
9. Equinox Day (Friday between June 19 and 25)
10. Ivan Kupala (Saturday between 20 and 26 June (Ivan’s Day is the second largest and most important holiday in Finland, second only to Christmas. Hence one of the names of the celebration is Kesyaioulu, literally “Summer Christmas”).
11. All Saints' Day (1st Sunday in November)
12. Independence Day (December 6)
13. Christmas Eve (December 24)
14. Christmas (December 25)

TOTAL: Out of 15 holidays, 10 are church holidays.

FRANCE
1. New Year (January 1)
2. Epiphany (January 6)
3. Presentation of the Lord (February 2)
4. International Women's Day (March 8)
5. Labor Day, Workers' Solidarity Day (May 1)
6. Victory Day (May 8)
7. Fat Tuesday (The last day before the start of the Catholic Lent, analogous Slavic holiday Maslenitsa)
8. Easter
9. First Monday after Easter
10. Ascension (varies)
11. Trinity Day (varies)
12. Music Day in France (June 21, numerous parades and concerts are held throughout the country, during which music of all genres is performed - both by professional groups and amateurs)
13. Bastille Day (July 14)
14. Dormition of the Virgin Mary (August 15)
15. All Saints' Day (November 1)
16. End of the First World War (November 11)
17. Christmas (December 25)
TOTAL: Out of 17 holidays, 10 are church holidays.

BELGIUM
1. New Year (January 1)
2. Easter (varies)
3. Easter Monday (varies)
4. Labor Day (May 1)
5. Ascension of the Lord (varies)
6. Trinity Day (varies)
7. Holy Spirit Day (varies)
8. National Day of Belgium (July 21)

10. All Saints Day (November 1)
11. Armistice Day (November 11)
12. Christmas (December 25)

GERMANY (there are many holidays of individual lands, weekends of most lands are collected here)
1. New Year (January 1)
2. Epiphany (January 6)
3. Easter (in some lands Maundy Thursday and Good Friday are declared holidays)
4. Easter (Water Monday)
5. Spring and Labor Festival (May 1)

7. Trinity Day (varies)

9. Ascension of Our Lady (August 15)
10. German Unity Day (October 3)
11. Reformation Day (October 31)
12. All Saints' Day (November 1)
13. Christmas. 1st Day of Christmas (December 25, 2nd Day of Christmas December 26)
TOTAL: Of the 13 holidays, 10 are church holidays

SPAIN
1. New Year (January 1)
2. Epiphany (January 6)
3. Easter (In some areas Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Monday are celebrated)
4. Labor Day (May 1)
5. Assumption of the Virgin Mary (August 15)
6. National Day of Spain (October 12)
7. All Saints' Day (November 1)
8. Spanish Constitution Day (December 6)

10. Christmas (December 25)
TOTAL: Out of 10 holidays, 6 are church holidays.

ITALY
1. New Year (January 1)
2. Epiphany (January 6)
3. Easter
4. Easter Monday
5. Day of Liberation from Fascism (April 25, End of World War II in Italy, 1945)
6. Labor Day (May 1)
7. Day of the Proclamation of the Republic (June 2, Birth of the Italian Republic, 1946)
8. All Saints' Day (November 1)
9. Immaculate Conception Virgin Mary (December 8)
10. Nativity of Christ (December 25)
11. St. Stephen's Day (December 26)
TOTAL: Out of 11 holidays, 7 are church holidays.

NETHERLANDS
1. New Year (January 1)
2. Good Friday (varies)
3. Easter
4. King's Day (April 27)
5. Memorial Day (May 4)
6. Liberation Day (May 5)
7. Ascension of the Lord (varies)
8. Trinity Day (varies)
9. Nativity of Christ (December 25, December 26)
TOTAL: Out of 9 holidays, 5 are church holidays

POLAND
1. New Year (January 1)
2. Epiphany (January 6)
3. Easter (First day of Easter, Second day of Easter)
4. Labor Day (May 1)
5. Third of May (In memory of the Constitution of May 3, 1791, May 3)
6. First Day of Pentecost (varies)
7. Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (varies)
8. Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (August 15)
9. All Saints' Day (November 1)
10. National holiday independence (November 11, in memory of gaining independence from the Russian Empire, Austria and Prussia in 1918)
11. First day of Christmas (December 25)
12. Second Day of Christmas (December 26)
TOTAL: Of the 12 holidays, 8 are church holidays.

SWITZERLAND (list of public holidays in most Swiss cantons)
1. New Year (January 1)
2. St. Berthold's Day (January 2, a holiday celebrated in most cantons of Switzerland in honor of the founder of the city of Bern)
3. Good Friday (varies)
4. Easter (varies)
5. Monday of Holy Week (first after Easter)
6. Labor Day (May 1)
7. Ascension of the Lord (varies)
8. Pentecost and Spiritual Day (varies)
9. Feast of Corpus Christi (varies)
10. Swiss national holiday (August 1)
11. Assumption of the Virgin Mary (August 15)
12. All Saints Day (November 1)
13. Day of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (December 8)
14. Christmas (December 25)
15. Boxing Day (December 26, can be called a church day)
TOTAL: Out of 15 holidays, 12 are church holidays.

AUSTRIA (Holidays in Austria are determined by federal or state law).
1. New Year (January 1)
2. Epiphany (January 6)
3. St. Joseph the Betrothed (March 19)
4. Easter (celebrated Good Friday and Easter Monday)
5. Labor Day (May 1)
6. Ascension of the Lord (varies)
7. Trinity Monday (varies)
8. Feast of the Body and Blood of Christ (varies)
9. Ascension of Our Lady (August 15)
10. National holiday (October 26)
11. All Saints' Day (November 1)
12. Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary (December 8)
13. Christmas Eve (December 24)
14. Christmas (December 25)
15. Saint's Day Stefana (December 26)
16. St. Sylvester's Day (December 31)
TOTAL: Of the 16 holidays, 13 are church holidays

DENMARK
1. New Year (January 1)
2. Maslenitsa (7 weeks before Easter)
3. Maundy Thursday (Thursday Holy Week, varies)
4. Good Friday (Friday of Holy Week, varies)
5. Easter (In Denmark, Easter is celebrated for two days, Easter Monday)
6. Labor Day (May 1)
7. Constitution Day (June 5)
8. Great Day of Prayer (4th Friday after Easter)
9. Ascension (40 days after Easter)
10. Trinity Day (7 weeks after Easter, in Denmark Trinity is celebrated for two days).
11. Saint's Day Hans, Summer Solstice (June 24, the Danes call John the Baptist Saint Hans and celebrate the day of this saint during the summer solstice).
12. St. Martin's Day (10)
13. Christmas Eve (December 24)
14. Christmas (December 25, in Denmark Christmas is celebrated for three days)
TOTAL: Of the 14 holidays, 11 are church holidays.

RUSSIA
1. New Year (1-6 and 8 January)
2. Christmas (January 7)
3. Defender of the Fatherland Day (February 22-23)
4. International Women's Day (8-10 March)
5. Spring and Labor Festival (May 1-4)
6. Victory Day (May 9-11)
7. Russia Day (June 12-15)
8. National Unity Day (November 1-4)
TOTAL: Out of 8 holidays, 1 is church holiday. Please note the number of holidays for each holiday).