Europe is a varied continent with plenty of different
Europe
has at least one statutory day off in the period between 15 December
and 15 January. This includes the majority Islamic countries such as
Turkey.
Who gets the most though?
The
majority of countries in Europe are Christian, whether that is
Catholic, Protestant or Orthodox and bearing that in mind there are four
key dates to look for:
- 25 December - Catholic/Protestant Christmas Day, which is the purported anniversary of the birth of Christ
- New Year’s Day - in terms of the Gregorian calendar, which every single country gets as a holiday
- 6 January - Epiphany, when Jesus was supposed to have appeared to the Magi (or three wise men)
- 7 January - Russian Orthodox Christmas Day
Around that there are several eves and and saints’ days but
those four are the bedrock of the holiday season. There are secular
days too, usually related to revolutions or new declarations of
statehood that happened to fall in this time of year.
Russia,
the home of the eastern Orthodox church, has the most days off over
the Christmas period of any European country. Every day between New
Year and the day after Russian Orthodox Christmas is a holiday, giving
them eight off in total.
Read more: Which European countries get the most time off over Christmas? | News | The Guardian
