No need to change country to get more public holidays: a region in mainland France benefits from two additional holidays. Here’s which one, and above all, why.
It is often wrongly thought that France is one of the countries with the most public holidays. And yet… not at all! In Europe alone, we are only 18th in the ranking: Cyprus is at the top with 15 days per year, while we come well behind with our 11 days offered by the State. But there is a region in mainland France which does not benefit from the same regime as the others. In addition to national public holidays – namely January 1, Easter Monday, May 1, May 8, Ascension Day, Whit Monday, July 14, Assumption, All Saints’ Day, November 11 and Christmas Day – a particular territory has two additional days.
Who wouldn’t like to have more free days off? Well, enjoying longer weekends without having to dip into your paid vacation days is possible without going far away. To obtain this privilege, you don’t have to move to Finland or Portugal (where there are 13 public holidays per year), you just have to live… in Alsace-Moselle. Yes, the departments of Haut-Rhin, Bas-Rhin and Moselle are entitled to two additional public holidays. And one of them falls very soon: on Saint Stephen’s Day, December 26, the Alsatians and Mosellans will not work, unlike the rest of the French. And again in a few months for Good Friday, the Friday before Easter Sunday, which is also a public holiday in these three departments.
To understand the reason, we have to go back to 1871: France had just lost the war against the German Empire, which annexed Alsace-Lorraine (as it was then called) as a result. The region therefore adapts to the German calendar, which has two additional days of rest. But when France regained control of the territory in 1918, at the end of the First World War, the objective was to make it a French province like the others. Problem is, most residents are very attached to their local particularities and are mobilizing to keep them. As a result, the State ended up giving in and granting specific rights to Alsace-Moselle – including their local social security system, different from the rest of the country – which are still in force today.
In addition, several overseas departments and territories are also entitled to an additional public holiday specific to them. It celebrates the commemoration of the abolition of slavery: April 27 in Mayotte, May 22 in Martinique, May 27 in Guadeloupe and Saint-Martin, June 10 in Guyana, October 9 in Saint-Barthélemy, and December 20 in Reunion.
