Bulgarians to get five days off at Christmas, six-day holiday in May 2014
Bulgaria’s Cabinet declared, at its meeting on November 13, a continuous six-day holiday from May 1 to 6 2014. In a separate decree, the Cabinet created a five-day holiday for Christmas in 2013.
The Cabinet declared Monday December 23 2013 a public holiday, with Saturday December 21 declared a “working day” to compensate, thus creating a continuous holiday from December 22 to December 26.
With December 31 2013 also declared a public holiday by an earlier decree (to be compensated by working on Saturday December 14), Friday December 27 and Monday December 30 will be the only working days at the end of the month.
The longer holiday in May 2014 is prompted by the close proximity of two public holidays – Labour Day on May 1 2014 (a Thursday) and St George’s Day on May 6 (a Tuesday). The Government’s declaration makes May 2 and May 5 special public holidays “to group the days off, prevent gaps in the working week and to ensure their more effective use.”
To make up for the special public holidays, May 10 and May 31 – both Saturdays – have been declared working days.
This will be the second year in a row that Bulgarians will get a six-day holiday in early May. In 2013, in addition to the Labour Day and St George’s Day, the country’s Orthodox Christians celebrated Easter Sunday on May 5 (with Holy Friday on May 3 also a public holiday).
Later in 2014, Wednesday December 31 will be a day off by Cabinet decree, with Saturday December 13 declared a working day to compensate.
(Photo: Clive Leviev-Sawyer)
