A world run by public holidays!

www.bank-holidays.com keeps a list of the days:

  • when official public holidays are celebrated in over 750 countries & regions
  • when banks are closed in more than 750 countries & regions (dates do not necessarily coincide with previous).
  • when about 200 stock market places are closed
  • when schools are closed
  • when major elections are held worldwide
  • when noteworthy cultural events, special events (strikes, coups d'états, eclipses,...) take place
  • when trade shows and trade fairs are held worldwide
  • when international sports events occur

You can imagine just how enormous this task is when you learn that in Switzerland, for example, each of the 27 cantons has its own set of dates, or that a specific match can cause a government to proclaim a public holiday with immediate effect (such as the Olympics opening ceremony in Beijing on August 8, 2008), or that in the U.S.A., the whole country is given a day off every four years at the time of the presidential inauguration.

The job gets even more complicated when you consider that certain Buddhist or Muslim festivals fall on seemingly random dates depending on local physical observations!

And of course, in unstable political situations, there are often spectacular about-turns, when for example it turns out that a certain holiday was in honour of the newly deposed president.

__________________________________________________________________________________________ With a short and steady rhythm, the moon is the natural timekeeper for terrestrial observers. Unfortunately, the solstices (from the Latin, sol invictus, or 'invincible sun')-meaning, the seasons-obey only one ruler: the sun.
Through subtle tinkering, civilizations have always tried to reconcile the two competing rhythms in order to come up with a workable calendar. Some lean towards the moon, others prefer the sun. Probably free from earthly constraints, Islam pooh-poohs the pacing of the sun and gives credence only to the rising of the moon.
In any case, today, the moon maintains a monopoly on the days of the week. The seven days associated with the Hebrew faith continue to give order to the human world.

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Feeding the database

Since 1998, the database has been put together with a great deal of patience by the team from EDIT (Easy Does I.T.), an online translation company active since 1993.

A forest of data has been gone through with a fine-tooth comb. Now, however, the site's numerous visitors enable us to respond in real time by bringing errors to our attention. Bankers, for example, sometimes protest that their business is open and you'd better believe it! Another source of information on unforeseen holiday dates is tour operators faced with a new local situation.Most of our local translators also participate in updating local observations. Embassies and consulate are also of great help.

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Meet Editor-in-Chief Jean-Pierre Jumez, musician, poet, writer, journalist... www.jumez.com

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The site currently has an inventory of 18,000 dates per year (per language -- we carry 16 languages) from 1970 to 2070, for a total amount of entries exceeding 28 million!

__________________________________________________________________________________________ European counties with an average of 11 public holidays and the US with 10 fall well below the global average of 13. Developed economies have an average of 12 national public holidays less than emerging markets such as Brazil or China which had an average of 14. Argentina is among the countries with the highest number of national public holidays, with 18. __________________________________________________________________________________________

Languages

The site is fully operational in French (www.jours-feries.com), English (www.bank-holidays.com), Spanish (www.dias-festivos.com), Italian (www.ferie-nazionali.com), Portuguese (www.feriados.com), Indonesian (www.hari-libur.com), Japanese (www.saijitsu.net), Arabic (www.ayam-alotal.com), Russian (www.prazdniki.net), Chinese (www.shijie-jiari.com), Turkish (www.tatil-gunleri.com), Polish (www.dni-swiateczne.com), Swedish (www.helgdagar.com), German (www.feiertage-weltweit.com), Thai (www.wanyud-rachagan.com), Korean (www.konghyuil.com).

For all enquiries, please call us at EDIT, +33 6 14 20 75 73