I’ve been meaning to write this post for some time now…

I was very surprised to know that there are so few holidays in England. I soon found out that besides Easter, Good Friday and Christmas, there are no religious holidays in England. Well in Portugal they make the majority of them. Most people in Portugal don’t even know why there’s a holiday. All that matters is that you don’t have to work that day

After reading this, you may think that Portuguese people are lazy. Well it’s not exactly like that. Working conditions are very different, pay cheques as well, and there are many differences in the number of hours people work in a week.

Basically, if you are a civil worker in Portugal not only you do nothing during your hours of work, you also have a lot more days off. I must say that although in England civil workers have as many days off as everyone else, opinions about them are exactly the same (it must be a global problem )…

The major differences are: In England there are no religious holidays (besides the above) and if Christmas and New Year are on a weekend, an alternative day is given.

In Portugal you have loads of religious holidays, no alternative days are given if they are on a weekend and if you are a civil servant and the holiday is on a Tuesday or a Thursday, chances are you’ll get the Monday or the Friday too.

Total number of bank holidays in Portugal: 14 (8 religious) + one regional holiday=15 Although more for civil servents (this year around 5 more days) and some may be at a weekend.

01st Jan: New Year

Tuesday 47 days before Easter (mobile): Carnival

Friday before Easter (mobile): Good Friday

Sunday (mobile): Easter

25th April: Liberty day

1st May: May day

Thursday (mobile): Body of Christ (or some other translation)

10th June: Portugal day

15th August: Don’t know the translation but it’s to celebrate the rising of Mary’s soul (death of Mary)

5th October: Republic day (when we ended monarchy in 1910)

1st November: All Saints

1st December: Restoration of Independence (We had 3 Spanish kings ruling Portugal because of a succession crisis. This is when we ended that!!)

8th December: Don’t know the translation but it’s the patron of Portugal Imaculada Conceicao.

25th December: Christmas

Plus one day that is the patron saint of a region ( in Lisbon it’s Saint Anthony on the 13th June)

Total number of bank holidays in England: 8 (3 religious)

01 Jan: New Year

Friday before Easter (mobile): Good Friday

Monday after Easter: Easter Monday (don’t know the reason but maybe because Easter is on a Sunday)

First Monday in May: Early May bank holiday (May Day)

Last Monday in May: Spring Bank holiday ( Reason? Maybe just because they felt like it? No idea)

Last Monday in August: Summer bank holiday (what about Autumn and Winter?? Again no idea about the reason. Do you need a reason?)

25th December: Christmas (can be a different day if the 25th is on a weekend)

26th December: Boxing day (day after Christmas on the next Monday if 25th is on a weekend) This one I know the reason! Comes from the day when the boxes of donations on the churches were opened to give money to the poor

There you go! Another big difference between these countries.

Although it saddens me that I can’t have the Portuguese holidays off (not the religious because I’m not religious), I still remember them and celebrate them!

And I can’t complaint because being a student I have a lot more holidays than the common worker in both countries

P. S.- Christmas and Good Friday are called public holidays and the others are called bank holidays. The reason? Google it is you are interested (which I doubt ). This post is too long already