I also moved to the Netherlands recently (but from Germany) and their holiday schedule feels really weird to me. You get a lot from April to June and then nothing until Christmas. They should’ve spaced that out better.
Germany isn’t that much better, in most states you get two public holidays between June and December, 3rd October and either reformation day or all-saints’ day, and those can all be on the weekend so in a bad year you get zero additional days off.
I am from Saxony and there you get Buß- und Bettag, that’s always a Wednesday. You still get 2 holidays four times out of six years in the worst case in other states.
I mean, to be fair, many of those holidays aren’t actually based on when Christian events happened. It’s usually more like co-opting an already existing pagan holiday, and forcing it to fit into some story about their religion. It’s often not even in the same fucking season of when an actual event in Christianity may have happened (if at all).
Except for Queen Beatrix’s birthday which was originally in January and her mother’s was in September, but both of them celebrated Queen’s day in April.
So they really move the date around as it is convenient to be a nicer celebration.
I also moved to the Netherlands recently (but from Germany) and their holiday schedule feels really weird to me. You get a lot from April to June and then nothing until Christmas. They should’ve spaced that out better.
Germany isn’t that much better, in most states you get two public holidays between June and December, 3rd October and either reformation day or all-saints’ day, and those can all be on the weekend so in a bad year you get zero additional days off.
I am from Saxony and there you get Buß- und Bettag, that’s always a Wednesday. You still get 2 holidays four times out of six years in the worst case in other states.
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You do know that most public holidays are based on christian events right? Spacing those out is only possible if we separate those days from religion.
The statuary minimum holiday entitlement of 20 days (most employers give 25+) can be used freely.
I mean, to be fair, many of those holidays aren’t actually based on when Christian events happened. It’s usually more like co-opting an already existing pagan holiday, and forcing it to fit into some story about their religion. It’s often not even in the same fucking season of when an actual event in Christianity may have happened (if at all).
I mean, they kinda place King’s/Queen’s Day how it suits them. And there are possible Christian holidays in the second half of the year as well.
FYI: King’s day is celebrated on the king’s birthday. Not on some randomly selected day.
Except for Queen Beatrix’s birthday which was originally in January and her mother’s was in September, but both of them celebrated Queen’s day in April.
So they really move the date around as it is convenient to be a nicer celebration.
Sure, that’s why they kept it at the 30.4., when Beatrix got queen, who has her birthday on 31.1.
Heh, even here in the home of Christianity we have multiple secular holidays: liberation day, workers’ day, republic day, ferragosto …
Cool thing is, you can even make up holidays if you want!