Holidays in India – When it falls on a weekend

In a country where Saturdays are classed as working days, we expectantly look forward to national holidays for the much needed break. Those complementary parts of the week that is not devoted to labor are welcomed with open arms. While some companies in India are adopting to the western way of working where weekend includes both Saturday and Sunday, others continue with their torcherous practice of giving only one day off in a whole week.

2016 Broke Many Hearts…!

Whenever the new calendar arrives, everyone rushes to check out the holiday list. Most of us secretly wish for the holidays to fall on weekdays and not on Sundays. If you were thinking that holidays in India are a respite, 2016 proves you wrong. This year’s datebook broke a lot of hearts since many national holidays and few public holidays are going to fall on Sundays, two major heart-breakers being Gandhi Jayanti and Christmas.

Holiday offers pause to the dull and mundane lifestyle that we get accustomed with. While we are filled with the excitement and energy, somewhere in our heart we are also secretly praying for the holidays to either fall on Saturday or Monday to get extended weekends, but that rarely happens. And it is during the Summers, especially the months of May, June, and July, when it becomes literally impossible to drag ourselves to our office desks.

Long breaks are possible only during Durga Puja or Diwali as they are the major festivals celebrated in our country, provided Sunday is around.

Holidays Around the World

Unlike holidays in India, Federal and State holidays list is relatively longer in US and other countries. 40 working hours or five working days a week, many national holidays, Mondayisation (you’ll read later), etc., is something where we envy our western counterparts. In US, for Federal holidays, the Government makes sure that they fall on weekdays, specifically on Mondays. As a result, they get many extended weekends. All these efforts by the Government make sure that employees are not demotivated.

Talk about extended weekends, there are many holidays that either falls on Fridays or Mondays. For instance, the 4th of July this year is Monday. Another reason for more fireworks in the sky.

Labor Day, Memorial Day, Columbus Day, President’s Day, etc., and many more are arranged to fall on Mondays. Festivals like Thanksgiving Day do fall on Thursday but most declare the following Friday off to continue the festivities. This Friday marks the beginning of Christmas shopping and is famed as Black Friday.

This year Halloween too falls on Monday, another long weekend to be with family and friends in the festive season.

The Concept of MONDAYISATION

In many countries the Government follow Mondayisation or shifting of public holidays. When any public holiday falls on Sunday, it is transferred to next Monday or Tuesday accordingly. Christmas i.e. 25th of December is on Sunday, so Government has declared 26th December as holiday for both Christmas and Boxing Day.

Likewise as January 1st is Sunday, 2nd January 2017 has been declared as holiday for New Year. What more could one ask for!

We could only wish if the government and other professional institutions of India could learn this trait and adopt it to make the much-needed difference.

In Conclusion

Holidays overlapping with weekends mean fewer breaks from our monotonous and gloomy routines. This gets worse when few organizations have very rigid leave policies.

We wish this situation gets better in days to come.

Until then, enjoy the breaks to the fullest and seek out different ways to make the most of your allotted holiday, regardless of the number..