Czech Holidays

Today is the 4th of July so Happy Independence Day to everyone back home. Unfortunately, it wasn't a holiday for me over here. Go figure...but that's OK because July 5th and 6th are public holidays over here in the ČR. Yeah!

Now a lot of my friends back in the USA seem to think that there are public holidays galore over here. That's not really the case. There are 12 public holidays observed in the Czech Republic. However, (and this is a BIG HOWEVER by the way), if a holiday falls on a weekend then you don't get an extra day off. In the USA, if a holiday falls on Saturday then you get Friday off and if it falls on Sunday then Monday is a day off. Not so over here...dang it!

Even with 12 official days it is impossible to ever get all 12 days. 2011 is the worst possible year for public holidays over here, since January 1st fell on a Saturday, because we only get 7 days off. When January 1st falls on a Monday or Thursday then you get the maximum 10 days. During a leap year then you want January 1st to fall on Wednesday to get all 10 days.

Here are the twelve official Czech holidays.

1 January - New Year's Day (& Czech Independence Day)
Easter Monday
1 May - Labor Day
8 May - Liberation Day
5 July - St. Cyril and St. Methodius Day
6 July - Jan Hus Day
28 September - St. Wenceslas Day (Czech Statehood Day)
28 October - Independent Czechoslovak State Day
17 November - Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day
24 December - Christmas Eve
25 December - Christmas Day
26 December - Second Day of Christmas

So again, Happy 4th to everyone back home. And to everyone here, Happy St. Cyril & St. Methodius Day and Happy Jan Hus Day!!

Update:  As of 2016, Good Friday is the newest public holiday in Czechland.  Now there are 13 official Czech holiday.

Update:  There are also 15 significant days but these are not public holidays.