Holidays are a phenomenon that people usually look forward to. In a special "Calendar of Events" over 200 days are registered, which are time cards. According to this calendar, all holidays can be qualified as follows:
• Public holidays are legally non-working days. These are especially days loved by Russians. They are enshrined in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation. These include the May holidays of Victory, Spring and Labor; New Year holidays March 8 and February 23; Days of Russia and National Unity, celebrated in June and November, respectively. We will talk about the origin of these holidays a little later.
• One official non-working day enshrined in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, but not related to the category referred to as “public holidays” in the Labor Code. This is Christmas, which is celebrated in our country 7.01.
• Days devoted to workers in various industrial sectors, holidays of artists, scientists, etc. These official holidays in Russia are business days.
Public holidays, or rather the history of their consolidation in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation is ambiguous.
So, for example, the Festival of Spring and Labor was first celebrated in Warsaw in 1890. The very next year it was celebrated in our capital, and later the traditional May Day became the favorite spring event of the whole country. The name of the holiday changed several times, but this did not affect the general love of Russians for it. Regardless of the name, position in the country, the number of days off, he always remained a symbol of spring, universal unity. May Day always caused a special emotional upsurge.
Some public holidays of the Russian Federation are closely related to the history of Christianity. This is, of course, about the New Year holidays. As you know, the beginning of the new year in Russia was considered the day of Christ Sunday, which falls in the spring. John the third decided that it was more convenient to celebrate the beginning of the year on September 01, and in 1492 issued a corresponding Decree. Until 1700, years were counted from the moment God created the world, and September 1 was the first day of the year. Given the difference in Russian and European calendars, such a reckoning made it very difficult to conduct all international affairs. Therefore, Peter 1 ordered him to solemnly and cheerfully celebrate the New Year, like all of Europe, on January 1. Today it’s hard to imagine that everyone’s beloved Christmas tree and New Year’s feasts have hardly taken root in our country. However, over time, the holiday became so popular that it even got into the Labor Code and became an official non-working day. True, for a long time the New Year holidays did not exist: on January 2, people had to go to work. Today we are talking about reducing the New Year holidays and lengthening the May holidays at their expense.
The Day of Concord and Reconciliation was adopted in 2005 and replaced the holiday of November 7, which was officially called the Day of the Great October Socialist Revolution. It was probably no coincidence that it was November 4 that marks the Day of the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God.
Russia Day, which has been non-working since 2002, marks both the moment of adoption of the Declaration on the sovereignty of the new Russia and the day the first President of our country came to power. The history of the celebration is long, but today all the people are happy to celebrate the day of true national unity, freedom, responsibility for a better future.
February 23 was a non-working day only since 2006. Before that, it was considered a holiday, but a working day. Changing the name in connection with the change in the political status of the state, the day of February 23 is today marked not so much as Defender of the Fatherland Day, as it is officially called in the Labor Code of the Russian Federation, but as a holiday for all men.
An interesting story is March 8th. International Women's Day has been celebrated since 1911 only in Denmark, Switzerland, Germany, Austria. Since 1913 he was celebrated in our Petersburg. Only since 1975, March 8 became a state official holiday. It should also be noted that, despite its pompous name "International", the holiday is still celebrated by a narrow circle of countries.