# Holidays around the world **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 7, 2007, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116 "2007-06-07T14:30:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116/1 "2007-06-07T14:30:31Z")
Is there a good online site that lists holidays, including statutory ones, from around the world? I’d love to know that June X in EMEA is a bank holiday but Turkey has a day off the next Friday. ---
**Author:** ![Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/50afbb/32.png) [@Duck\_Duck\_Goose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duck_Duck_Goose)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116/2 "2007-06-07T14:36:17Z")
[Holidays around the world.](http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/holidays.htm) [Holidays around the world, The Sequel.](http://www.earthcalendar.net/index.php) You’re welcome. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116/3 "2007-06-07T14:37:08Z")
What’s a statutory holiday? The definition of different kinds of holidays varies from country to country. Working in a team that was mostly Euros, with some Americans thrown in, we had to ask the Americans to explain Sesame-Street style what did they mean by “bank holiday”; having “national holidays” where only government employees get the day off - 😕 In many countries (Spain, Costa Rica, Switzerland, to name three) there’s national, regional and local holidays - on which level are you interested? Looking at **Duck Duck Goose** ’s second link, the Spanish list contains errors. Apart of listing “some” local holidays but not all (hey, if you’re going to list them, list at least the provincial level for all 50 provinces - if you’re not doing all don’t do some), I have no idea what that “Dia de la Toma” is. January 5th is the Eve of the Epiphany… Noche de Reyes, but “la Toma”? Plus to me the idea of a holiday that’s not vacation for people with “normal” jobs is real weird. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116/4 "2007-06-07T14:44:50Z")
Half the holiday names in the list for Spain are wrong; several of them are listed without an indication of where in Spain are they holidays (only Catalonia celebrates St Stephen); and I repeat, if they’re going to indicate La Diada, where is December 3rd, eh? ☹ great idea for the site, but bad execution. The first link seems to be mostly dedicated to “holidays celebrated in America and how they’re celebrated elsewhere.” ---
**Author:** ![Grey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b782af/32.png) [@Grey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grey)\ **Post date:** [June 7, 2007, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116/5 "2007-06-07T16:11:05Z")
The second link is the best I’ve seen so far. I simply want a way to know if people in, say, Seoul didn’t work last Friday. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2007, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116/6 "2007-06-10T08:05:48Z")
[QUOTE=Grey] The second link is the best I’ve seen so far. I simply want a way to know if people in, say, Seoul didn’t work last Friday. [/QUOTE] Then sorry but you need to look for individual information. Google “Seoul Holiday List” and “South Korea Holiday List.” Half the days when people from Madrid wouldn’t be caught dead at work unless they’re emergency aren’t in the Spanish list. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2007, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116/7 "2007-06-10T08:11:05Z")
[QUOTE=Grey] The second link is the best I’ve seen so far. I simply want a way to know if people in, say, Seoul didn’t work last Friday. [/QUOTE] People in Seoul, as well as those of us here in Busan, did work last Friday. It was last Wednesday we didn’t work. That was Memorial Day. We also didn’t work on May 24th this year as that was Buddha’s Birthday (that one’s figured on the Lunar Calendar, so it varies from year to year). ---
**Author:** ![Noone\_Special](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noone_special/32/2863_2.png) [@Noone\_Special](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noone_Special)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2007, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116/8 "2007-06-10T08:11:06Z")
Using **DDG** ’s second site, the list of Holidays for Israel includes \*\*a lot \*\*of days that are \*not \*work holidays. There’s also the glaring omission of \*Succoth \*(late September), which \*\*is \*\*a work holiday :smack: All in all, completely useless as a source for figuring out whether I should be at work or not… ---
**Author:** ![Caught\_Work](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/919ad9/32.png) [@Caught\_Work](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caught_Work)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2007, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116/9 "2007-06-10T11:07:41Z")
Pffffffffft! Neither of those contain Melbourne Cup Day. A day where we all go to the races, get pissed and throw up in the back of a cab on the way home, or alternatively, sleep it off in the Flemington car park. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2007, 12:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116/10 "2007-06-10T12:23:15Z")
[QUOTE=Monty] People in Seoul, as well as those of us here in Busan, did work last Friday. It was last Wednesday we didn’t work. That was Memorial Day. We also didn’t work on May 24th this year as that was Buddha’s Birthday (that one’s figured on the Lunar Calendar, so it varies from year to year). [/QUOTE] That was on May 30 in Thailand this year, called Wisakha Bucha Day here. It actually commemorates his birth, enlightenment and achieving Nirvana, each of which supposedly took place on the full moon of the sixth month. I wonder why the different days? But that’s not unprecedented; after all, Russian Orthodox Christmas is in January. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2007, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116/11 "2007-06-10T13:05:03Z")
I think the different dates is because of the difference in the lunar calendars used. AFAIK, Thai Buddhism follows a lunar calendar originating in India and Korean Buddhism follows the Chinese lunar calendar. ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2007, 1:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/holidays-around-the-world/407116/12 "2007-06-10T13:10:57Z")
[QUOTE=Caught@Work] Pffffffffft! Neither of those contain Melbourne Cup Day. A day where we all go to the races, get pissed and throw up in the back of a cab on the way home, or alternatively, sleep it off in the Flemington car park. [/QUOTE] Well, based on those criteria, you can see why maybe Melbourne Cup Day wasn’t singled out… 😃