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All official holidays in Finland are established by acts of Parliament. The official holidays can be divided into Christian and non-Christian holidays. [1] The main Christian holidays are Christmas, New Year's Day, Epiphany, Easter, Ascension day, Pentecost, Midsummer Day, and All Saints' Day. The non-Christian holidays are May Day and the Independence Day of Finland.
In addition to this all Sundays are official holidays but they are not as important as the special holidays. The names of the Sundays follow the liturgical calendar and they can be categorized as Christian holidays. When, in the late 1960s, the standard working week in Finland was reduced to 40 hours by an act of Parliament, it also meant that all Saturdays became a sort of de facto public holidays, though not official ones. Easter Sunday and Pentecost are Sundays that form part of a main holiday and they are preceded by a kind of special Saturdays.
Several Christian holidays traditionally falling on working days or on fixed dates have been moved to Saturdays and Sundays. In 1955, Midsummer day was moved to the Saturday following 19 June, the feast of the Annunciation to the Sunday following 21 March (or, if this coincides with Easter or with Palm Sunday, the Sunday before Palm Sunday), and All Saints' Day to the Saturday following 30 October. More holidays were moved in 1973: Epiphany to the Saturday following 5 January and Ascension Day to the Saturday before the traditional Thursday, but these revisions were reversed in 1991.
Christmas Eve and Midsummer Eve might very well be the single most important holidays during the entire year for Finns. Surprisingly they are not officially called holidays and are not so marked in calendars, but for most people, are not working days, and in practice they differ from official holidays only in that most shops are open on those days from early morning till noon. They hold this de facto status partly due to some statements in legislation but also because most employment contracts provides for these days as full holidays. A number of the less important main holidays are also preceded by de facto half days, meaning that in some (but not all) offices working hours are then shorter than normally. These are Maundy Thursday, the day before May Day and New Year's Eve.
Already before the 5 days working week was generally adopted in Finland in the late 1960s, working hours in most cases were shorter on Saturdays (4...5 h) than on other weekdays (8 h), but they were equally shorter also on all eves of public holidays, for example on the eve of Epiphany, the eve of All Saints' Day, and even including Christmas Eve and Midsummer Eve. But when Saturdays ceased to be working days, new contracts removed these shortenings from other holiday eves, except from Midsummer and Christmas Eve which also became de facto holidays.
The Finnish calendar also provides for special flag flying days. A day's status as a flag flying day has no formal link with an eventual status as an official or as a de facto holiday. However, May Day, Midsummer Day and Independence Day have the status of both a flag flying day and a public holiday. Midsummer Day is also Flag Day.
Finland has an official National Day, 6 December. Some minor observances are also denoted in the Finnish calendar, though they have not been judged worthy of either holiday or flag flying day status.
Date | English Name | Local Name – Finnish | Local Name – Swedish | Remarks |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 January | New Year's Day | Uudenvuodenpäivä | Nyårsdagen | |
6 January | Epiphany | Loppiainen | Trettondedagen | |
Moveable Friday | Good Friday | Pitkäperjantai | Långfredagen | The Friday before Easter Sunday |
Moveable Sunday | Easter Sunday | Pääsiäispäivä | Påskdagen | |
Moveable Monday | Easter Monday | 2. pääsiäispäivä | Annandag påsk | The day after Easter Sunday |
1 May | May Day | Vappu | Första maj | See Walpurgis Night |
Moveable Thursday | Ascension Day | Helatorstai | Kristi himmelfärdsdag | 39 days after Easter Sunday |
Moveable Sunday | Pentecost Sunday | Helluntaipäivä | Pingst | 49 days after Easter Sunday |
Friday between 19 and 25 June | Midsummer Eve | Juhannusaatto | Midsommarafton | Non-official – Non-business day in the Annual Holidays Act (162/2005) – holiday in some collective labor agreements |
Saturday between 20 and 26 June | Midsummer Day | Juhannuspäivä | Midsommardagen | Moved from 24 June |
Saturday between 31 October and 6 November | All Saints' Day | Pyhäinpäivä | Alla helgons dag | Moved from 1 November |
6 December | Independence Day | Itsenäisyyspäivä | Självständighetsdagen | |
24 December | Christmas Eve | Jouluaatto | Julafton | Non-official – Non-business day in the Annual Holidays Act (162/2005) – holiday in some collective labor agreements |
25 December | Christmas Day | Joulupäivä | Juldagen | |
26 December | Second Day of Christmas | 2. joulupäivä or tapaninpäivä | Annandag jul |
The liturgical year, also called the church year, Christian year or kalendar, consists of the cycle of liturgical seasons in Christian churches that determines when feast days, including celebrations of saints, are to be observed, and which portions of Scripture are to be read either in an annual cycle or in a cycle of several years.
By law, "the Sundays and the public holidays remain protected as days of rest from work and of spiritual elevation". Thus all Sundays are, in a manner, public holidays – but usually not understood by the term "holiday".
In the Catholic Church, holy days of obligation are days on which the faithful are expected to attend Mass, and engage in rest from work and recreation, according to the third commandment.
The Twelve Days of Christmas, also known as Twelvetide, is a festive Christian season celebrating the Nativity of Jesus. In the Western ecclesiastical traditions, "Christmas Day" is considered the "First Day of Christmas" and the Twelve Days are 25 December – 5 January, inclusive, with the last day being Twelfth Night. For many Christian denominations—for example, the Anglican Communion and Lutheran Church—the Twelve Days are identical to Christmastide, but for others, e.g., the Roman Catholic Church, Christmastide lasts longer than the Twelve Days of Christmas, running through the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord. Other methods of counting mark the twelve days from December 26 to January 6.
Christmastide is a season of the liturgical year in most Christian churches. In some, Christmastide is identical to Twelvetide.
Epiphany, also known as "Theophany" in Eastern Christian tradition, is a Christian feast day commemorating the visit of the Magi, the baptism of Jesus, and the wedding at Cana.
Eastertide or Paschaltide is a festal season in the liturgical year of Christianity that focuses on celebrating the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Preceded by Lent, it begins on Easter Sunday, which initiates Easter Week in Western Christianity, and Bright Week in Eastern Christianity.
This article lists the feast days of the General Roman Calendar as they were at the end of 1954. It is essentially the same calendar established by Pope Pius X (1903–1914) following his liturgical reforms, but it also incorporates changes that were made by Pope Pius XI (1922–1939), such as the institution of the Feast of Christ the King, and the changes made by Pope Pius XII (1939–1958) prior to 1955, chief among them the imposition of the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary upon the universal Church in 1944, the inscription of Pius X into the General Calendar following his 1954 canonization, and the institution of the Feast of the Queenship of Mary in October 1954.
"Octave" has two senses in Christian liturgical usage. In the first sense, it is the eighth day after a feast, reckoning inclusively, and so always falls on the same day of the week as the feast itself. The word is derived from Latin octava (eighth), with dies (day) understood. In the second sense, the term is applied to the whole period of these eight days, during which certain major feasts came to be observed.
Principal Feasts are a type of observance in some churches of the Anglican Communion, including the Church of England, the Episcopal Church, and the Anglican Church of Canada. All Principal Feasts are also Principal Holy Days, sharing equal status with those Principal Holy Days which are not Principal Feasts. They are considered to be the most significant type of observance, the others being Festivals, Lesser Festivals, and Commemorations. As with all Principal Holy Days, their observance is obligatory. The Anglican Principal Feasts and Principal Holy Days are somewhat comparable to Roman Catholic Solemnities and Holy days of obligation.
The Lutheran liturgical calendar is a listing which details the primary annual festivals and events that are celebrated liturgically by various Lutheran churches. The calendars of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Canada (ELCIC) are from the 1978 Lutheran Book of Worship and the calendar of the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and the Lutheran Church–Canada (LCC) use the Lutheran Book of Worship and the 1982 Lutheran Worship. Elements unique to the ELCA have been updated from the Lutheran Book of Worship to reflect changes resulting from the publication of Evangelical Lutheran Worship in 2006. The elements of the calendar unique to the LCMS have also been updated from Lutheran Worship and the Lutheran Book of Worship to reflect the 2006 publication of the Lutheran Service Book.
In 1955, Pope Pius XII made several changes to the General Roman Calendar of 1954; those changes remained in force until 1960, when Pope John XXIII decreed a new revision of the General Roman Calendar. The changes made by Pope Pius XII thus remained unaltered for only five years.
Lists of holidays by various categorizations.
The following are public holidays in Ukraine.
The ranking of liturgical days in the Roman Rite is a regulation for the liturgy of the Roman Catholic church. It determines for each liturgical day which observance has priority when liturgical dates and times coincide, which texts are used for the celebration of the Holy Mass and the Liturgy of the hours and which liturgical color is assigned to the day or celebration.
In Sweden, public holidays are established by acts of Parliament. The official holidays can be divided into Christian and non-Christian holidays. The Christian holidays are jul (Christmas), trettondedag jul (Epiphany), påsk (Easter), Kristi himmelsfärds dag, pingstdagen (Pentecost), and alla helgons dag. The non-Christian holidays are: nyårsdagen, första maj, Sveriges nationaldag, and midsommar (Midsummer). Midsummer is, however, officially also a Christian holiday to celebrate John the Baptist's birthday.
Events in the year 2024 in Finland.