The nationwide winter holidays, timed to coincide with the celebration of the New Year 2017, will be relatively short in Russia: one full week plus adjacent weekends, a total of nine calendar days.
Weekend dates for New Year -2017 in Russia
In 2017, the residents of the country will finally have time to prepare for the main winter holiday. The last day of the outgoing year, December 31, is not officially considered a day off, but in 2016 it fell on Saturday - therefore, people working on a five-day schedule will rest on this day “legally”. However, for organizations working on a six-day basis, the last day of the year will remain working - in accordance with the law, the duration of work should be reduced by one hour, and that's all.
Sunday 1st January to Sunday 8th January inclusive are non-working days for everyone. For these dates, you can safely plan the celebration of the coming of the Year of the Fiery Rooster, travel or vacation with children - these days are officially considered holidays in the country.
Thus, the 2017 New Year holidays will be as follows:
- December 31, Saturday - a regular day off for those working on a five-day schedule, a shorter working day for organizations with a six-day schedule;
- from January 1 (Sunday) to January 6 (Friday) - the official days of the New Year holidays;
- January 7 (Saturday) - holiday, Christmas;
- January 8 (Sunday) - the last day of the national holidays.
The first working day of 2017 will be Monday 9 January. Thus, both before and after the New Year holidays, residents of the country will have to work a full week - from Monday to Friday, without relaxed "shortened" work periods.
The same day, January 9, will be the beginning of a new school quarter. Pupils in most Russian schools will start resting a week earlier than adults (from December 25), and their legal winter holidays will end the same time as their parents. Schoolchildren who study according to the modular system "5 (6) +1" in accordance with their curriculum on New Year's holidays have one week's rest, and in terms of time in 2017 it completely coincides with the winter holidays for adults.
What determines the duration of winter holidays in Russia
According to the law, the "guaranteed" duration of winter holidays in Russia is from January 1 to January 8. At the same time, January 7 is a day off in honor of the holiday of the Nativity of Christ, and all days from 1 to 6 and January 8 are non-working days dedicated to the main winter holiday - New Year.
At the same time, the period of continuous winter rest may increase if the holidays "adjoin" weekends (for example, it happened in 2016, when Saturday and Sunday fell on January 9 and 10, thus the holidays lasted 10 days). In addition, in accordance with Russian laws, if a regular day off coincides with a holiday, then this coincidence is compensated by an additional day of rest. Since the period from January 1 to January 8 is guaranteed to have a weekend - additional days of rest are either "added" to the New Year holidays, or are postponed to other days of the coming year. The project for the transfer of days off is annually prepared by the Ministry of Labor and Employment and approved by the government of the country.
Resolution of the government of the Russian Federation on the postponement of days off in 2017
In 2017, in accordance with a government decree, Russians will be "compensated" for two holidays that fell on the weekend. This is the New Year itself (Sunday 1 January) and Christmas (Saturday 7 January). At the same time, additional weekends will be postponed to other months:
- for January 1, Russia will have a rest on February 24 (Friday), thanks to which a four-day mini-vacation will fall on the celebration of Defender of the Fatherland Day;
- Christmas Saturday will be offset by the weekend of May 8 (Monday), and the Victory Day celebrations will also last four days.
Two four-day weekends in one year are rare for the Russian holiday calendar - and the opportunity to additionally rest in February and May should be a good compensation for the relatively short (compared to 2015 and 2016) New Year holidays.
