The holiday calendar in 2018 in Russia will be quite confusing: the country will also have weekend transfers from January to May, and working pre-holiday Saturdays, which have switched places with Mondays. On the other hand, the number of nationwide mini-vacations will be record-breaking: in addition to long New Year's celebrations, the country will have five more rest periods lasting three to four days.
The mode in which national Russian holidays will be celebrated, and how long the rest periods associated with them will have, depends on the days of the week on which significant dates for the country fall. In accordance with the laws of our country, if a holiday coincides with a weekend (Saturday or Sunday), this is either compensated for by an additional rest on Monday (the "default" option), or special decisions are made about the transfer.
In addition, in recent years, the Ministry of Labor, which determines when citizens of the country to work and when to rest, seeks to avoid situations when holidays and the nearest days off are "broken" by a single working day. In such cases, a decision is made to postpone the weekend, and it is possible to "shuffle" them according to the law throughout the year. Such permutations give additional opportunities for rest, but it greatly confuses the question of which days will be working and which will not.
Calendar for the transfer of holidays in 2018
New Year's holidays in Russia officially continue from January 1 to January 8, and the calendar weekends that fall for this period are either "added" to the long winter rest, or are postponed to other months (thus increasing the rest periods associated with other public holidays).
This year, the Ministry has chosen the second option: for Saturday, January 6, we will rest on March 9, and the Sunday that coincided with Christmas (January 7) will be postponed to May 2. It is believed that in January we already have enough rest, but in the spring an additional day off will not be superfluous. By the way, the Ministry of Labor adhered to a similar principle last year (and in the May frosts this gave rise to jokes that the January weekend "moved" to spring along with the weather).
This does not exhaust the calendar of transfers. 2018 will be quite "rich" and on working Saturdays - the residents of the country will have three "six days" at once, when the day off is postponed from Saturday to next Monday. The fact is that in all three cases, holidays fall on Tuesdays, and the regime "two days off, one day of work, a holiday" is not considered rational.
In 2018, you will have to go to work on Saturday on April 28, June 9 and December 29. Rest days will be transferred accordingly to:
- April 30, May Day eve;
- June 11 - Monday preceding the Day of Russia;
- December 31 is the last day of the year, which is still officially considered a working day.
As a result, due to the transfers of Saturdays and January weekends in 2018, the country will have a record number of mini-vacations in the middle of the year. It:
- a three-day vacation in honor of February 23 (from 23 to 25);
- four days of rest in a row on March 8 (from 8 to 11);
- four-day vacation for the first May holidays (from 29.04 to 2.05);
- three-day celebration of the Day of Russia (June 10-12);
- three days of rest in November on National Unity Day (November 3-5).
In order not to get confused in the numerous transfers of weekends, let us consider the calendar of all-Russian holidays in chronological order, “running” through the entire annual cycle.
How will we rest on the New Year - 2018
All-Russian New Year holidays will stretch for 10 days - the country will rest from December 30 (Saturday) to January 8 (Monday). Thus, the first working week in the coming year will be slightly shortened - four working days will allow you to "get involved" in work after a rather long break.
The combination of holidays with "regular" weekends (January 6 and 7) will be offset by additional days of rest in March and May. Sunday 31 January is not transferred anywhere - this day is not "red", and we are resting on New Year's Eve 2018 only because the last days of December fell so well on the weekend.
Weekend Schedule for February 23
Defender of the Fatherland Day in 2018 is celebrated on Friday. No postponements are provided: "men's day" will join two regular weekends, and the February rest will take three days, from the 23rd to the 25th.
The working day on the 22nd day in organizations that comply with labor laws will be less by an hour.
Rescheduled weekend for March 8
The first spring holiday of 2018 will be marked by a four-day mini-vacation. March 8 falls on Thursday, Saturday weekend from January 6 is "moved" to Friday, after which there is a standard weekend.
The working Wednesday before the holiday on March 7, of course, will also be shortened by law. In organizations working on a six-day schedule, rest can be "broken" - after all, Saturday and a day off from January will be considered working days.
Holiday calendar for May holidays
The celebration of Spring and Labor Day in 2018 will also last 4 days to the delight of summer residents and lovers of out-of-town picnics. However, the "shock rest" will be preceded by an extended, six-day week.
In the end, we will have a rest from Sunday (April 29) to Wednesday (05/02) - Monday will be "walking" on account of the Saturday worked, Tuesday - a holiday, Wednesday - transfer from January 7th.
Despite the rather long May holidays, parents of schoolchildren and students need to be careful when planning trips for these days. After all, those who study on a six-day week may have classes on Monday according to the usual schedule, and teachers are not always loyal to the absence of "inter-holiday" days.
Victory Day, May 9, 2018 is celebrated on Wednesday, and no transfers are planned for these days. Thus, the anniversary of the end of the Great Patriotic War will become the only holiday of "one day" this year, and the next day after the parades, processions of the "Immortal Regiment" and festive fireworks, residents of the country will go to work and study.
How we rest on June 12
Day of Russia in 2018 falls on Tuesday. In this regard, the pre-holiday week will also be extended - so as not to break the weekend, instead of Saturday, June 9, we will rest on Monday 11th.
Thus, the mini-vacation dedicated to the 28th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Sovereignty of the country will begin on Sunday 10th and will last until Tuesday 12th.
November weekend reschedules
The Day of National Unity, which in the post-Soviet period replaced the revolutionary November 7 and is celebrated on the 4th, is the last in the Russian annual cycle of holidays marked by a nationwide weekend. This date falls on Sunday in 2018, and according to the standard default carryover scheme, we get an additional “no-worries day” on Monday. Thus, in November, the country will have a three-day vacation, which will continue from the 3rd to the 5th.
When will the 2019 New Year holidays begin?
New Year's holidays 2018-2019 will begin on December 30, on Sunday, and for December 31, Russians will have to work on the last Saturday of the year, December 29. The question of making the last day of the year an official holiday has been discussed by the State Duma deputies for several years, but so far no such decision has been made - therefore, for the opportunity to thoroughly prepare for the most magical night of the year, you will have to pay with a "black" Saturday.
The duration of the New Year holidays - 2019 is still unknown. Rest until the 8th can be considered almost guaranteed, but whether additional days will be added to the holidays, or they will be postponed to other months, is still unknown, the decision will be made only in the summer of 2018.
Most likely, the holidays will again last until the 8th - if by that time the supporters of a radical reduction in winter holidays in favor of rest in May and June have not won in the State Duma. However, such discussions have been going on for many years in a row, but the arguments of the "reformers" of the holiday calendar usually turned out to be unconvincing.
