France has exactly one more national holiday than we have in the US. This month is especially rife with them. Last week was Labor Day, or May Day, the one day of the year when only emergency services and such can force an employee to work. Some family owned businesses are open, but not much else, even restaurants. This week we had VE day, jour de victoire, which commemorates the end of fighting in Europe in World War Two. Today is Ascension Day. I don’t know why Ascension day, as France is stubbornly and thoroughly secular. It may have to do with the time the French state became secular, even taking over ownership of church properties. As compensation, perhaps, we continue to celebrate a number of Christian holidays, and not just Christmas. In a couple of weeks we will have Whit Monday off. I know nothing of Whit Sunday or Whit Monday, but it is a holiday.
One holiday that is very similar to one of our American ones is the Fète National, or National Holiday, which I’ve mostly heard referred to as “Bastille Day.” Oddly, it does not celebrate the storming of the Bastille on 14 July, but in fact the huge party held one year later on the Champs du Mars. The idea is to repeat that happy celebration every year on the anniversary of the first grand party. It is very similar to our Independence Day celebrations, with fireworks, parties, cookouts, and general yee-haw type celebrations. We hope to be in Paris some year for the occasion. (Not this year. Olympics? Merci, mais non!
Other holidays include Noel, Toussaint (All Saint’s Day), Armistice (November 11th), Saint Etienne (St. Stephen’s Day), Assomption, Assumption Day, Nouvel An (New Year’s Day), and in what was once known as Alsace-Lorraine, Good Friday, Easter Monday, and what our British friends would call Boxing Day. (Only there, not nationwide.) If you’re counting, that’s twelve national holidays, plus a few left overs that some areas insisted upon when they became French (again.) There are eleven national holidays in the US. (Don’t forget Juneteenth, folks.)
Except for Labor Day, you’ll find things open on most holidays, though not everything, and some things are on a reduced schedule. Some supermarkets close completely, most of the ones around here open for at least a few hours. I bought some groceries just today, in fact. Most of these holidays don’t involve any particular observances (a few do, of course) but people do a thing called faire le pont, which literally means “make the bridge.” For instance, this week Wednesday and Thursday are holidays. You have thirty days of paid leave per year, so why not take Friday, too, and then you’ll have a five-day weekend? Heck, we took a five-night vacation to Italy once. You can have quite some fine family time in Five Days, huh? A possible drawback is that, outside of Whit Monday, holidays are scheduled by the date, not the day of the week. If November 11th falls on a Sunday, there is no day off, and if you don’t like it, tough. Then, there are weeks like this one where, honestly, even places that are open are short staffed. Like I said, there are differences between French and American national holidays.
So, for all you American readers, have a good Memorial Day weekend, and remember the purpose of the holiday. (You can go ahead and cook out, but pay some respect while you’re at it.) And, while I’m at it, have a good Junteenth (why not?) and for heaven’s sake, Happy Fourth of July! (Bastille day, the fète national, is commonly known as quatorze julliet, or July Fourteenth!) That one is, as I wrote above, pretty similar to one of ours.