{"id":22028,"date":"2015-05-14T23:57:21","date_gmt":"2015-05-14T21:57:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/?p=22028"},"modified":"2017-10-23T15:22:50","modified_gmt":"2017-10-23T13:22:50","slug":"faire-le-pont-may-holidays-in-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/faire-le-pont-may-holidays-in-france\/","title":{"rendered":"Faire le Pont! – May Holidays in France"},"content":{"rendered":"

France, just like every other country, has many holidays throughout the year. With the creation of new holidays every year (such as National Doughnut Day — faites une croix dans vos calendriers <\/strong>[mark your calendars]! It\u2019s June 5 this year!), it seems that there\u2019s something to celebrate every day. Whether you believe in celebrating doughnuts or not (and let\u2019s be honest, you totally should), there are certain holidays that are nationally recognized.<\/p>\n

These holidays, called les jours f\u00e9ri\u00e9s<\/strong>, are public holidays, and public servants, employees in the public sector, and students generally have the day off!<\/p>\n

This year, France has 13 public holidays. Can you name them? Answers are at the bottom of the post!<\/p>\n

Of those 13, 5 take place in May. That\u2019s a lot of days off! That\u2019s almost 40% of days off in one month. Do you know the expression faire le pont<\/strong>? It literally means \u201cto make the bridge,\u201d but it refers to the idea of going from one end of something to another more than actually making a bridge. What it means is to make a long weekend. If a holidays falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, the French \u201cmake a bridge\u201d to the next week. For example, if the holiday is on Thursday, it doesn\u2019t make much sense to come to work Wednesday, have off Thursday, return to work Friday, then have the weekend off. So what they do is have off Thursday AND Friday, plus the weekend. A four-day weekend! They font le pont<\/strong> from Thursday to Monday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

So what are the holidays this month? Let\u2019s take a look!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Le 1er<\/sup> mai \u2013 La F\u00eate du Travail \u2013 Labor Day<\/strong><\/p>\n

This holiday is sometimes called La F\u00eate du Muguet<\/strong>. Le Muguet<\/strong> (lily of the valley) is picked and given to loved ones. Don\u2019t want to pick any, or don\u2019t have access to a field\u00a0? Don\u2019t worry \u2013 there are stands on the road where you can purchase them. There are even regulations that allow organizations to grow and sell these flowers without taxes.<\/p>\n

In the streets, you\u2019ll see parades celebrating workers rights.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Le 8 mai \u2013 La F\u00eate de la Victoire \/ le Jour de la Lib\u00e9ration \u2013 Victory Day<\/strong><\/p>\n

This holiday is to celebrate the end of the Second World War and freedom. Freedom\u2019s not just an American value :-p On this day in 1945, Charles de Gaulle announced the end of the war.<\/p>\n

Many people attend church services on this day, and they watch the parades after. The atmosphere is generally quite happy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Le 14 mai \u2013 Ascension<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the 40th<\/sup> day of Easter and marks the day that Jesus Christ ascended to heaven after being crucified.<\/p>\n

Some Christians attend special church services, but most people don\u2019t do anything specifically related to the holiday. Since it\u2019s a four-day weekend, many people may take a mini vacation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Le 24 mai \u2013 Pentec\u00f4te \u2013 Pentecost Sunday or Whit Sunday<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is another religious holiday in May. Since it\u2019s on a Sunday, the fact that everything is closed is nothing new. Some Christians will attend church services. Traditionally, trumpets will be blown during the service. This represents the wind that blew when the spirit descended into Jesus\u2019s followers.<\/p>\n

For many others, it\u2019s just like any other weekend, except they don\u2019t have to go to work the next day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Le 25 mai \u2013 Lundi de Pentec\u00f4te \u2013Pentecost Monday or Whit Monday<\/strong><\/p>\n

This day follows Pentecost Sunday. Much like the previous day, not a lot is done anymore. In fact, the French government decided to remove it from their list of national holidays around 10 years ago. \u00a0It was reinstated again after the death of many elders during a heatwave. The new holiday, called the Day of Solidarity, is to bring awareness to elderly people with disabilities. Some people do work on this day for no wages, and their money is donated to organizations. Not everyone does this, though.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Happy Holidays!<\/p>\n

1. Jour de L\u2019an (1er<\/sup> janvier); 2. P\u00e2ques (le 5 avril); 3. Lundi de P\u00e2ques (le 6 avril); 4. F\u00eate du Travail (1er<\/sup> mai); 5. F\u00eate de la Victoire 1945 (le 8 mai); 6. Ascension catholique (le 14 mai); 7. Pentec\u00f4te (le 24 mai)\u00a0; 8. Lundi de Pentec\u00f4te (le 25 mai)\u00a0; 9. F\u00eate nationale (le 14 juillet)\u00a0; 10. Assomption (le 15 aout)\u00a0; 11. Toussaint (le 1er<\/sup> novembre)\u00a0; 12. Armistice 1989 (le 11 novembre)\u00a0; 13. No\u00ebl (le 25 d\u00e9cembre)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\"\"

France, just like every other country, has many holidays throughout the year. With the creation of new holidays every year (such as National Doughnut Day — faites une croix dans vos calendriers [mark your calendars]! It\u2019s June 5 this year!), it seems that there\u2019s something to celebrate every day. Whether you believe in celebrating doughnuts…<\/p>\n

Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":28753,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22028","post","type-post","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22028","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22028"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22028\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28754,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22028\/revisions\/28754"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22028"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22028"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.transparent.com\/french\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22028"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}