Christmas is, as Andy Williams sang, the ‘most wonderful time of the year’ because to the majority of us it means a couple well deserved long weekends. The idea of getting extra time off work, which doesn’t involve precious holiday leave, frankly makes it quite ‘wonderful’, especially for those living in countries with stingy holiday leave entitlements (take out your violin for people living in China and the Phillippines who only get 5 days annual leave!) In Argentina too there is elation at this ‘holiday’ season but with 19 public holidays a year, a day off work is not an unusual occurrence…
Since her election in 2007, President Kirchner has added 5 bank holidays to the already bulging list and that now means the country tops the charts for the most public holidays in the world. To add to these you have regional holidays within each province and every profession has their own unique day off during the calendar too: student’s day, teacher’s day, plumber’s day, shop assistant’s day… The list goes on, but here’s a scaled down version of holidays in Argentina for 2013 and how they are celebrated: