The land of the long weekend
Monday, May 11th, 2009I was trying to look busy while waiting for a work thing to start last week, and found myself pouring over those pages in my diary that list international public holidays. As you do.
I wonder if that nasty rumour that Australia has more long weekends than any other country is true I asked myself?
No, is the short answer.
Here is the public holiday tally for some random countries:
Australia – 9
Brazil – 14
Canada – 11
Czech Republic – 13
Italy – 12
France – 12
Japan – 15
South Africa – 13
South Korea – 13
UK – 9
US – 10
So I think that we can all agree that, quite frankly, both the UK and Australia are hard done by when it comes to bank holidays* and could do with some more. Perhaps an annual ‘Snow Day’ or ‘Get Drunk in the Park Day’ would be appropriate. Any other ideas?
In the short term, we could all just get jobs at the Australian High Commission in London and Edinburgh. Here the staff enjoy public holidays from both countries (including Canberra Day for heavens sakes – why not take Melbourne Cup Day as well while you’re at it folks!).
Pfttt…
*To be fair though, I have to point out that at least Australia and Britain have vaguely generous annual leave allowances – unlike say, stingey old Japan and the US.
