May, The Month Of Holidays
In France, May is a strange month for business, it’s the month of holidays.
There are two reasons for this:
A variable combination of religious and public holidays: Ascension Day; Pentecost (today — Easter was early this year, hence Pentecost falls in May); May 1st (Labor Day); May 8 (1945 Victory Day). May 9 (Europe Day) selected to replace May 8 as a more positive symbol, has not really taken off yet.
It is also the month when those who are employed are ‘using up’ their statutory vacation days, if they haven’t used them up before. If they don’t do now, they are lost forever.
I haven’t even mentioned the Spring school vacation!
Yes I know, this sounds a little complicated. For those of us who are self-employed, it means a slack month, with reduced conference activity. Translations are not affected in the same way. The most noticeable effect is when you work for smaller companies that haven’t automated their payment system. June is a better month!
This year strangely departs from the tradition, as several of these holidays happened to be combined: Labor Day and Ascension Day were both on May 1, and today is a special case, supposedly the last day of a 5-day weekend, but it has become a controversial subject, and I’m receiving work e-mails.
This leaves us with 3 full working weeks before the end of May. Very unusual.
Have I lost you?
