May Holidays

There are four major national holidays (jours feriés) in France during the month of May:

1 May - Labor Day/May Day
8 May - Victory in Europe Day (end of WWII)
13 May - Ascension
23-24 May - Pentecost (the Catholic holiday is Sunday and the public holiday is Monday)

For a country that claims to be secular, there are a lot of Catholic holidays in that mix, but who am I to judge?

Anyway, for each of these holidays, most everyone gets off from work. All libraries in Paris were/will be closed during these days, for instance. (So much for wrapping up my research this month.)

Many of our French friends showed disappointment that the first two national holidays fell on Saturdays, since that meant that they didn't get off from work. They'll make up for that thanks to tomorrow's holiday, which effectively creates a four-day weekend for many workers. The French expression for taking off the day between a holiday and the weekend is "faire le pont" - to bridge that gap between days off with yet another day off.

As if there weren't already enough holidays in May, France decided to celebrate one more: La Nuit des Musées, or "Long Night of Museums" or "A Night at the Museum" (as I've decided to call it). Basically, on Saturday night, May 15, tons of museums will be open way late (until midnight or 1 AM), and will be free to visitors after 6 or 7 PM.

The publicité for this new holiday seems to suggest that it comes around only as often as a full solar eclipse, but it actually happens every year around this time. Thankfully, unlike Ascension and Pentecost, La Nuit des Musées is a holiday we can really get into.