
Christmas Eve in Poland to be work-free in future
Warsaw - Poland is the fifth EU country to make Christmas Eve a public holiday. Working on 24 December is to be a thing of the past. However, retailers will be compensated for this.
Published on 31.01.2025 at 11:44 –In future,24 December will be a public holiday in Poland. A law will come into force on 1 February, according to which Christmas Eve will be a public holiday, just like Christmas Day and Boxing Day. In return, the number of Sundays open for business in December will be increased from two to three - to a total of eight per year.
The most controversial aspect of the parliamentary decision in Poland was whether shops should be allowed to open on three Sundays during Advent. After initial reservations, the conservative President Andrzej Duda finally signed the law. This makes Poland the fifth EU country, after the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Estonia, in which the 24th of December is work-free. There are now a total of 14 public holidays in Poland.
The last time the parliament in Warsaw declared Epiphany on 6 January a public holiday was in 2010. It has been work-free again since 2011, having been abolished in 1960. Since 2020, shops have no longer been allowed to open on Sundays - except for seven fixed Sundays per year. The new law allows shops to open on the second, third and fourth days of Advent in 2025. If the fourth Advent falls on Christmas Eve, the Sundays open for business will fall on the first, second and third Advent. (KNA)
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