Bulgaria Changes Holiday Legislation Again

Bulgarian lawmakers have amended recently adopted rules on how public holidays will be celebrated when they fall on weekends.

Under the latest changes, when public holidays coincide with Saturday, Sunday or both, Monday and/or Tuesday will be called "days off".

The previously amended version enforced the rule only with regard to Mondays. It said that a Monday would be a "day off" when a holiday fell on either a Saturday or a Sunday.

It was made comes after Parliament decided to remove a rule that allowed for a merger of festive days with workdays to creatе "long weekends" if a holiday falls on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday. Under the previous rules, a Monday or Friday would become part of the holiday, with a sixth workday added to the week before or after (usually Saturday).

With the latest set of amendments, the definitive list of public holidays and "days off" next year includеs:

January 02 (a day off after January 01 falls on Sunday);

March 03 (Liberation Day) followed by a weekend;

April 14-April 17 (the Easter holidays);

May 1 (Labour Day), preceded by a weekend;

May 08 (Monday after St George, which falls on a Saturday);

May 24 (the day of the Cyrillic script);

September 06 (Unification);

September 22 (Independence), followed by a weekend;

December 24-27 (with Christmas being marked between December 24 and 26 and 27 being a "day off", as Christmast Eve falls on a Sunday).