Public holidays in Zambia

Today marks the commencement of Holy Week in Bulgaria as Orthodox Christians observe Holy Monday, initiating a period of profound reflection on the final days of Jesus Christ's earthly life leading up to Easter.

The Orthodox world is preparing to welcome Easter. Holy Saturday marks the end of Holy Week.
Church services in the morning remind us of the burial of Jesus Christ and his descent into Hell, and at midnight the festive service for the Resurrection of Christ begins.

Worshipers carry the Epitaph in the sea, while others light flares, during the Holy Friday celebrations of Orthodox Easter at the Tolo beach, eastern Peloponnese, in Greece, on April 14, 2023. Orthodox Easter is celebrated this year on April 16. [Vangelis Bougiotis/EPA]

It's still December, but many people are already looking at the 2022 calendar and planning around the national holidays next year.

2022 is not a leap year. Of the 365 days, 248 are working days, and 16 are public holidays. These holidays, which coincide with a day off, are offset by a day off in the first days of the following working week.

Ljubljana – The Ljubljana Stock Exchange has suspended its operations on Friday for Easter holidays. Due to the suspension of the European TARGET2 payment system, banks in the euro zone will not conduct interbank transactions until after Easter Monday.

In Eastern Orthodoxy this day, known as Holy Saturday, is also called The Great Sabbath since it is on this day that Christ "rested" physically in the tomb. But it is also believed that it was on this day he performed in spirit the Harrowing of Hell and raised up to Paradise, having liberated those who had been held captive.

For Orthodox Christians, this is normally a time of reflection and communal mourning followed by joyful release, of centuries-old ceremonies steeped in symbolism and tradition.

But this year, Easter - by far the most significant religious holiday for the world's roughly 300 million Orthodox - has essentially been canceled.

Leaving the regional cities during the Easter holidays - from Friday to Monday, will be banned, prime minister Boyko Borissov announced. He added that there is already an order issued by the Health Minister Kiril Ananiev.

July 2020 will be the busiest month with 23 working days. The month with most holidays is expected to be May, when the working days are only 18.

The upcoming 2020 is a leap year and there are 366 days - 250 of them are working, ie. we expect 2000 working hours. 16 days are official holidays.

See all the day-offs below:

● New Year's Day on January 1st (Wednesday)

Around Easter at the end of April and Christmas in December - this will be the two periods next year, when we will have more days off.