China set to shorten a Golden Week, make festivals holidays

BEIJING—The Chinese government on Friday announced a major overhaul of its national holiday system, canceling the May Day “golden week”, but adding three traditional festivals as national holidays.
The draft proposal worked out by a special panel after more than one year’s research was posted on the Internet for public discussion. New Year remains a one-day holiday. The Spring Festival remains a three-day holiday, but it will now start a day earlier from the eve of the Spring Festival, also known as the lunar New Year.
The National Day golden week will remain unchanged. The May Day golden week will be replaced by a one-day holiday. Tomb-Sweeping Day, the Dragon-Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival shall all become one-day national holidays. The proposal will increase the number of legal national holidays from 10 to 11 days.
The tradition of designating weekends on one side of the three main holidays as two working days still continues, so people enjoys even consecutive days off. In future, New Year’s Day, Tomb-Sweeping Day, May Day, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival will become holidays of three days each.
Major Chinese websites, including Xinhuanet.com, Sina.com, Sohu.com and Peopledaily.com, have compiled a questionnaire to solicit public opinions on the draft proposal. More than 190,000 people had responded on Sina.com by 6:00 p.m., and almost 90 percent of them supported increasing the total number of legal holidays; 72.7 percent approved of the shortening of the May Day holiday and distributing the days to traditional festivals, while 21.1 percent disapproved.
“It’s good that the legal holidays better accord with Chinese tradition,” said an Internet user under the name “From the Mountain” at the forum of Xinhuanet.com. However, another posting by “I Love North China” said only one day off for traditional holidays was meaningless for those who worked away from their hometown. “We still cannot go back home for a family reunion during the traditional festivals if there is only one day off,” the posting said.
Other Internet users also provided suggestions on the new legal holiday arrangement, including a week-long Spring Festival holiday, more days off for the Tomb-Sweeping Day and recommending no legal holiday for the Dragon Boat Festival. The submissions would be considered in the final drafting of the plan. If accepted, it could be enacted in time for the 2008 Spring Festival.
Chinese people currently enjoy 10 days of legal holidays. Three days each are given for the May Day, National Day and Spring Festival breaks. One day is given for New Year’s Day. The weekends on one side of the three main holidays are designated as two working days. It is normal practice to take those two days off during the following week making the May Day, National Day and Spring Festival holidays seven consecutive days each. They are known as the “golden weeks” as the holidays gave people time to travel.
Spring Festival, Tomb-Sweeping Day, the Dragon Boat Festival and the Mid-Autumn Festival are all lunar holidays, so their dates vary in the calendar (if a leap month is encountered, the legal holiday will fall on the first month). All other holidays are fixed dates on the calendar. An official of the special panel said the new plan took into account the following five principles:
the number of legal holidays should accord with the current phase of economic and social development; the legal holiday arrangement should help pass on traditional customs and culture; the arrangement should minimize any negative effect on the economy and society; the arrangement should reflect social justice, allowing all citizens to share the achievements of economic and social development; the arrangement should fully consider citizen’s rights to rest and travel.
In the wake of economic and social development, Chinese people have been enjoying more days off. Before 1995, workers had 59 days off annually, including Sundays, New Year’s Day and two days off each for Spring Festival, May Day and National Day.—Xinhua