May 02, 2003

Window Day

Yesterday, a Thursday, was 1 May, a national holiday in Austria, and when I drove to work this morning the freeway was nearly empty. I got to work in half the time it usually takes. Vienna is a ghost town today, because it is a window day.

When a holiday falls on a Tuesday or a Thursday, the respective Monday or Friday is known as a Fenstertag here in Austria, which would translate as "window day", in the sense, I suppose, of a window of work in between the holiday and the weekend. People often take the window day off to give them a long weekend, and this is so common that employers often give them the day off automatically.

Posted by Mig at May 2, 2003 08:08 AM
Comments

over here they call it a bridge day. Not that it has anything to do with the card game though :)

Posted by: joeri at May 2, 2003 08:36 AM

Not just in Austria. I am sitting in a ghost office in Oslo, deserted save for myself and the receptionist.

Parking spaces galore available for those with cars, low pedestrian density for the bicyclists.

Posted by: Karine at May 2, 2003 09:20 AM

oh, how i *wish* the same applied in singapore.

Posted by: Kristen at May 2, 2003 03:40 PM

it is applied here in the philippines as well but we don't really have a name for it... bonus holiday? i guess adoption of 'window day' will do. sounds better.

Posted by: laila at May 3, 2003 04:58 AM

In Hungary we get these "window days" as holidays from the givernment automatically, but in exchange the previous or the next Saturday is a workday instead.

Posted by: Kati at May 3, 2003 10:36 AM

It's all so... civilized. Here in the U.S. it's considered super slacker to even really take the official holidays off.

Posted by: scotty the body at May 5, 2003 11:38 PM