| "Holidays."
- Christmas, New Year Day, Labour Day (May 1st.): They are never moved. Everything is closed except for the basic services (ie. Hotels, Airport, Police, Health Emergencies, and a minimum, very minimum indeed, public trasnportation service). Half day (afternoon) Christmas' Eve and New Year's Eve, are unofficial but generaly observed (except for supermarkets) holidays.- Feriados Laborables ("workable holidays"): They are "optional" holidays. Banks, the Gov sector, the educational system, and the prime enterprises give these days free as a special beneffit for their employees. - The rest: They are full holidays, except for the emergency services named in the first place, plus stores, restorants, cinemas and theatres. All these will pay extra to their employees but they will be open. Public transportation is close to normal. - Holiday movement: Christmas, New Year Day, Labour Day and a few others are never moved. Some others may be moved but I guess there's not a permanent regulation and the Gov decides and communicate it on an yearly basis or some time before the particular holiday. - Construction: The first week of January is free for construction. Besides, construction is limited in some zones of the coast during the high season to avoid noises while the tourists flock to the beaches, so those places will be closed, though they are not strictly holidays, and the construction enterprises can work in other zones, or simply fix the workers' annual free days at that time. - Commercial considerations: Carnival Week and Holy Week (called Semana de Turismo here) used to be both whole-week holidays. They are now 2-day holidays. However, the tradition is strong and many people take the rest of the week (one of them or both) free, discounting those days from their annual free days. Thus, you never program commercial events or meetings during those weeks. January (the whole month) is another period when you never program commercial events, and you should avoid counting on it for much progress in any project, cause most people take their anual free days there and you will always miss some or all of your working counterparts. - Next holidays: Dec/25 (Christmas), Jan/1 (New Year Day), Jan/6 (Children's Day or Día de Reyes), 7-8/March (Carnival), Apr/19 (Artigas' Brithday - Laborable), Apr/21-22 (Holy Week), May/1 (Labour Day). |
