France (Alsace & Moselle) : public and bank holidays, closure of banks, stock exchanges, school vacations

Catholic or protestant : The First Council of Nicaea (a gathering of bishops in the early days of Christianity) wanted to find a day to commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. This commemoration had to be linked to Jewish holiday traditions, since the last supper of Christ was believed to be a Jewish Passover meal. But the Jewish calendar is based on lunar and solar cycles, so the Easter celebration had to follow the same calendar.

Catholic or protestant : Not a paid holiday

Catholic or protestant : In the year 325, the Council of Nicée determined a date fo Easter. Full Moon would fall the 14th day of a moon month (1). Easter would be marked by the dominical letter(2)and the epactus(3). With the establishment of the equinox ne variatur on March 21, algorithms where elaborated to attribuate a date for Easter whatever the year.
Time between two consecutive new moons: 20 days 12 hours 44 minutes 2.8 - Gives a letter code for the year's calendar Age of the moon on January 1st, minus one unity, 0 being the new moon's age.

School holidays :

Secular holiday : Chicago, Saturday May 1st, 1886: 350,000 workers go on strike to call for an 8-hour working day. Industries are paralyzed nationwide. On Monday, as demonstrations go on, the police open fire. On Tuesday, Chicago is again on strike. Following a bomb launched against them, the police shoot again. 12 dead, of which 7 policemen. 8 anarchists will be condemned and executed. In 1889, the Socialist International Movement met in Paris and declared this day international workers' day . The Soviets will follow suit, just as the Nazis. In France, under the Vichy regime (1940-1944), the celebration is renamed Labour Day .

School holidays :

Secular holiday : On the 7th of May 1945, at 2:41, a first act of German surrender was signed in Reims. The fighting stopped at 23:01, on the 8th of May, French time. The news was only officially broadcast in France the next day. Therefore, on the 8th of May, at 15:00, the bells of all of the churches in France officially rang out the end of the war, whilst General de Gaulle announced it on the radio. We have won the war. Victory is ours.

School holidays :

Catholic or protestant : Forty days after Easter, always on a Thursday. After his resurrection, Jesus appeared before his disciples and gathered them to tell them to baptize and spread the good word. He then ascended to heaven on a cloud.

School holidays :

School holidays :

Catholic or protestant : Not a paid holiday

Catholic or protestant : Seven weeks after Easter Monday -Marking the day the Holy Spirit entered the disciples left behind and the beginning of their ministry. Not a paid holiday. Due to a succession of gazetted decrees, this day MAY STILL BE A WORKING DAY in some institutions or businesses. Please double check.

School holidays :

School holidays :

Secular holiday : This is the French symbol of the end of the Monarchy and the beginning of the First Republic. The national holiday is a time when all citizens can feel themselves to be members of a republican nation. It is because this national holiday is rooted in the history of the birth of the Republic that it has great significance. On 5 May 1789, the King convened the Estates General to hear their complaints: but the assembly of the Third Estate, representing the citizens of the town, soon broke away and formed the Constituent National Assembly. On 20 June, 1789, the deputies of the Third Estate took the oath of the Jeu de Paume to not separate until the Constitution had been established. The people of Paris rose up and decided to march on the Bastille, a state prison that stood for the absolute despotism of the Ancient Regime. On July 14, 1789, the storming of the Bastille immediately took on a great historical dimension; it was proof that power no longer resided in the King as God's representative, but in the people, in accordance with the theories developed by their philosophers of the eighteenth century. Within two days the Revolution could not be reversed. For all citizens of France, the storming of the Bastille came to symbolize liberty, democracy in the struggle against oppression. Paid holiday when falling on Saturday or Sunday

Catholic : Dogma defined by the Catholic Church on November 1, 1950, when Pope Pius XII declared that at the end of her life, Mary's body and soul were assumed into Heaven.

School holidays :