France's bank and public 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 .

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.

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.

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.

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.

Catholic : The day now honors all saints of the church, even those not known by name. The first All Saints' Day occurred on May 13, 609 (C.E.) when Pope Boniface IV accepted the Pantheon as a gift from the Emperor Phocas. Boniface dedicated it as the Church of Santa Maria Rotonda in honor of the Blessed Virgin and all martyrs. During Pope Gregory III's reign (731-741), the festival was expanded to include all saints and a chapel in St. Peter's church was dedicated accordingly. Pope Gregory IV officially designated the day in 837. (World Book Encyclopedia)

Secular holiday : Commemmorates the end of World War I on 11th November 1918. The armistice was signed between the Allies and Germany at Compiègne, France, for the cessation of hostilities on the Western Front, which took effect at eleven o'clock in the morning - the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month. Paid holiday when falling on Sunday (Labour law 4 Jan 1974)