No Weekday Public Holidays After This Chuseok... Will Substitute Holidays Be Expanded?

Ahead of Buddha's Birthday (May 19), various traditional lanterns are displayed on May 6 at Cheonggyecheon in Seoul. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Reporter Seoyoung Kwon] Many citizens express regret over the fact that there are no weekday public holidays other than Chuseok after this year's Buddha's Birthday.

Among the public holidays in the second half of 2021, June 6th Memorial Day and August 15th Liberation Day both fall on Sunday. Additionally, October 3rd National Foundation Day is on Sunday, October 9th Hangul Day is on Saturday, and December 25th Christmas Day is also on Saturday. Except for the Chuseok holiday in September, there are no public holidays on weekdays.

In response, many netizens lamented, "Are there really no more 'red days' now?", "I still can't believe it. The small joys have disappeared," and "This year, instead of taking a long summer vacation, I will have to use annual leave every month." Various online communities and social networking services (SNS) also featured witty complaints such as, "The world must be deceiving me," and "Thankful that Buddha came on a weekday for the last time."

Some voices are calling for the introduction of a 'public holiday weekday designation system' to preserve the significance of public holidays. This system designates public holidays not by a fixed date but by a specific month, week, and weekday. Countries like the United States and the United Kingdom have adopted such a system, and the South Korean government also discussed its introduction in 2011 but it was eventually abandoned.

Earlier, in June last year, Hong Ik-pyo of the Democratic Party of Korea proposed the 'Act on National Holidays' with the aim of making holidays predictable for the public. This bill, based on the public holiday weekday designation system, suggested designating holidays such as Children's Day and Memorial Day to the first Monday of May or the first Monday of June, respectively.

On the other hand, there are opinions advocating for the expansion of substitute holidays. Currently, Article 3 of the 'Regulations on Public Holidays' for government offices states, "If a public holiday coincides with a weekend, the first non-holiday following the public holiday shall be observed as a holiday." However, this provision applies only to Lunar New Year, Chuseok, and Children's Day. This limited scope has been criticized as being too restrictive.

On the 10th, Democratic Party lawmakers including Kang Byung-won proposed the 'Act on Public Holidays.' This bill includes provisions to expand the substitute holiday system to all public holidays. However, since social confusion has increased after the COVID-19 pandemic, discussions on reforming the public holiday system remain at a standstill, and attention is focused on whether this bill will pass.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.