Bank Holidays In Portugal

Bank holidays in Portugal are taken extremely seriously by the vast majority of the Portuguese population in that everything comes to a standstill. The Portuguese are very family orientated and these holidays are seen as an opportunity to celebrate as a family. As some of the bank holidays are also based on religious days then this reason becomes even more so.

There are the normal bank holidays such a Christmas and New year but also a host of other days which celebrate events in Portugal's history as well as the religious festivals. Add to that the fact that the towns in Portugal have their own local holidays which are known as 'feriado municipal' which as in keeping with all of the other holidays, the whole town completely shuts down so all of the residents can relax and enjoy themselves.

One of the most popular days of the year is the bank holiday in April which goes by the name of the carnation revolution. This celebrates the day in 1974 when the  bloodless carnation revolution  led to independence for the Portuguese African colonies.

The carnation revolution is just one example of how different the bank holidays in Portugal are. In the UK for example the bank holidays are not really given much importance and many people don't even take the day off. In Portugal so much importance is placed on these days it really does offer a glimpse of how family life really should be. Many of these people don't get paid when it is a bank holiday and they are not exactly well off but it doesn't seem to matter, the fact that they take the time to enjoy themselves as a family is really all that seems to matter to them.

There are other bank holidays in Portugal that stand out and two of them fall in  December, The Independence restoration day and the Immaculate conception day. These two days usually fall one week apart and are only a couple of weeks before Christmas.

Then you've also got in November, All Saints day and in October, Republic day, and you can soon start to see that bank holidays seem to come thick and fast throughout the year in Portugal.

There have been calls from some sectors to cancel various holidays as they claim it is having a detrimental effect on the economy due to the fact that everything shuts down but try telling that to the many Portuguese citizens who enjoy every minute of them.

To your new life!

The Living In The Sun Team

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