China's 2023 Holiday Calendar Has a One-Day Holiday and a Long October Holiday
It's finally here: China’s official holiday calendar for 2023 has been released.
The biggest thing 2023 has going for it holiday-wise is a slightly longer Golden Week break come October thanks to Mid-Autumn Festival happening right before National Holiday.
One oddity with this year is Tomb-Sweeping Day is just a one-day holiday on a Wednesday (nothing like a hump day break?)
And once again, these holidays coincide with seven “makeup days” before and after each.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, these makeup days are ridiculous. A holiday isn’t a holiday if you have to “earn” it by working a seven-day week before or after.
That being said, here’s the official holiday calendar for 2023 so you can so you can (a) start filing for days off in advance; (b) forge a variety of sick leave requests to keep up your sleeve for use at appropriate times; and (c) rack your brains to find a distant relative whose "death" you can exploit for extra leave.
Chinese New Year
Saturday, Jan 21 to Friday, Jan 27
We're in the midst of this holiday where the first of the makeup working days rear their ugly heads. Best be ready for a very long eight-day work week once the holiday ends tomorrow.
Tomb-Sweeping Festival
Wednesday, April 5
Herein lies the aforementioned oddity: a one-day holiday in the middle of a working week. Sure it’s in line with the lunar calendar and all, but perhaps last year was far too generous with throwing in a Monday off when the holiday was on a Tuesday.
May Day
Saturday, Apr 29 to Wednesday, May 3
Workers of the world rejoice! A whole weekend and three days off for this holiday. But wait, surely these must be made up right? You bet! You'll have to work the Saturday before (Apr 23) and after (May 6)!
Dragon Boat Festival
Thursday, Jun 22 to Saturday, Jun 24
One of the few holidays where you wonder why they just change it from three days to four, considering the makeup day for this one takes place on Sunday, Jun 25.
Mid-Autumn Festival & National Day
Friday, Sep 29 to Friday, Oct 6
This is one of those years where, thanks to the lunar calendar, Mid-Autumn Festival happens around the same time as National Day. In light of this, this holiday is the year’s longest, with eight days total. It’d be ten days would it not be for makeup days on Oct 7 and 8.
Here at True Run Media (The Beijinger’s parent company) we stopped making staff do weekend makeup days a few years back because (a) we work hard all year round; (b) these weekends are always unproductive and eat away at morale; (c) many of our staff have kids or other weekend obligations to attend to; and (d) so we have extra time to blow any savings we have accumulated, thus stimulating the economy as any good citizen should.
We’re happier and more productive as a result, so why not bring this up to your boss or management?
READ: Got Any Photos of Your CNY Holiday Travels? Share Them With Us!
Images: The Beijingers
