Holidays were originally holy days to honor the observance of religious feasts or festivals. German statutory holidays incorporate many of the holy days of the church.

While you are settling into the usual post-summer routine of work and school maybe you would like to consider what life would be like in a country with more holidays. Germany is definitely one of those countries: The average employee has between 26 and 30 days of paid "Erholungsurlaub", which may be roughly translated as recreational holidays. This is on top of ten federal statutory days off and another five provincial ones. However, the latter are not observed in all of the 16 Länder which together form the Federal Republic of Germany: Bayern and Baden-Württemberg, ie. the southern and mainly catholic Länder, observe all of them.

In addition there are paid leaves of absence, for example, on the occasion of one's wedding or to attend your child's birth. You may also be paid to move, to visit your doctor, or even for so called "Hausarbeitstage", which describes those days we all know only too well, on which you urgently need to attend to your household chores. Of course you are also entitled to paid time off upon the death of your spouse, your parents , your child, or any other family member of your immediate household. Should your spouse be unkind enough to leave you before you may enjoy a paid leave of absence at his or her death, there is always "Trennungsurlaub". Finally there are generous breaks for those mothers and/or fathers who want to raise their children at least partially themselves, ie those, who stay home to take care of a child. Considering the preceding, one may wonder how the German economy manages at all, however, one should not forget that German employees generally move less often than their North American counterparts, and in general also dislike missing work.