The State Duma proposed making December 31 a day off

A bill has been submitted to the State Duma for consideration, proposing to postpone the day off from January 8 to December 31.

According to the authors of the bill, deputies from the Liberal Democratic Party, declaring the last day of the year an official day off "would greatly facilitate the preparation for an important holiday, would create a positive emotional background for people who need to spend a lot of time on pre-holiday chores."

“Most of the country's population is experiencing inconvenience due to the fact that the New Year's Day - December 31 - is a working day. On this day, everyone is preparing for the New Year and thinking only about the holiday, but they are forced to be at the workplace, ”the explanatory note says.

TASS

• From 1947 to 1992, only January 1 was a day off in the USSR. Then, until 2005, the official non-working days were 1 and 2 January.
• In 2005, official New Year holidays were established from January 1 to January 5, in addition, Christmas on January 7 was a day off. In 2013, the New Year holidays from January 1 to January 8 were legally fixed.
• Due to the fact that the holidays fell on the weekend and, therefore, were postponed, the duration of the January holidays could exceed 10 days.
• A number of experts have repeatedly pointed out that such a long weekend in early January negatively affects the country's economy, and suggested increasing the number of non-working days in early May by reducing the New Year holidays, but these proposals were not supported by the State Duma and the government.