Latvia faces 2027 without long weekends as Fridays after Midsummer and 18 November stay working days

Latvia is entering a new era. 2027 will be the first year in a long time when people have to build their own long weekends, with a leave request and good relations with the boss. The cabinet did not decide on moving working days by 1 July, so no working days will be moved next year, LSM, the Latvian public broadcaster, reported.

In practice, Midsummer, known in Latvia as Līgo and Jāņi, falls on a Wednesday and Thursday in 2027, while Friday 25 June is a working day. Some are already calling it Herb Friday: the day offices fill with people who still carry the imprint of an oak-leaf wreath on their foreheads and a smell of caraway cheese that nobody mentions.

Independence Day with an aftertaste

It is the same with 18 November, which falls on a Thursday in 2027. After the parade and the fireworks, everyone is back at work on Friday 19 November. Employers are bracing for a record number of emails saying “working from home because of the snow”. There may well be no snow, but that has never stopped anyone.

On top of that, 4 May is a Tuesday in 2027, so Monday 3 May stays a working day too. The calendar has three bridges and none of them has been built. People in Riga point out that the Southern Bridge also took a long time, so there is still hope.

What people are doing

Office kitchens already have the first holiday rotas that look like chess puzzles. The colleague who books 25 June first will win eternal glory and possibly eternal enemies. The back-up plan, a sick note for wreath fatigue, is not supported by the medical profession.

What is true

Latvia moves working days by cabinet order so that people do not have to work on a single day between a public holiday and a weekend; the day is worked off on a Saturday instead. The move is mandatory for state institutions and a recommendation for private employers. In the summer the Ministry of Welfare proposed moving the working day of 25 June to 19 June and 19 November to 13 November, but the government did not decide by 1 July. The coalition was debating at the time whether to keep the practice at all, and amendments to the Labour Law scrapping it were drafted. The previous Saeima, Latvia's parliament, did not pass them, so the new Saeima will have to decide.