Celebrating the New Year’s Eve is the most important holiday for many Russians. Some of them love the night when the calendar changes to a new year so much that they anticipate it even more than their own birthdays.

Recently the Ministry of Labour of Russia proposed to make 31 December a public holiday. However, less than half of respondents from Russia feel positive about it.

Should people work on 31 December or have a day off?

The importance of the New Year’s Eve in Russia can be compared to Christmas in western countries. It is the night when people exchange presents and have a giant feast. The arrival of the new year is greeted with a sparkling wine and wishes are made as the clock strikes midnight.

Surprisingly, despite the great love of Russians to celebrate and their adoration of the New Year’s Eve, 14% of respondents still feel negative about changing the status of 31 December to a public holiday.

People who feel negative about it point out that there are already a lot of public holidays in the year (36%) or fear that their wages will be lower because of the extra day off (11%). Some of them think that New Year holidays are already too long (Russians get 10-11 days off in a row), they need to work (12%) or dislike the fact that people get “too merry” (drunk) and likely to start fights (13%).

However, a larger share of locals feel positive about the extra day off on 31 December:

• It allows to get ready for celebrations (37%)
• People don’t really work anyway (25%)
• People can recuperate and relax before the biggest night of the year (Russians love to stay awake into early hours of the morning 1 January)
• More time to spend with family and friends (11%)
• It’s a pre-holiday day (9%)

Apparently, 1 in 4 Russians work full hours on 31 December, while 21% have a shorter working day. 37% of respondents said it depends on their schedule. 14% of respondents already do not work on 31 December.

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