The next long weekend awaits Russians from April 28 to May 1, RIA Novosti recalled.

As stated in the government decree on the approval of holidays and weekends in 2024, non-working days will be from April 28 to May 1.

The document also noted that non-working days were moved from Saturday, April 27, to Monday, April 29, as well as from Saturday, November 2, to Tuesday, April 30.

The weekend that falls on Victory Day will last from May 9 to May 12.

In addition, in the second half of 2024, Russians will have a holiday on Russia Day, celebrated on June 12.

Weekends are also planned for National Unity Day (November 3 to 4), as well as before the New Year holidays (December 29 to 31).

The State Duma and long holidays in May

It should be noted that the State Duma previously discussed an initiative to approve long weekends in the country for the period from May 1 to May 9, but the Labor Committee of the Lower House of Parliament recommended rejecting the document.

Also on russian.rt.com The State Duma Committee did not support the bill on long weekends from May 1 to May 9

The authors of the initiative from the New People faction proposed shortening the New Year holidays by four days in order to subsequently move these weekends to May.

Commenting on this idea, the committee noted that the authors of the bill did not take into account the practice of children's winter holidays, during which parents spend time with their children.

In addition, it was noted that the bill received a number of other negative opinions, including from trade unions.

Meanwhile, in May 2023, the Public Opinion Foundation published the results of a survey of Russians about their attitude to the transfer of days off from the New Year holidays to the May holidays.

More than half of the respondents reacted positively to this idea (55%), mentioning the prospect of going to the country and working in gardens and vegetable gardens, as well as the opportunity to relax in nature.

In addition, some of those who responded to the idea positively noted that “there are too many New Year holidays.”

Those who negatively assessed the idea of ​​​​postponing the holidays explained their decision by the habit and expediency of weekends in winter, since “at this time of year people need rest.”

Spring holiday destinations

Earlier, RT published material about the preferences of Russians in choosing vacation destinations in the spring of 2024.

The article stated that approximately 80% of flight bookings between March and May were to domestic destinations.

Thus, most often in the spring season, tourists intended to visit Moscow (12.8% of the total number of planned flights), Sochi (10.7%), St. Petersburg (8.3%), Mineralnye Vody (6.8%) and Kaliningrad (5.6%).

In addition, many air travelers choose Yekaterinburg, Kazan, Krasnoyarsk and Makhachkala for their holidays.

In addition, in terms of the number of hotel bookings, the list of the most popular destinations also includes Nizhny Novgorod, Estosadok, Kislovodsk, Irkutsk and Zelenogradsk.

Discussion regarding the status of December 31st

At the end of February, Russian Labor Minister Anton Kotyakov, in a conversation with journalists, spoke about the prospect of making December 31 an official holiday.

He noted that for this step it is necessary to adopt the relevant regulatory documents.

“Recently our circumstances have been such that for the last two or three years the 31st has fallen on a weekend.

Therefore, the issue was postponed.

We will look and discuss by 2025,” RIA Novosti quotes him as saying.