Long weekend

"Long weekend" is a term used in Western countries to denote a weekend that is at least three days long (a three-day weekend), due to a holiday falling on either the Friday or Monday. In the United Kingdom these would be termed a bank holiday weekend.

In some cases there may also be a four-day weekend in which two days adjoining the weekend are holidays—either Thursday and Friday, Friday and Monday, or Monday and Tuesday. This occurs once a year in some nations where the Easter weekend is celebrated, with Easter Monday and Good Friday. Countries that celebrate both Christmas Day and Boxing Day can also have a four-day weekend when these adjacent holidays fall on Thursday/Friday or Monday/Tuesday. Additionally, in some nations, where a lone holiday occurs on a Tuesday or a Thursday, the gap between that day and the weekend may also be designated as a holiday, or set to be a movable or floating holiday.

On Thanksgiving in the United States, the fourth Thursday of November, is the traditional day of feasting, but the following Friday is also sometimes a non-working day at some businesses, in addition to the weekend. This day is known as the unofficial holiday of Black Friday, the beginning of the traditional Christmas shopping season, and often, its busiest single day. Many retailers open very early (typically 5 A.M.) and offer doorbuster deals and loss leaders to draw people to their stores. This is typically the only four-day weekend of the year in the United States.

Other cultures

The term for a four-day weekend in some Spanish-speaking countries is "puente" ("bridge") or simply "fin de semana largo". In Spain, the "bridge" becomes an "aqueduct" in some years when the anniversary of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 (6 December) and the Blessed Virgin Mary's Immaculate Conception (8 December) and a weekend plus a movable holiday form a block of five days.

French-speaking cultures use the same "bridge" idiom: "faire le pont" meaning "to take a long weekend". The Italians and Portuguese do the same with their cognates "ponte" (pronounced differently).

In Slovenian, the term podaljšan vikend ("prolonged weekend") is used for a three-day weekend. Four-day weekends also happen quite frequently, because January 1 and January 2 are public holidays (both New Year Day), as well as May 1 and May 2 (both May Day). A peculiar coincidence are Christmas Day and Independence Day, falling on two consecutive dates.

In German, a bridge-related term is also used: a holiday taken to fill the gap between a holiday Thursday and the weekend is called a "Brückentag" ("bridge day") in Germany and Switzerland, and a "Fenstertag" ("window day") in Austria. "bridge day" is also used in Israel ("yom gishur"/"יום גישור") and The Netherlands ("brugdag").

The term długi weekend (Polish for "long weekend") is also commonly used in the Polish language. In Poland, such a phenomenon usually occurs several times a year. As well as the Easter weekend and the Christmas weekend, there is Corpus Christi weekend (Corpus Christi is always on Thursday and poeople usually take Friday off as well) and it may occur also around other holidays. However, the best known long weekend is at the beginning of May, when there are holidays of Labour Day on 1st May and 3rd May Constitution Day. The weekend can in fact be up to 9 days long (28th of April – 6th of May) and, taking one to three days off work, Poles often go for small holidays then.

In Norwegian, the term "oval weekend" is used. An ordinary weekend is conceived of as "round" (although this is not stated explicitly), and adding extra days off makes it "oval". Norwegians also refer to "inneklemte" [squashed in] days, which are between a public holiday and a weekend. This is typical for the Friday after Ascension Day, which always falls on a Thursday. It is common to work in such days so as to be able to take them off and extend the weekend to four days.

Also in Swedish, the days between a weekend and a holiday are called "klämdagar" (squashed in days).

In Argentina, some national holidays occurring on a Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or Friday (sometimes even on a Saturday) are officially moved to the closest Monday in order to create a long weekend.

In Brazil, when a holiday occurs in a Tuesday or a Thursday, some sectors of the society, as government and education, turn the day between the holiday and the weekend into a holiday. The four-day or even the three-day weekends are called "feriados prolongados" ("Extended holidays") or its popular form "feriadão" ("big holiday").