By your leave - now details of new holidays

THE State Council yesterday released holiday schedule details for next year when the country's new holiday regulations take effect.

Workers in the country will get three to seven days off during national holidays and traditional festivals - including New Year's Day, the Spring Festival, the Tomb Sweeping Festival, the May Day holiday, the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-Autumn Festival and the National Day holiday.

Next year's holiday schedule will be:

New Year's Day holiday will be on December 30, 31 and January 1. The original work day of December 31 has been moved to the previous Saturday of December 29 so employees still need to work on December 29.

The Spring Festival, or the Chinese Lunar New Year, falls on February 7 next year. People will have seven days off from February 6 to 12 but they need to work on February 2 and 3.

The Tomb Sweeping Festival runs from April 4 to 6 for people to honor tribute to their ancestors. The three days include a new one-day Tomb Sweeping Day holiday on April 4 followed by the weekend.

The May Day holiday is cut to one day for the first time next year. Workers will get time off from May 1 to 3.

The Dragon Boat Festival, the three-day holiday from June 7 to 9, will include for the first time the traditional Chinese festival (June 8) in memory of the ancient Chinese poet Qu Yuan.

The Mid-Autumn Festival let workers take September 13 to 15 off to celebrate the traditional festival of family reunion. Again, for the first time, the festival will be part of the holiday on September 14 and work resumes on September 16.

The National Day holiday continues from September 29 to October 5 with work arrangements so that it will be business as usual on the previous weekend of September 27 to 28.