Holidays & Festivals

Paris:

Holidays:
Holidays in France are known as jours fériés. Shops and banks are closed, as well as many (but not all) restaurants and museums. Major holidays include January 1 (New Year's Day), Easter, Ascension Day (40 days after Easter), Pentecost (seventh Sun after Easter), May 1 (May Day), May 8 (VE Day), July 14 (Bastille Day), August 15 (Assumption of the Virgin Mary), November 1 (All Saints' Day), November 11 (Armistice Day), and December 25 (Christmas).

Festivals:
Between Christmas, Chopin, cinema and raï music, Chinese New Year and Gay Pride, somewhere in Paris something is almost always being celebrated. Cultural festivals in the city are especially good and often give an opportunity to experience an enormous range of Parisian, French and international music or cinema, sometimes for free.

Provence & the French Riviera:
National holidays include New Year’s Day, Easter Monday, Labor Day, Ascension Day, 1945 Victory Day, Whit Monday, Bastille Day (July 14), Assumption Day, All Saints’ Day (November 1), Remembrance Day (November 11), and Christmas Day.

Festivals:
The busiest festivals include the Nice Carnival (February), Grand Prix of Monaco (May), and Festival de Cannes, also known as the Cannes Film Festival (mid-May). Other events to look out for are prêt à porter (February), the Gypsy Festival in Provence (late May), the International Music Festival in Strasbourg (June), the Festival d’Avignon (mid-July) and the Jazz Festival in Nancy (October).


Italy:

Holidays:
Offices and shops in Italy are closed on the following national holidays: January 1 (New Year's Day), Easter Monday, April 25 (Liberation Day), May 1 (Labor Day), August 15 (Assumption of the Virgin), November 1 (All Saints' Day), December 8 (Feast of the Immaculate Conception), December 25 (Christmas Day), and December 26 (Santo Stefano). Many offices and business in Rome also close on June 29, for the feast day of Sts. Peter and Paul, the city's patron saints.

Florence:
Many festivals in Florence take place from spring to fall, with the majority occurring in the summer. In June, is Calcio in Costume where athletes wear colorful costumes and take part in a football game that commemorates the famous match in 1530. Festa de San Giovanni is the fireworks display that celebrates Calcio in Costume. In the first week of September is Rificolona. Children of Florence come into the streets in their Sunday best singing songs and carrying papier-mâché lanterns. This festival celebrates the day in 1555 when troops of Florence triumphantly entered Siena.

Siena:
There are festivals held throughout the year in Siena. At the beginning of the year, in February, is Oil and Wine Week, where workshops feature Tuscan delicacies and the Enoteca Italiana and the National Oil City Association offer free tastings. Also in February is the Carnival of Asciano, a procession of traditional carnival chariots, music bands and folklore activities. The spring and summer brings events such as the Festival of the Wild Boar in April and Serre Maggio during the second week of May. Ferie delle Messe, which is held in July, is a medieval celebration that fills the city’s streets and squares with traveling performers, storytellers and vendors selling wine, oil and local crafts. The largest of these is the Palio di Siena (July and August), a medieval horse race that is run around Piazza del Campo. This event fills Siena with excitement when these dangerous competitions take place. On the third weekend of September, the antiques street market Mercatino della Scialenga is held in the city center.

Rome:
Rome, together with Milan, is the city where most cultural events such as exhibitions, concerts and shows take place in Italy. Whether it’s the Roma Jazz Festival or the Donna Sotto le Stelle, the annual Roman appointment with high fashion, where creations by the most famous fashion designers are modeled on a catwalk in a truly magnificent setting: on the Spanish Steps.