Hello foreign students.

Are there public holidays in your country as well? But what if a public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday?

In Korea, there is an alternative holiday system, which means that if a holiday, national holiday, Children's Day, etc. overlap with a weekend, you can take a day off during the weekday as a substitute.

Through this system, even if a holiday overlaps with a weekend, it is a system that guarantees people's rest by ensuring that the number of days off does not decrease.

In fact, Korea's substitute holiday system was first created in 1959 and then disappeared, and then it was implemented again in 2013.

The background of the introduction of the substitute holiday system is related to the working hours of Koreans.

Korea's average annual working hours ranks second among OECD countries after Mexico.

This is 600 hours more per year than the OECD average working hours, and if you think about 8 hours a day, you work 75 more days a year. Compared to Norway, which has the shortest working hours in the OECD, that is 86 more days.

In fact, as you can see from these statistics, the ability and tenacity of Korean people to work is amazing.

Because this is also the driving force behind the remarkable development of Korean society, both the bright side and the dark side exist at the same time.

As Korean society develops recently, the importance of rest is greatly increasing.

In particular, as companies that work remotely, such as working from home, have recently emerged due to the aftermath of COVID-19, Work and Life Balance, which seeks harmony and integration between life and work, is drawing attention.

In the past, once you joined a company, it was a culture that valued your work more than your family or personal leisure activities.

This tendency is particularly strong among newcomers born between 1981 and 1996 in Korea, called the MZ generation.

On May 2, the Ministry of Personnel Innovation, a government department of the Korean government, announced that starting this year, alternative holidays will be applied to Buddha's Birthday and Christmas. The existing rules for expanding the application of alternative holidays, which were only applicable to Lunar New Year and Chuseok, passed the Cabinet meeting.

Accordingly, Buddha's Birthday, which falls on Saturday, May 27 this year, was designated as a substitute holiday on Monday, May 29, resulting in a three-day holiday.

As a result, the days on which substitute holidays are applied among public holidays in Korea are as follows.

New Year's Day, Chuseok, Samiljeol, Liberation Day, National Foundation Day, Hangeul Day, Children's Day

On the other hand, New Year's Day (January 1) and Memorial Day do not yet apply as substitute holidays.

Today, we learned about the alternative holiday system in Korea.

What are the differences compared to your country as an international student?