The Ministry of Labor has released the 2021 holidays calendar and, in a country that loves long weekends, there are only two holidays that are being moved to create extended vacation time.
Curiously, both of the long weekends are in January, which is perhaps a good thing as people recover from the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations. The first of January, New Years Day falls on a Friday. The next holiday is on 6 January, Three Kings’ Day that falls on a Wednesday, but will be moved back to Monday, 4 January. What this means is that there will be an extended long weekend at the start of the year: 31 December is a Thursday, 1 January is a Friday and 4 January, Monday is also a holiday.
Later on there is 21 January, the religious feast day of Our Lady of All Grace, the nation’s protector. This day is not moved, even though it is a Thursday. The next holiday is the 26 January, which is a Tuesday, and is the birthday of Juan Pablo Duarte. He is the founding father of the Dominican Republic. Being a civilian holiday, the Ministry of Labor has moved the holiday to Monday, 25 January.
The bad news is that many of the rest of the holidays fall on Saturday this year or their dates are unchanged. These are: Independence Day, 27 February, Holy Friday, Labor Day (1 May), Corpus Christi, Restoration Day, Our Lady of Mercy (24 September), Constitution Day, and Christmas.
Read more in Spanish:
Ministry of Labor
El Nacional
22 November 2020