In Austria the first of may is a national holiday, day of work to be precise. And just like in Bavaria people put up maypoles all over the place.

All very well, in the meantime I had my first day at work over here. That’s right, the first of may is not a holiday in Ireland, in fact there are very little religious holidays. But that isn’t a bad thing for two reasons. Instead there are a bunch of so called bank holidays. For example, the first Monday in May is such a bank holiday, and unlike the 1st May, the first Monday never falls on a weekend. Over here, even when one of the fix holidays is falling on a weekend, like St. Patrick’s Day, the next Monday will be off instead. So even if there are less bank holidays in Ireland then there are official holidays in Austria, they tend to be spread more evenly throughout the year and never get wasted. Which is nice.

The other advantage is a bit more subjective. There is no Konkordat, contract between government and church. Now Ireland is a deeply Catholic country, even more so then Austria, but they never signed such a contract. Now at the time when Austria signed it, there has been a neutral benefit to each party, but that is no more. The more I think about it, the less it makes sense that a single religion should have advantages.