Question for European IW'ers

[toot033]

Just have an odd question. A co worker recommended to me to order some equipment and parts before July because certain countries take off for the entire month? Is this true? I did what he said and my parts were shipped from Germany in April, but my curiosity is now peaked reagarding this fact.
Thanks again!

[Lavindathar]

Never heard of that myself.

I know the UK doesnt take ANY time off.

[Unglaublich Verwustung]

Certainly in the UK, as Lavindathar states, this isn't the case. In the earlier part of the 20th century, and even into the 50's and 60's, factories used to close down entirely for one or two weeks in August and all the workers would go on their annual holiday, often together and subsidised by the company, to the big holidays camps on the coast - but those days are long gone.

In France public sector workers would traditionally take August off and head out of the cities - or at least those who could afford to do so, and similarly in Italy and Spain, but again I think those days are long gone.

Even twenty years ago in Rome you could see this, and the whole city would quieten down but nowadays it's probably more of a local legend than reality. A lot like the afternoon siesta, which also seems to have disappeared in the main. When I worked in Bilbao as a student 20 odd years ago I benefited from this, last time we went, to take the kids, everything had changed and shops and offices were open all day except for the small local ones.

Shame, really, the world world is homogenising and local flavour is disappearing.

So order your stuff when you like, you'll still get it in the same timescales, winter or summer.

[dplax]

A lot of people take August off in France, so August isn't really a good time for trying to get administrative stuff done over there. It's not really that marked in other countries, apart from more people having their holidays in the summer than during other seasons.

[SpiritWarrior]

Yeah I think that what he means is actually vacation time. Many parts of the US are hot climates so the yearning to travel to somewhere hot and tropical is lessened to a degree. In Ireland for example, it can be cold and rainy alot, so when summer comes round and the kids are off, thousands will usually vacate to spain or the canary islands for a week or two. These usually occur in the summertime but there is no set time and of course they'd have to ask for time off work to go on holiday. I have never heard of a kind of "siesta" type month, where no-one works at all and everyone goes on vacation - most likely false info.

[wellard]

It's my belief that this practice was widespread in some countries like Italy and other's countries. It was like Christmas / new year / thanksgiving holiday in the USA when everyone 'shuts down'. How common this practice is now I'm not sure.