Every year, when the Carnival period approaches, many people have the following question: Is Ash Wednesday a holiday? Thinking about it, today we will clarify this issue for you to understand once and for all the explanation.
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First of all, it should be noted that no Carnival day is considered an official holiday in Brazil. Only Carnival Tuesday is considered an optional point in some places. So, despite being the biggest party in the country, there is no legislation regulating days off during this period. In that sense, Ash Wednesday is not a holiday either.
However, many employers give employees time off during Carnival, precisely because it is the biggest popular Brazilian festival. This happens especially in places where revelry has remarkable celebrations, such as Bahia, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo.
The days off vary from company to company and can last up to three days, generally from Monday of Carnival until noon on Wednesday. However, the employer may require the employee to work on another holiday or compensate for Carnival holidays with overtime in some other determined period.
More specifically in relation to Ash Wednesday, traditionally, private and public companies tend to only work in the afternoon, so employees take the morning off. However, this is not a rule and each institution can decide how it will proceed.
Briefly, Ash Wednesday marks the end of Carnival, which is a pagan festival for Catholics. It also celebrates the beginning of Lent, the forty-day period leading up to Easter.
In that sense, Ash Wednesday represents an invitation to convert and approach the church. Some people usually fast to remember the trials Christ went through and many people don't eat meat on that day.
Furthermore, the number forty has an important meaning according to the Bible, as the Hebrew people spent forty years in the desert and Jesus spent forty days in the desert in purification. Therefore, Ash Wednesday is the starting point of a very important period for those who follow the Catholic religion.
