Every year in early May, Russia enjoys a few days off, with many people taking their vacations from last work day in April to May, 10, the first work day after a two stage holidays.
The dates of May holidays in Russia this year are:
— May 1, the Day of Spring And Labor, a successor to the communist Workers’ Day that’s been celebrated since the end of the XIXth century in many countries.
— May 8 — May 9, where the 9th of May is the celebration of the Great Victory Day, and 8th of May is transferred from the January holidays when Russians were on vacations one day less than they had to.
With weekends, the stretches of days off look like this:
— April 29 — May 1;
— May 6 — May 9.
Establishments and businesses work as it is described in our post about holidays and schedules in Russia. State establishments and services (excluding emergency units, police, transport and so on) are closed as well as private businesses except shops, entertainments, and all other segments generating money when you have holidays.
In May, there is one special day we want to pay attention to. It’s 4th of May. This is a work day and that’s also a day of free admission to the Hermitage. We bet the traditional very long queue to the museum will be much longer. Why? Just because many people will come to visit the museum #1 in Russia.
— those who want to visit the museum for free;
— passengers from cruise ships, the navigation starts on May 2;
— a lot of Russian that came from their home towns to St. Petersburg for vacations;
— non-cruise foreign guests, numbers of whom have been steadily growing over recent years, with 2017 promising to be another record-breaking year.
If you can visit the Hermitage on another day, do it 🙂