Holidays in New Zealand
can refer to publicly observed holidays or to a holiday
period.
Public holidays
Public holidays have particular implications for employment and
shop trading hours in New Zealand.
For employment purposes, under current legislation, workers who
work on a public holiday must be given equivalent time off on
another day, and be paid
time-and-a-half. Their holidays cannot be
exchanged for cash.
While shops may trade on most public holidays, there are special
trading restrictions on Christmas Day, Good Friday, Easter Sunday
and before 1pm on ANZAC Day. In recent years there have been
deliberate violations of these trading restrictions on Good Friday
by
garden centres. (Previously, garden
centres were exempt from these restrictions.)
In tourist
towns, such as Queenstown
in the South Island, some exemptions are granted by
the district council for selected shops to open on Good Friday and
Easter Sunday. The reason being is to keep up the level of
service to the tourists, as many would not know the shops will be
closed on those public holidays. However, liquor sale is restricted
in some of those public holidays (not usually a problem because
shops are usually closed on those public holidays).
There are two types of public holidays:
- Statutory Holidays, which are legislated by law.
- Provincial Anniversary Days, which commemorate the founding of
the province or an early settlement event.
Statutory holidays
These holidays are legislated by several Acts of Parliament,
particularly the Holidays Act 2003.
Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day are always commemorated on the exact
date, as they commemorate specific historical events. Apart from
Good Friday the other New Zealand Statutory Holidays have been
Mondayised.
For example: If
1 January or
25 December is a Saturday or Sunday, then the
following Monday is the statutory holiday for New Year's Day or
Christmas Day. If
2 January or
26 December is a Saturday, then the Day after
New Year's Day or Boxing Day is celebrated on the next Monday. If
either of these days occurs on a Sunday, then the holiday occurs on
the following Tuesday, as the Monday will have been used for New
Year or Christmas.
This situation has been complicated by the most recent incarnation
of the Holidays Act. The holiday is Mondayised only if the employee
would not usually work on weekends. For example an office worker
who works only Monday to Friday would get to the Statutory holidays
on the Monday (or Tuesday for days that fell on Sundays). But an
employee who usually worked Saturdays would not get the Monday
holiday as they did not work on the Saturday.
Provincial anniversary days
Additionally, the Holidays Act 1981 specifies each locality
observing a Provincial Anniversary Day to celebrate the founding
days or landing days of the first colonists of the various colonial
provinces. However the exact dates are not legislated for.
The
regions covered are set by provincial district (as they stood
when abolished in 1876), plus Southland
, the Chatham Islands
, South Canterbury and Northland
. The actual observance days can vary even
within each province and is due to local custom, convenience or the
proximity of seasonal events or other holidays. This may differ
from the official observance day, and may be several weeks from the
official day.
Provincial Anniversary
Days
| Provincial District |
includes |
Actual Day |
Observance Day |
| Southland |
Invercargill , Bluff , Milford
Sound , Fiordland |
January 17 |
Varies – determined by local custom and tourist season. |
| Wellington
Province |
Wellington , Manawatu, Wanganui |
January 22 |
Monday nearest to the actual day |
Auckland Province |
Waikato , King Country , Coromandel, Bay of Plenty , Gisborne /East Coast |
January 29 |
Monday nearest to the actual day (Auckland Anniversary Day) |
| Northland |
Whangarei |
January 29 |
Monday nearest to the actual day |
Nelson |
Nelson, Tasman , Buller and parts of
North Canterbury |
February 1 |
Monday nearest to the actual day |
| Otago
Province |
Dunedin |
March 23 |
Monday nearest to the actual day (this can vary if it would
otherwise coincide with Easter Monday) |
Taranaki  |
New
Plymouth |
March 31 |
Second Monday in March – to avoid Easter |
South Canterbury |
September 25 |
Fourth Monday in September – Dominion
Day |
Hawke's Bay |
Napier , Hastings |
November 1 |
Friday before Labour Day |
| Marlborough |
Picton |
November 1 |
First Monday after Labour Day |
| Canterbury |
Christchurch , Ashburton |
November 16 |
Christchurch Show Day (Northern Canterbury) |
| Christchurch Show Day (Central Canterbury) |
| Second Friday after the first Tuesday in November (Christchurch
City) – To coincide with the Agricultural and Pastoral Show. |
| Chatham Islands |
November 30 |
Monday nearest to the actual day |
Westland |
Westport , Greymouth |
December 1 |
Monday nearest to the actual day (Greymouth) |
| Varies (outside Greymouth) |
Annual leave and non-working days
In addition to the above holidays all New Zealand workers must be
given four weeks annual leave, often taken in the summer Christmas
– New Year period.
(As New Zealand is in the southern
hemisphere
, the summer months are from December to February,
and the best summer weather often occurs during January and
February.) In many industries this coincides with a Christmas – New
Year shutdown for maintenance. With only three working days
between Christmas and New Year, many workers take this time off, as
they can have a ten-day summer break for only three days' leave.
Many retail outlets also hold sales at this time to stimulate
business while others close down due to low demand for services.
The days from
25 December to
15 January are not considered to be working days
for official government purposes, although the public counters of
most government departments do open weekdays during this period,
though often only a limited service may be available.
From 1 April 2007, the minimum annual leave is four weeks.
School holidays
New Zealand schools have a 4-term year, of about ten weeks each and
usually with a two week holiday between terms. Although standard
term dates are set by the
Ministry of Education
each year, schools can vary these to account for local holidays and
school closures due to weather. The first term commences in late
January or early February. Occasionally, Easter holidays and/or
ANZAC day may fall within these holidays. The holiday between terms
two and three is generally known as the midwinter break and occurs
in July, while that between terms 3 and 4 occurs in late September,
early October. Term 4 ends in mid December, generally a week or two
before Christmas, though for many senior students this term ends
after their final
NCEA examination in late
November or early December.
Proposals for new holidays
From time to time, there have been proposals to make
Matariki an official holiday in New Zealand. In
2006,
Māori Language
Commissioner Haami Piripi made such
a proposal
[54209]. Also, following the death of
Sir Edmund Hillary, the
Green Party proposed a
public holiday in his honour
[54210].
Proposals for abolition of holidays
Some holidays are seen as celebrating events or ideals which are
seen by a minority of people as no longer relevant , and
suggestions have been made that they be abolished.
From the 1950s to the 1970s it was frequently suggested that the
Provincial Anniversary holidays be abolished, as the provinces had
not existed for many decades. Before Waitangi Day was made a
national public holiday it was sometimes suggested that a Waitangi
Day holiday should replace the anniversary days, and the
Waitangi Day Act 1960 made provision for
this. Waitangi Day was eventually made an additional holiday and
the provincial holidays lived on, primarily because most regions
had long established events on those weekends.
A small minority of people advocate the abolition of the Waitangi
Day holiday, but it is regularly suggested that a less
controversial day, such as Anzac Day (
April
25) or Dominion Day (
September 26),
be made New Zealand's national day.
External links
Wikis
Quiz
Map
Search