Why is May 8 a public holiday in France?

For decades, we have not worked on May 8: this day is a public holiday since May 8, 1945. So if we know well that May 1st is a public holiday, because it is Labor Day, we sometimes no longer know very well what happened on May 8th to make this day a public holiday… No panic, we’ll give you a booster shot.

A hint: like every year, this day will give rise to commemorations, because May 8, 1945 marked the end of the war in Europe.

“Three days after the suicide of Adolf Hitler in his bunker, on April 30, the Nazi troops defending Berlin capitulated, on May 2, 1945. On the night of May 6 to 7, the chief of staff of the Wehrmacht signs in Reims the unconditional capitulation of Germany. The act of capitulation sets the cessation of hostilities on May 8 at 11:01 p.m.,” recalls the official website. info.gouv.fr.

A new act of capitulation of the Third Reich was then signed in Berlin between the German and allied military commands. The war officially ends on the European continent.

End of the war in September

But May 8, 1945 does not mark the end of the Second World War, only the victory of the Allied forces in this conflict in Europe.

Because the conflict continues in Asia in particular, between the United States and Japan, completes the site vie-publique.fr. It was the atomic bombings of the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima (August 6, 1945), then Nagasaki (August 9, 1945), as well as the Soviet attack in Manchuria, which led Emperor Hirohito to announce, on August 15, 1945 , the surrender of Japan.

The true end of the Second World War was marked by the signing of the Japanese capitulation on September 2, 1945.

Has May 8 been a public holiday since 1945?

Thus, the French do not work on May 8, to commemorate the victory, but it was not always like this. “In 1946, the commemoration of the victory on this date was established by law, but on the condition that that day was a Sunday. Otherwise, the Liberation will be celebrated on the first Sunday following May 8,” we read.

It was in 1953 that May 8 was declared a public holiday at the request of former deportees and resistance fighters. But a few years later, parliamentarians reversed this decision, and several reversals occurred in the years to come on this public holiday.

“Final change in 1981: May 8 was finally declared a public holiday, in memory of the end of the Second World War and its combatants,” specifies the government website.

Since then, the ritual has been that every May 8, the President of the Republic reviews the troops at Place de l’Etoile, rekindles the flame at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier and lays a wreath.

Emmanuel Macron will therefore chair this ceremony in Paris on May 8, 2024.

A bridge for May 8

This year, May 8 falls on a Wednesday, and it is followed by Ascension Thursday the next day, May 9, which gives rise to a bridge: there is no school on Friday May 10, 2024.

But Ascension has nothing to do with World War II commemorations, since it is a Catholic holiday that celebrates the ascension of Jesus Christ to heaven.

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