The word sommerferielukket, meaning ‘closed for summer’ is something you’ll see on signs in hair salons, cafes, shops, libraries, and other businesses throughout July and sometimes beyond.
Denmark’s long summer holidays are written into law: most employers are legally obliged to allow their workers to take three consecutive weeks off in the summer. Naturally many of them jump at the chance, particularly if they have small children, whose børnehave (kindergarten) will also be sommerferielukket.
Some large Danish companies meanwhile halt operations over summer, and small business owners often decide to do the same. Authorities like municipal offices can also shut down non-essential services.
This all adds up to a strange feeling of emptiness in the bigger cities in July in particular, as those who haven’t gone abroad will often head to their rural summer houses. And the summer closures can be frustrating to those who aren’t used to the system, especially since they coincide with the tourist season.
All the same, it’s good to be aware of the custom so you don’t get caught out when that restaurant or shop you really wanted to visit is closed for the rest of the month.
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History
The right to take a long summer holiday that we take for granted today, did not come to Denmark until 1938.
During the first half of the 20th century, as the agricultural sector diminished, an increase in young people who were finishing school, moved from the countryside to larger cities to find work. The new workers formed trade unions, which, among other things, fought for reduced working hours and later for the right to a holiday.
In 1919, the trade unions succeeded in getting working hours reduced to 50.5 hours a week with Sundays off. Then in 1938 they got the first holiday law passed (ferieloven). The holiday law gave all Danes the right to two weeks’ holiday a year.
The law progressed into the creation of the organisation, ‘People’s Holiday’ (Folkeferie), which was formed to support and provide holiday opportunities for workers, so they had somewhere to go on holiday. During the 1960s and 1970s Danes then started building their own summer houses, as the welfare state grew.
The trade unions continued to negotiate during the following decades and in 1979, there was an agreement to five weeks of holiday. A major revision of the holiday law soon followed, so that all Danes were not only given the right, but also the duty, to take five weeks’ holiday.
A new holiday act was passed in 2018 and implemented in September 2020, around a new concept of concurrent holidays. This allows employees to earn 2.08 holiday days each month, which they have access to use immediately, as opposed to the old scheme where workers earned holiday days for the following year.
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The Danish Holiday Act (Ferieloven)
The Danish Holiday Act covers most salaried employees for five standard weeks (normally 25 days) of paid vacation. Holiday earned during a given month can be used from the very next month, in a rule referred to as concurrent holiday (samtidighedsferie). You can check how much holiday you have accrued and are therefore entitled to take at a given time by logging in to the relevant section of the borger.dk portal.
The vacation year is broken down so that there is a “main holiday period” (hovedferie in Danish) which starts on May 1st and ends on September 30th. During this time, you are entitled to take three weeks’ consecutive vacation out of your five weeks.
A lot of people take three weeks in a row while others break it up – which is why you often hear Danish people who work full time wishing each other a “good summer holiday” as if it’s the end of the school term.
Outside of the main holiday period, the remaining 10 days of vacation, termed øvrig ferie in Danish, can be taken whenever you like. You can take up to five days together but may also use the days individually.
If your employer wants to decide when you should take any of your vacation days, they have to let you know at least three months in advance for the main holiday, or one month in advance for remaining holiday, except for exceptional circumstances.
If you have not earned paid vacation, you still have the right to take unpaid holiday. However, people whose right to work in Denmark is dependent on a sponsored visa or other form of work permit should check whether their visa allows them to take unpaid leave, since this may not be the case.
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