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Taiwan is getting a day off on Christmas for the first time in 25 years.
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The change comes after opposition parties passed a law earlier this year to add or restore five public holidays, including Constitution Day, which falls on Dec. 25.
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The day marks the 1947 adoption of the constitution of the Republic of China, as the government in Taipei is formally known.
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Back then the Kuomintang governed China from Nanjing. When the KMT, now an opposition party in Taiwan, passed the legislation on holidays, it said that they would help “commemorate the history of national development.” That is a narrative the KMT uses to emphasize its historical links to China.
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The date was apparently chosen by the man who ruled Taiwan for more than two decades, Chiang Kai-shek, a baptized Christian whose mausoleum is decorated with a cross.
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Chiang said in a radio address days before the constitution took effect that “the Christmas of 1947, marking the birth of Jesus, will be the day that ushers in a new beginning for the Republic of China and all its people — one of unity, independence, equality and freedom.”
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For decades, people in Taiwan unofficially celebrated Christmas on Constitution Day, until the self-ruled democracy started moving toward a five-day workweek in 2001 and dropped some public holidays.
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As in many other parts of the world, Christmas in Taiwan is a popular cultural and commercial phenomenon. Friends gather for celebrations, and glitzy Taipei malls are bedecked in holiday cheer, replete with familiar Christmas music.
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The extra five days off a year have also been popular with workers across the archipelago of 23 million people. The average Taiwanese worker laboured some 2,030 working hours in 2024, according to Taiwan’s Ministry of Labor — the fourth-most among 37 major economies.
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