Working days per year 2023

Working hours per month

In general, when you talk about the number of working hours per month, you usually say 160, or if you talk about the number of working days per year in 2023, you usually say 250, which is often not quite right. This year (2023), for example, there are between 152 and 184 working hours with an average of 169 hours per month or 253 working days (112 days off!). Here in the table below, you can see exactly how many working days, working hours, number of Saturdays and Sundays and other days off, for example red days, Midsummer's Eve, Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve. On the occasions that a red day coincides with a Saturday or Sunday, it is counted in the Sat & Sun column. We also expect an eight-hour working day. Which days in Sweden count as holidays are regulated in the following Lag (1989: 253) "The Public Holidays Act". The majority are free on the following holidays, even if they happen to coincide with a normal weekday:

Feel free to check out our calendar here on the right, which contains information such as e.g. name days and a little history about what happened on that particular day.

Month	Working days	Working hours	Sat & Sun.	Others
January	22	176	9	1
February	20	160	8	0
March	23	184	8	0
April	18	144	10	3
May	21	168	8	2
June	20	160	8	2
July	21	168	10	0
August	23	184	8	0
September	21	168	9	0
October	22	176	9	0
November	22	176	8	0
December	19	152	10	2
Total annual working hours	252	2016	105	10
Average / Month	21	168	8.75	0.83

May 1

This day has been celebrated since 1890 and stems from the demonstrations of the labor movement. In 1890, the Second International required an eight-hour workday. The Second International was an organization formed in Paris, but the demonstrations also spread to Sweden in 1890. The first of May has been a public holiday in Sweden since 1939. This day is one of the two (together with the national day) festivals that are considered non-bourgeois, ie without connection to the Church of Sweden. The first of May has historically not only been to demonstrate for the rights of the worker, but also for other purposes such as demonstrations of sobriety etc. Before the Industrial Revolution, May Day was also celebrated as a day, the first day of summer. It was a day when the animals were let out to pasture, the village team chose an elder and they took joint initiatives to review farms, fences and finances. The pre-industrial celebration of the first of May ended with a party, as well as drinking marrow from a bone, to gather strength. The most notable symbol of the first of May is the cornflower. This was first sold in Gothenburg in 1907. Flowers themselves have a positive, life-giving symbolism. The money from the sale is historical and still goes to charity, in most cases to vulnerable children. One reason we celebrate May Day is the Haymarket Massacre, which took place in Chicago in 1886. At the demonstration, workers protested for just an 8-hour workday but met strong and violent opposition from police. Overall, the first of May is a holiday that is celebrated a little differently depending on where you are in the country. You choose to party, play games or demonstrate. The overarching theme is at least for the people to unite in a public place in the hope of showing the ruling powers that they have a voice that wants to be heard.

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Ascension Day

The name of the feast is revealing. The ascension of Christ falls on the 40th day after Easter. The weekend is based on the lunar cycles like many other festive weekends and therefore falls on different dates each year. This day the churches are decorated in white. On the Ascension of Christ, it is celebrated that Jesus left the earth and was taken to heaven. In Sweden, we have historically also called the holiday the grazing release, when the animals were now allowed to go out to pasture. This day has also been associated with being the first day of summer. Winter clothes are put away and women go barefoot. Ascension Day has also gone by the name of Metadar Day, when it was now that summer fishing began. In folklore, one can also call the day the "Pilot of Christ".

Ascension Day always falls on a Thursday. There has been a fire like a valborg during the Ascension of Christ. The purpose of these fires is believed to be to scare away wolves. Since the date of the Ascension of Christ varies from year to year and extends between April 30 - June 3, it can fall on the same day as the first of May or Valborg. From this we probably see that these festivals share certain traditions.

This day is historically marked with a stamp of freedom in Sweden. Something we have done through the ages is to take the first excursions of the year early in the morning, also called "cuckoo". This is to greet and welcome the warmth of the spring sun. The cuckoo is made at the time in the spring when the cuckoo starts to gala. In modern times, people usually go on picnics and bird watching under cuckoos. In church contexts, services are usually held. Finally, the Ascension of Christ was also a day off in the sense that young people could now socialize without being guarded as strictly by their parents.

Outside the church and in modern society, few celebrate Ascension Day for special reasons. It is common for the day to lead to a long weekend when the Ascension of Christ always falls on a Thursday and Friday then becomes a squeezing day. Therefore, most people probably think that the day is somehow worth celebrating.