The 2025 Lunar New Year holiday schedule proposed by the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs includes 9 consecutive days off (from December 26, Giap Thin year to January 5, At Ty year, that is, from Saturday, January 25 to Sunday, February 2, 2025).

The proposal for the 2025 Lunar New Year holiday schedule has been sent to ministries and branches for comments before being submitted to the Government for approval. The Ministry of Home Affairs and many workers have expressed their agreement with this proposal.

Ms. Le Thi Ha (40 years old, garment worker in Ho Chi Minh City) is from Thai Binh, and her husband is from Thanh Hoa. It has been more than 20 years since the couple got married and started a business in Ho Chi Minh City. According to the regular plan, every 2-3 years, Ms. Ha's family returns to their hometown in the North to celebrate Tet.

Ms. Ha shared that Lunar New Year 2024 is the second year her family has not been able to return home to celebrate Tet, the reason being that the holiday is only 7 days, while the travel time takes 2 days.

This year, after receiving information suggesting a 9-day Lunar New Year holiday, Ha and her husband planned to buy plane tickets early to return home for Tet.

“If we had a 9-day Tet holiday, my family would be less rushed when traveling back to our hometown, and there would be more options for airfares. Most importantly, we would have enough time to enjoy ourselves with both our paternal and maternal families,” Ms. Ha shared.

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Many workers agree with the proposal to have 9 consecutive days off for the 2025 Lunar New Year. Illustration photo: Nam Khanh

Another case is that of Mr. Le Van Quang (46 years old, from Nghe An) and his wife, who work as workers in Bac Ninh. Mr. Quang commented that during Tet, traveling and shopping take a lot of time, so a 9-day Lunar New Year holiday is appropriate, helping to reduce pressure on workers.

According to Mr. Quang, although the distance from Bac Ninh to Nghe An is only over 300km, the Lunar New Year 2024 is very stressful for his family because it falls close to the holiday, and it takes nearly a day to get home.

"This year, if we have 9 days off, my family will have 2 more days off before Tet and 3 more days off after Tet. The extended time off will reduce the pressure on traveling, shopping and resting," said Mr. Quang.

Businesses do not worry about stagnant production and business

The long Lunar New Year holiday in 2025 raises concerns about production stagnation. However, there are also opinions that if the holiday is long, businesses will proactively plan to compensate so as not to affect business and production activities.

Mr. Le Xuan Thuong, director of a construction materials manufacturing enterprise in Hanoi, said that the official 2025 Lunar New Year holiday proposal of 5 days plus 4 days has been made up for on weekends, so the unit's production and business plan will not be affected much.

On the contrary, arranging 9 consecutive Tet holidays will help workers have more time to travel and shop for Tet, helping them to restore their labor force to work more effectively in the new year.

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If the 2025 Lunar New Year holiday lasts for 9 consecutive days, businesses will arrange compensatory work time to ensure production and business activities. Illustration photo: Hoang Ha

Mr. Le Dinh Quang, Deputy Head of the Labor Relations Department (Vietnam General Confederation of Labor) said that the proposal of the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs to arrange compensatory leave for 9 consecutive days of Lunar New Year holiday in 2025 is appropriate.

Accordingly, workers have more time to travel, rest, and restore their labor, and businesses are not affected when the 4 extra days off are compensated.

In addition, the long holiday will help stimulate consumption, create more jobs for businesses and workers, and promote economic growth during and after Tet.

A traffic expert said that the 9-day Tet holiday also helps reduce the load on traffic infrastructure, avoiding overloading and traffic jams during the days before and after Tet.

"Extending the holiday allows workers enough time to travel back to their hometowns without having to rush on the days before Tet, reducing serious congestion at bus stations, train stations, and gateways to major cities.

People's travel costs will also decrease when airlines, trains and buses have more time to arrange vehicles to better serve people," said the traffic expert.