Public holiday dates
 

I'm a bit confused over public holidays in Germany, particulary in May.
Is the 1st May the public holiday or is it the 1st Monday in May like England?
In addition, do different regions have seperate public holidays alongside the national holidays?
We're looking at Bayern & Baden Wutermberg in early May next year.

As for May 1st: It is always on the exact date, even if that happens to be a Sunday.

You can get an overview of public holidays by region on this site (in German):
http://www.feiertage.net/frei-tage.php
Just choose the region and year, then hit "Anzeigen".

Hello,
in Bavaria it is the 1st of May as a holiday every year. And the ones changing date is Christi Himmelfahrt on the 17th and Whitsun on the 28th next year. But most of these holidays are just in the south. The further north you get the less holidays they have.
Chris

Wrong. Both Ascension and Whitsunday/Whitmonday are nationwide public holidays. These are connected to the Easter date, hence change every year.

Corpus Christi is a public holiday only in some predominantly catholic states in the south and west. Ditto All Saints (Nov 1).

Reformation Day (Oct 31) is a public holiday in the five former DDR states. Saxony still has the Day of Repention and Prayer on a Wendesday in November.

Our holidays that have a fixed date do not "jump" - if they fall on a weekend, it's bad luck for the workers and good luck for the employers, vice versa if they happen to be weekdays.

Thanks for the replies & the weblink which was extreemly useful. It's given me some dates to try & avoid!

Wisely so. Being a tourist during a public holiday in Germany is generally no fun at all.