In 1873 the holidays of the public offices of the end of the year and the beginning of the year were fixed from December 29 to January 3 by law. Therefore December 28 is the last work day of the year. It is called kankocho goyo osame(官公庁御用納め) or kancho shigoto osame(官庁仕事納め). Kan (官) means government, ko (公) means public, cho (庁) means office or agency. Goyo (御用) means business. Shigoto (仕事) means work. Osame (納め) means closing.
According to this custom for many companies today is the last work day of the year which is called shigoto osame(仕事納め). After work we usually have the last meeting of a year called nokai (納会). We express our thanks to each other for the work we shared, and wish everyone a happy new year.
The first work day of the year is called goyo hajime(御用始め) or shigoto hajime(仕事始め), which falls on January 4 next year. Hajime (始め) means beginning.
Therefore people usually have 6 days off this year.
Have a nice holiday season!
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