Ferragosto

Ferragosto is a public holiday celebrated on 15 August in the whole of Italy. It originates from Feriae Augusti, the festival of Emperor Augustus, who made 1 August a day of rest after weeks of hard work on the agricultural sector. It became a custom for the workers to wish their employers buon Ferragosto and receive a monetary bonus in return. This became law during the Roman Renaissance throughout the Papal States. As the festivity was created for political reasons, the Catholic Church decided to move the festivity to 15 August, which is the Assumption of Mary allowing them to include this in the festivity.

This festivity was used by Benito Mussolini to give the lower classes the possibility to visit cultural cities or go to the seaside for one to three days, from 14 August to the 16th, by creating "holiday trains" with extremely low cost tickets, for this holiday period. Food and board was not included, which is why even today Italians associate packed lunches and barbecues with this day. By metonymy, it is also the summer vacation period around mid-August, which may be a long weekend (ponte di Ferragosto) or most of August. Until 2010, 90% of companies, shops and industries closed; however, because closing an entire country's economy for an entire month would result in serious financial impacts and workplace backlogs, most companies now close for about two weeks and require all workers to take mandatory vacation, similar to the practice of workplaces closing between 25 December and the first of January.