In the future, Hessian students will once again have two weeks of autumn and Easter holidays. In addition, there will be the so-called "Hesse Week" again every year, i.e. at least a whole holiday week after New Year's Day. This extra week does not exist in other federal states, which means that trips to winter areas are booked less during this time and are cheaper for Hessian families. These regulations apply to the school years 2024/2025 to 2029/2030, as Minister of Education Alexander Lorz (CDU) announced on Tuesday. The dates can be found in detail on the website of the Hessian Ministry of Culture. Most recently, the autumn holidays had been shortened to one week and the Easter holidays had been extended to three weeks to compensate.

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

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The summer holidays for the period from 2025 to 2030 had already been set for all states at the end of 2021 by a resolution of the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs. According to the school law, students are entitled to "vacations at pedagogically meaningful intervals," said Lorz. Further details are regulated in the Ordinance on the Structure of the School Relationship.

Respect for holiday areas and traffic

After that, there are summer, autumn, Christmas and Easter holidays in Hesse as well as some movable holidays. The dates of the individual holiday periods are set out in a decree of the Ministry of Culture. The total number of vacation days is 75 days nationwide. All days of the week from Monday to Saturday are counted as holidays.

An agreement reached in the Conference of Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs is intended to ensure that holiday areas and means of transport are not overloaded by means of a staggered start of the summer holidays in the federal states. Due to the rolling system, all states except Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg change from year to year from earlier to later dates and vice versa. Within this system, neighbouring countries are grouped into groups of countries. Hesse, together with Rhineland-Palatinate and Saarland, forms such a group of states, Lorz said.

According to him, the holiday dates were determined in a participation process in which a total of 102 organizations participated, including the State Parents' Council and the State Student Council, teachers' associations and trade unions, the two major Christian churches, the Association of Cities and Districts, as well as universities and chambers.