Accountancy Resources
Do you know your name day? Mine is Christmas Eve. Being born in Poland, the custom is to celebrate one’s name day, imieniny in Polish, more widely even than celebrating one’s birthday. Although Christmas is not about presents, as a child I always felt a bit ‘gipped’ since my celebration was combined with the holiday. I know how people in the States feel celebrating birthdays close to Christmas! Imieniny are wonderful celebrations and a great reason to gather and socialize with friends and family. It is a day to celebrate your name (not just a reminder of your age!) with gifts, flowers, chocolates or just a thoughtful acknowledgement within your home or workplace.
Poland is not the only country that celebrates name days. Most countries across Europe and Latin America also celebrate them. By way of history, a name day is also known as a feast day. If you are named after a particular saint, you celebrate the feast day of that saint. Your saint’s feast day is your name day, based on the Christian calendar of saints.
A saint can also be a patron of a place or activity as well as a person. In some countries, the feast day of a town’s patron saint is a celebration for the entire town. The whole town has a holiday. The employees, in the town, enjoy the day off. So what does this have to do with global payroll? If you are managing payrolls in Italy, you must track the patron saint feast days of each of the employee’s towns for paid time off accruals. For example, the Feast of St. Peter and St. Paul (La Festa di San Pietro e Paolo) is an annual public holiday in Rome on June 29. Roman payrolls acknowledge this accrual day. Roman gentlemen named Peter or Paul have double the reason to celebrate. Their name day is a day that the entire town celebrates!
In case you were wondering why my imieniny is on Christmas Eve, it is because I am named after Eve. My mother had 3 sons and desperately wanted a daughter. When I finally came along, my parents named me Eva, Polish for Eve. Eve, of course, was the first woman. Eve is acknowledged across religions. Although Eve is not ordinarily called a saint, she may be called saint on her feast day, which is the vigil of Christmas.
Go and discover your name-day! Celebrate it as you learn the various customs of this beautiful world!
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