Towards the end of the All Saints’ Day and Christmas Holidays? A Teachers’ Union Wants to Change their Name

These holidays have officially kept their Christian name in the school calendar. A school teachers’ union has proposed that this change, in the name of secularism.

This is a proposal that is debated. The national union of teachers SNUipp-FSU, the majority in nursery and primary schools, would like rename the so-called All Saints’ Day and Christmas holidays to “autumn and end-of-year holidays” for questions d’inclusiveness of all religions and secularism.

A amendment has been tabled in this sense during the plenary meeting of the Higher Council of Education (CSE), which was to decide the question of the 2026-2027 school calendar, this Wednesday 1st October.

The Ministry of Education is against it

In a press release published this Friday, consulted by news.fr, the CSE, which brings together around a hundred representatives of education staff, parents of pupils, students and high school students as well as local authorities, indicated that it had debated the proposal and had “issued a favorable opinion”, 44 votes “for” versus 7 votes “against” this one. But this opinion is advisory only.

The amendment was subsequently not accepted by the Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research, and therefore by Elisabeth Borne, the resigning minister who chairs this Council.

The latter’s office had in fact brushed aside the proposal, Thursday 2nd October, indicating to our colleagues from RMC that this is currently “not a question that arises”.

Why remove the religious character of vacations

The plan is to remove the religious character from the name of these school holidays, to make them more neutral, at least more secular, like public schools. Which would not change anything concretely for students, parents or teachers, but which causes a outcry on the right from the political spectrum and public opinion.

A petition against this amendment was thus tabled by the UNI union, classified at the far right, just before the CSE, for the defense of christian roots from France. As a reminder, the February holidays are already called “winter holidays”, and Easter holidays “Spring holidays”, and this since 1974, in official school calendars. The expression “Easter holidays” however, it has remained in everyday language, despite this official change that took place 50 years ago.