Will the 6th of January - the Feast of Epiphany be a day free of work? The parliament is debating the citizens' project signed by nearly seven hundred thousand people.

Peter Gentle reports

Should Poland have one more day free of work, falling on the 6th of January, the Catholic Feast of Epiphany? Many people walking on the streets of Warsaw agree, for various reasons...

[WOMAN] 'Every reason is good to take a day off.'
[MAN] 'Because I am Catholic and this is an important feast for me.'
[MAN] 'We can work harder on other days, and make this one day free of work.'

The Feast of Epiphany is among the oldest Christian holidays. It was on the list of official religious holidays as a day free of work in Poland until 1960 when communists cancelled it, as part of their fight against Catholicism. The idea restore the holiday came from the mayor of Łódź Jerzy Kropiwnicki.

'Poland was celebrating it for almost 1000 years from the year 966 when it was Christianed. Despite all the unpleasant events that we had in the history - the partition of Poland, occupations, and so on, it was still with us until it was cancelled in the times of the Communist power in Poland in 1960. So, it's high time to come back with this holiday that was the first important holiday in Christianity in the history. It was established in the Christian Church even before the nativities,' said Kropiwnicki.

Mayor Kropiwnicki managed to collect six hundred thousand signatures supporting the idea, which is four times more than the Polish law requires for a citizens' project to be considered in the parliament.

Polish Bishops wrote a joint letter to the House Speaker in support of the initiative. The bishops explained that the Feast of Epiphany is one of the oldest Christian holidays, celebrated as a day free of work until today in nine European Union Countries: Austria, Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

However, the idea to add one more holiday to the Polish calendar met with various reactions in the Parliament. Postcommunist left opposed it from the start, calling it a privilege for Catholics, who constitute over 90% of Polish society. Rightist Law and Justice supported it and politicians of the ruling Civic Platform were divided. Most wanted to support the idea, but the party announced they would introduce a voting discipline against the project.

That's what Prime Minister Donald Tusk advised. 'I am convinced that considering the financial situation in the world, in Poland, all the challenges that we are facing, the financial discipline that we have to accept prior to entering the euro zone... all this tells me that we'd better work a little more than a little less today,' he said.

Zbigniew Chlebowski, head of the ruling Civic Platform parliamentary club criticized the project very harshly, saying the party will oblige the deputies to reject it: 'This is a harmful initiative, which does not serve Polish society, Polish economy, every average Polish family, which for sure expects better life conditions, so this is a bad initiative, we want to reject it in the first reading.'

But mayor Jerzy Kropiwnicki, initiator of the idea, who himself teaches economy at university level, says the economy-based argument against making 6th of January free of work are absurd: 'For these kinds of math I would give an 'F' in the freshman year,' he said.

So far, Poland has had 12 days free of work throughout the year. This is not a lot compared to the rest of the European Union. Eleven other EU countries have more holidays, among them: Slovenia (18 days a year), Slovakia and Cyprus (15 days). Finland, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria and Portugal has the same number of days off work as Poland.