More and more cities declare Feast of the Assumption a fair day

Split and Crikvenica joined the cities and municipalities that decided to declare the feast of the Assumption, August 15, as a fair day and thus allow merchants to work. The same was done by Pula, Umag, Hvar, Labin, Novalja, Supetar, Bol, Sutivan, Jelsa, Stari Grad, Baška, Podgora, Pirovac and many others, including those where the Croatian Democratic Union is in power.

Due to publicity and tourist activities, the mayor of Split, Ivica Puljak, declared every Sunday until the end of September, as well as the feast of the Assumption, as fair days, so thanks to this, part of the merchants in the city area will be able to work despite the ban on working on Sundays and holidays.

According to the content of the decision signed by Mayor Puljak, in the territory of the City of Split, the days 13, 15, 20 and 27 August and 3, 10, 17 and 24 September are declared fair days.

Thanks to that decision, occasional sales at kiosks, stands and the like are allowed as part of fair events on declared days and can start at 8 a.m. and end by midnight.

Puljak believes that the existence of small tradesmen and shops can be greatly threatened by the new Trade Act, especially when they depend on the season and when every working day is important to them. That is precisely why, with the new decision, the city wants to help them and enable them to work on the days when they are prohibited from doing so.

The Feast of the Assumption in Crikvenica was declared a fair day

Crikvenica joined the cities and municipalities that decided to declare the feast of the Assumption, August 15, as a fair day and thus enable merchants to work.

The decision to declare the feast of the Assumption a fair day was made by Crikvenica mayor Damir Rukavina, and with it he enabled outdoor sales as an integral part of manifestations and fair events.

Occasional sales at kiosks, stands, etc. ambulatory sales and other similar outdoor sales, as part of fair events and public events, may start at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, August 15 and end by midnight.

The decision on determining the fair day was published on the official website of the City of Crikvenica.

Crikvenica celebrates City Day on Monday, August 14, in commemoration of the day when the name Crikvenica was mentioned for the first time in 1412. It is an introduction to the celebration of the feast of the Assumption, the patron saint of Crikvenica.

Occasional sales for the feast of the Assumption in Trsat, but not in the rest of Rijeka

The city of Rijeka is working to allow the area of Trsat, where the shrine of the Lady of Trsat is located, to allow work for the feast of the Assumption, i.e. to allow special sales that must be in accordance with the city's decisions, but it does not plan to introduce this possibility for other parts of the city.

Rijeka Mayor Marko Filipović responded to a question from the HINA news agency about whether and for which days or periods the City of Rijeka, like some cities and municipalities in Croatia, will declare fair days.

“As for the famous fair days, the City of Rijeka is working to allow work in the area of Trsat for the feast of the Assumption, i.e. to allow special sales that must also be in accordance with the City's decisions. However, we do not plan to introduce this option for the rest of the city, because it does not follow from the law that this provision can be generally applied,” he stated.

Filipović also pointed out that he is against such a law, which in an extremely tourism oriented country limits the operation of shops in the middle of summer and in the middle of the season."

“Because it is not a problem in open stores, the problem is that employees who work on Sundays and holidays often do not receive fair compensation and days off for that work. And this Government, instead of ensuring respect for all workers' rights, masks the whole story by introducing work bans,” said Filipović.

Pirovac, Samobor, Sv. Nedelja Dugo Selo, Sv. Ivan Zelina and Križ followed

All the mayors and heads of the Fokus party support the initiative of the Voice of Entrepreneurs Association to enable the work of entrepreneurs who want to work on Sundays, holidays and public holidays, and will declare August 15 as a fair day in order to rebel against non-working Sundays. The press release states that Pirovac will join the protest as one of the popular summer tourist centers, as well as Samobor, Sveta Nedelja, Dugo Selo, Sveti Ivan Zelina and the municipality of Križ.

They also say that all the mayors and heads of those towns agree with the position that the new law is nebulous, and they hope that the constitutionality assessment will show that the Government of the Republic of Croatia made a mistake, because in the pre-election desire to please the voters, it ended up damaging entrepreneurs and citizens, and store workers are threatened with layoffs in the long term.

'We are waiting for betting shops to start selling groceries'

The president of the Fokus party, Davor Nađi, said that for now everything is going as it is and he said it will continue. “Gas stations are selling bread, large retail chains are rotating people to different branches, and retail traffic is lower than it would be on Sundays. We are just waiting for grocery stores to start selling groceries, and for cinemas to include fresh milk in their offer. Small family shops are the ones that suffer the most damage,” he said.

Decisions on declaring fair days were made by the mayor of Samobor Petra Škrobot, the mayor of Sveta Nedelja Dario Zurovec, the mayor of Dugo Selo Nenad Panian, the mayor of Sveti Ivan Zelina Hrvoje Košćec, the mayor of Pirovac Ivan Gulam and the head of Križ municipality Marko Magdić.

Pula and Umag are among the cities that have declared the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary a fair day.

Source: HRT