Long weekend
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A long weekend is a term used in Western countries to denote a weekend that is at least three days long (a three-day weekend), due to a holiday falling on either the Friday or Monday. In the United Kingdom these would be termed a bank holiday weekend.
In rare cases there may also be a four-day weekend in which both Friday and Monday are holidays. This occurs once a year where the Easter weekend is celebrated, with Easter Monday and Good Friday. Additionally, in places where a holiday occurs on a Tuesday or a Thursday, the gap between that day and the weekend is often also designated as a holiday, or set to be a movable or floating holiday.
On Thanksgiving in the United States, Thursday is the traditional day of feasting, but the following Friday is also usually a non-working day, in addition to the weekend.
Other cultures
The term for a four-day weekend in Spanish-speaking countries is puente ("bridge").
In Spain, the "bridge" becomes an "aqueduct" in some years when the anniversary of the Spanish Constitution of 1978 (6 December) and the Blessed Virgin Mary's Immaculate Conception (8 December) and a weekend plus a movable holiday form a block of five days.
French-speaking cultures use the same "bridge" idiom: faire le pont meaning "to take a long weekend".
In German, a bridge-related term is also used: a holiday taken to fill the gap between a holiday Thursday or Tuesday and the weekend is called a Brückentag ("bridge day"). This day is also called a "bridge day" ("yom gishur"/"יום גישור") in Israel as well.
The term długi weekend (Polish for long weekend) is also commonly used in the Polish language. In Poland, such a phenomenon usually occurs several times a year.es:puente festivo