China scraps one of three Golden Week holidays

BEIJING (Reuters) - China officially announced the scrapping of one of the country's three "golden week" holidays on Sunday and introduced three new one-day public holidays.

The new national public holiday plan adds three traditional festivals -- Tomb-Sweeping Day, Dragon Boat Festival and Mid- Autumn Festival -- to the list of public holidays.

The plan, which comes into effect on January 1, also increases the total number of national holidays from 10 to 11 days.

Each of the three traditional festivals will be a one-day holiday, according to the plan unveiled by the State Council, or China's cabinet.

The Spring Festival remains a three-day public holiday, but it will start one day earlier from the eve of the Lunar New Year, China's most important festival.

The May Day holiday is shortened from three days to one day, while the three-day National Day holiday and one-day New Year holiday remain unchanged.

The National Development and Reform Commission, the top economic planning agency, said the new plan would uphold Chinese traditions and ease overcrowding on the three golden weeks.

The changes are unlikely to make much difference to hundreds of millions of workers who employers expect to toil in factories, restaurants and shops even during the official breaks.

But supporters said the plan would help revive traditional festivals and customs, as celebrated in Hong Kong, eroded in China's frenzied rush to economic prosperity. Many of these had already been strongly discouraged during the first decades of Communist rule.

(Reporting by Nick Macfie)