(BFM Stock Exchange) – In a large number of countries, including France, the financial markets remain closed this Friday, without it being officially a public holiday. In other words, it’s a four-day weekend that begins, exchanges only resuming after Easter Monday.

Two days before Easter Monday (commemorating the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the Christian tradition) on Good Friday recalls the way of the cross and the preceding crucifixion. It is a “mobile” celebration (the date is not fixed unlike July 14 for example, it can vary almost by a month), recognized as well among Catholics and Protestants or Orthodox.

Intensely marked by its religious character, this celebration did not really acquire profane traditions on the contrary of Christmas (where many people exchange gifts recalling those of the Magi kings without being believers) or even of Easter Monday (egg hunt, sometimes a picnic bringing together families and friends while enjoying the first beautiful days). And the Good Friday ended up getting out of the list of official public holidays in France in the 19th century … But the scholarship curiously preserved tradition, both in the United States and in Europe.

It seems that from the Middle Ages, the religious authorities prohibited the holding of physical markets on the Good Friday-in close to religious buildings which were then at the center of social life-not to disturb religious celebrations, and looked at a very bad eye for brewing money on the anniversary of the killing of the Christian Messiah.

Holidays for at least 1864 at Wall Street

Even today, Wall Street remains closed on this date, although it is not more than in Europe an official holiday.

Arthur Cashin, a figure of the New York Stock Exchange, looked into it. The owner of UBS Financial Services operations on the “Floor” of the American market is also one of the three “Floor Governors” of the NYSE and, at 80, he is still a very listened to the US media.

Arthur Cashin was able to immerse himself in the archives of the New York square. He established with certainty that the Good Friday was one day without exchanges at least since 1864, the date from which the archives are complete and undoubtedly, but it was most likely the case since the birth of the stock market in the United States – dating back to 1792 when 24 exchange agents signed the buttonwood agreement.

Without knowing why, at the turn of the 20th century, the stock market authorities decided three times (April 8, 1898, April 13, 1906 and March 29, 1907) to maintain the exchanges on a good Friday, but one can think that the activity remained very limited these days so that we definitively renounce the tradition.

In France, Good Friday was a public holiday at the time of the opening of the Palais-Brongniart in 1826, and the tradition was also perpetuated when it is now a working day, except in Alsace-Moselle (Saint Etienne on December 26 is also a public holiday in these departments in eastern France).

We can also note that outside May 1 (Labor Day), every other closing days are linked to Christian religious festivals. Finally, the Oslo Stock Exchange which belongs to Euronext goes even further by closing its doors on Wednesday afternoon and all of Holy Thursday, in addition to the Holy Friday and Easter Monday.

On the other hand, the exchanges will resume on Monday in Wall Street while in Paris, investors will have one more day to rest.