01.05.2026

Long weekend

This is a weekend of public holidays, most of Europe is off today for May Day, including our team in Germany, while the UK, often the odd one out, is taking Monday off instead.

This means that on Friday, our German news service will be quiet while our English language editors and staff will be off duty on Monday. Normal service for both teams will resume by Tuesday. We will continue monitoring the market for any critical or time sensitive news reports.
We will return to usual working hours on Monday 4th May in Germany and Tuesday 5th in the UK

Have a great weekend - The Vertikal Team

May Day two different origins
May Day is a European festival of ancient origins marking the beginning of summer, around halfway between the Northern Hemisphere's spring equinox and midsummer solstice. Festivities were often held the night before on May Eve. Traditions included gathering green branches and wildflowers - to ‘bring in the May’ - which were used to decorate buildings and made into wreaths. In the UK, at least, it also included crowning a May Queen in all her greenery, setting up a Maypole, May Tree, or May Bush, with ribbons around which people danced and sang.

While older readers may recall dancing around the Maypole, most will associate today with International Workers' Day - May Day, which has a totally different history.