Perceiving work competition as a strategic practice of a selected social system the author of the article examines the relationship between work competition and (public) holidays in the period of the first five-year economic plat of the Socialist Federal Rebublic of Yugoslavia (1947-1952). This relationship was mutual and similarly as in other socialist countries centrally planned as well as directed: holidays helped spreading the idea of competitive way of working as well as they helped structuring (working) time. On the other hand work competition helped rooting the new system of public holidays as well as it also structured and shaped holidays.