The Unpredictability of Bank Holidays

My German parents never came to terms with the dates of the non-religious British bank holidays and were surprised every year that the first and last Mondays in May are bank/public holidays, plus the last Monday in August. But no Whitsun or saints days! Also, why are they called ‘bank’ holidays? So I’ve decided to look into it:

In most other countries, public holidays generally align with religious festivals. The UK has those holidays too: Christmas and Easter. However, before 1871, only Sundays, Good Friday and Christmas Day were nationwide holidays in the UK. Any other days off throughout the year were largely rooted in rural and farming traditions, such as May Day, and often varied from region to region.

In 1871, former banker Sir John Lubbock introduced the Bank Holiday Act because he wanted to add a few more holidays for the nation who was toiling hard on farms and in factories. Most employers could already give their workers time off if they wished, but banks were legally required to make payment if holders of bills demanded it and therefore had to stay open. The new Act allowed the banks to close too on those extra days, which is why the days were called ‘bank holidays’.

Then in 1875, another Act made 27 December a bank holiday if 26 December fell on a Sunday. This is why, in the UK, if Christmas Day and/or Boxing Day fall on a weekend, the following weekday(s) are a bank holiday.

It turns out the last Monday in May started life as the Whit May bank holiday and didn’t move to the last Monday in May until the 1971 Banking and Financial Dealings Act, which also moved the August bank holiday from the first to the last Monday in August (except in Scotland). This came after the government started a consultation in 1965 to see if they could extend the holiday season to avoid congestion at peak holiday times.

New Year’s Day was added as a bank holiday in 1974 for England, Wales and Northern Ireland (it had been a bank holiday in Scotland since 1871), while Scotland gained the Boxing Day bank holiday. Then in 1978, the first Monday in May became a bank holiday (except in Scotland where it had been a bank holiday since 1871).

But how many bank holidays you get very much depends on where in the UK you live. England and Wales have only 8 bank holidays, one of the lowest numbers in the world. Scotland has 9 (no Easter Monday but 2 January, Hogmanay, and 30 November, St. Andrew’s Day, are bank holidays) and Northern Ireland has 10 (all the England and Wales bank holidays plus St. Patrick’s Day on 17 March and Battle of the Boyne Day on 12 July).

As an aside, if you like bank holidays, Nepal has the highest number in the world with 35 and Liechtenstein the highest number in Europe with 20.

Also important to note for those looking to work in the UK: make sure that time off for bank holidays is explicitly stated in your employment contract as UK workers have no automatic right to take them off! Instead, employers need to add them to an employee’s statutory holiday allowance.

Now you just need to learn what to do on a bank holiday in the UK: going to garden centres and DIY stores is very popular, as is having a BBQ or going on a trip to the seaside. If you want to practise, there’s another bank holiday coming up at the end of May.