Britain has fewer public holidays than almost any comparable country — eight a year in England and Wales, against eleven federal holidays in the United States and far more in most of Europe. The British complain about this regularly and nothing ever changes.
The dates
- New Year’s Day — 1 January
- Good Friday — the Friday before Easter
- Easter Monday — the Monday after
- Early May Bank Holiday — first Monday in May
- Spring Bank Holiday — last Monday in May
- Summer Bank Holiday — last Monday in August
- Christmas Day — 25 December
- Boxing Day — 26 December
Scotland swaps things around: it gets 2 January and St Andrew’s Day, and takes its summer holiday in early August rather than late. Northern Ireland adds St Patrick’s Day and the Twelfth of July.
Why they are always Mondays
Deliberately, to make a three-day weekend. When a fixed-date holiday like Christmas or New Year falls on a Saturday or Sunday, a substitute day is granted on the following weekday — so the country never loses one to the weekend. This is why some years produce an odd-looking run of holidays in late December.
What actually happens
Banks, offices, schools and government close. Most shops stay open, though large ones in England and Wales are limited to six hours by Sunday trading rules when the holiday falls appropriately. Public transport runs a Sunday timetable, which catches people out constantly.
The traditional bank holiday activities are: sitting in traffic on the way to the coast, going to a garden centre or a DIY shop, holding a barbecue in unsuitable weather, and watching it rain. British bank holiday weather is a national joke of long standing and reasonably solid statistical foundation.
Extra ones
Additional bank holidays are declared for major royal events — jubilees, the funeral of Elizabeth II, the coronation of Charles III. These are genuinely popular, and each one revives the argument that Britain should simply have more of them permanently. It never gets anywhere, but it is a reliable part of the ritual.