Spring Bank Holidays

[diddlydo]

Isn't it about time to rationalise all these spring bank holidays in quick succession? We've only just had Easter, next Monday is a BH, to be followed 3 weeks later by another one. A good start would be to fix the so-called "Easter" one to mid-March - given that most people in this country aren't practising Christians it would make sense, especially as "Easter Monday" has no religious significance that I'm aware of.

[ichkeria]

Move a May one to June maybe. Good luck trying to cut people’s Easter holiday weekend short ...

[THECORBYLOON]

The 1928 Easter Act is available but is yet to come into force. If it were to, Easter would be the first Sunday after the second Saturday in April.

[237SJ]

Woofgang - I know. I worked over Easter and I will be working over Mayday and Whitsun. Lucky if I get Christmas off.

[fraser]

We should have st George's day as a bank holiday as wellwell

[Tilly2]

The more Bank Holidays, the better, I say.

[Cloverjo]

What about small businesses who have to pay staff when they’re not working? Tough on them.

I have to laugh when it’s decreed that everyone can have the day off because a Prince is getting married, or whatever. Some people have to keep working regardless.

[lankeela]

Why don't we call it Whitsun any more? I was talking about this yesterday and referred to it as Whit Sunday and someone asked me what that was.

[diddlydo]

It is a rare occasion when I agree with New Judge but in this case I do! Easter being linked to the phases of the moon is more than crazy. While we're re-arranging BHs , let's do it properly like e.g. the French who have their BHs on the actual day rather than the nearest Monday - they always celebrate their national holiday i.e. Bastille Day, 14th July on the actual day, not some random Monday. If we did the same everyone would have had the day off today May 1st (apart from emergency workers etc).

[New Judge]

"Why don't we call it Whitsun any more?"

Because it's the Christian festival of Pentecost which commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon Christ's disciples. For the same reason some local authorities have renamed Christmas "Winterfest" and others prefer to use the term "Spring Break" for the Easter Holidays. Strangely I don't see similar enthusiasm to rebrand Ramadan or Diwali.

[diddlydo]

Given the multicultural make-up of the UK we should have more BHs reflecting e.g. Chinese New Year, Diwali, Eidd etc rather than the majority of BHs tied to Christian beliefs.

[woofgang]

Cloverjo, have you not read Buenchico’s post? Bank holidays have no standing in law and employers don’t have to give them as paid holiday