please empty your brain below
When you have retired from work every day seems like a Bank Holiday.

Robert | 25.08.25 - 11:15 a.m. | #

A long stretch of no bin collection disruption then!
(eyes the bins sitting untouched at the end of the driveway for another 24 hours)

Cornish Cockney | 25.08.25 - 11:43 a.m. | #

Trafalgar Day has frequently been put forward to fill that autumn gap, but it was really just an imperial battle somewhere else. Armada Day might work as it was an invasion, and might have changed history as it was before the industrial revolution. However, it was in May! Something to relate to the industrial revolution, as it directly effected the British Empire, democracy and the country's prosperity. And why those not of Celtic/Saxon/Viking/Norman decent are here today. Perhaps Iron Bridge Day? Oh, January it opened, but you get the idea.

Apuldram | 25.08.25 - 2:25 p.m. | #

Does a holiday need a historical basis?

Anonymous | 25.08.25 - 3:26 p.m. | #

Is Good Friday actually a Bank Holiday? I think it is a Public Holiday, not a Bank Holiday.

dg writes: it's a bank holiday.

Mr Jif | 25.08.25 - 5:01 p.m. | #

The long gap can be broken if there's a significant royal family event. Then the government might announce a bonus bank holiday.

MA | 25.08.25 - 5:04 p.m. | #

The House of Commons Library has recently researched public and bank holidays.

They say "The phrase ‘bank holiday’ is often used to refer to a combination of what are legally ‘bank holidays’ and ‘public holidays’."

According to the report, Christmas Day and Good Friday are "common law" public holidays except in Scotland.

ap | 25.08.25 - 5:38 p.m. | #

Most royal weddings and coronations happen in the summer.

We could revert to having Edward the Confessor as England's patron saint, instead of the mythical Turkish dragon-slayer (adopted by the (Welsh) Tudors as Patron Saint of "England-and-Wales" - but largely ignored by the Welsh in faviour of their home-grown Saint David)

Edward the Confessor's saint's day is October 13th, conveniently close to halfway between August and Christmas. Unfortunately, October 13th is also Margaret Thatcher's birthday.

Another Patron saint of England is St Edmund - as in Bury St... - whose day is November 20th - but no sensible country would have a public holiday in late November - would they?

timbo | 25.08.25 - 5:39 p.m. | #

n.b. that's the sixth time Timbo has suggested 13th October could be a bank holiday (and likely won't be the last).

diamond geezer | Homepage | 25.08.25 - 5:46 p.m. | #

I'm thinking royal funerals.

MA | 25.08.25 - 5:50 p.m. | #

You've made me think of how it happens in Ireland. We now have a public holiday in early February*, so the gap between NYD and St. Patrick's Day is gone.

Every month** except July, September and November, has a public holiday now.

Off the top of my head, from the first Monday in August to the last Monday in October is the longest gap.

*A very strange addition, it occurs on the first Monday in February, except if the 1st February lands on a Friday, which is then the day off.

** Unless Easter Monday is in March, then April will have none.

damoirl | 25.08.25 - 6:16 p.m. | #

And yes, it is the gap between the first Monday in August and the last Monday in October.

The shortest gap of 84 days occurs every year, except for the years when August 1st and October 31st both fall on a Monday (those years give a maximum 91-day gap).

damoirl | 25.08.25 - 6:58 p.m. | #

In Canada they just started popping things in the calendar and giving them whatever name. "Family Day," and "Civic Holiday." Plus, the provinces can add in or name them different.

My experience is most people don't really care what the reason is, or what it's called, they just like a long weekend.

Greg | 25.08.25 - 7:13 p.m. | #

I put my vote in for Canadian Thanksgiving. As a concept, it's a good end-of-harvest, family get-together occasion. And it's not the American version, which must rank it several points higher if only for not being associated in any way whatsoever with Christmas shopping.

Chz | 26.08.25 - 7:53 a.m. | #

A ‘Thatcher Day’ Bank Holiday. What a splendid idea, as it might erase some of the remaining resentment!

Roehamster | 26.08.25 - 7:55 a.m. | #











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