Public Holidays - Information, Everyday Tips

Public Holidays

The Brits are generally quite keen on their public holidays, though not as keen as some other countries where it sometimes seems that every other weekend carries a bonus.

In Britain we limit ours to eight, nine in Scotland. The reason for this is that the Scots, who have a great predilection for celebrating the New Year, require an extra day's recovery time and to be fair they frequently ignore Boxing Day which they tend to regard as a piece of Sassenach over-indulgence.

With varying degrees of effectiveness everything grinds to a halt on these days. Of them all it is fair to say that the standstill is most all-embracing on Christmas Day and New Year's Day. Even the pubs close at Christmas. At New Year you need tickets to get in to some of them.

On most of the other holidays the leisure industry is in top gear, public transport is available and traffic-jams are legendary.

Holiday	Countries	2005	2006
New Years Day	UK, RI	1st Jan	1st Jan
Holiday	Scotland	2nd Jan	2nd Jan
St. Patrick's Day	RI	17th March	17th March
Bank Holiday	NI	17th March	25th March
Good Friday	UK	9th April	28th March
Easter Monday	UK, RI	12th April	2nd April
May Day	UK, RI	3rd May	5th May
Spring Holiday	UK	31st May	30th May
Holiday	RI	7th June	6th June
Orangeman's Day	NI	12th July	12th July
Holiday	Scotland, RI	2nd Aug	1st Aug
Late Summer Holiday	UK	30th Aug	29th Aug
Holiday	RI	25th Oct	31st Aug
Christmas Day	UK, RI	25th Dec	25th Dec
Boxing Day	UK	26th Dec	26th Dec
St. Stephen's Day	RI	26th Dec	26th Dec
UK = England, Scotland, Wales & Northern Ireland RI = Republic of Ireland NI = Northern Ireland