What is a bank hoilday? Im from america visiting the uk?

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J B

A Bank Holiday is a given holiday, I suppose a bit like your day off for July 04 (maybe). Some people are not required to work, some get extra pay for working, and some work normally. Some shops close, some open, some places operate like a Sunday.

Easter Monday (is a Bank Holiday)

May day (is a Bank Holiday)

Boxing Day (26 December is a Bank Holiday)

5th Earl of Daveshire

Its when most businesses are closed for the day. The origin is that because banks closed, other businesses couldn't operate either. All this is no longer necessary, its a tradition that's been kept. So everything shuts down and we all go to the pub.

The Tank

Reference your Additional Details: I'm not surprised that some people don't know why British Public Holidays are called Bank Holidays. The general ignorance of a few people appals me; and I'm a patriotic Englishman!

You only have to look at the atrocious grammar and spelling on this Answers Forum to see who slept through school.

Most people DO know what it's about though, as the Answers that you do have show. A Bank Holiday is what the English call a public holiday.

It is a national day off (usually, but not always, a Monday) when traditionally cars choke the roads, the railways close for "permanent way works", airports fill up, and it belts down with rain. We love it!

In "olden days" (from Victorian times onwards) the High Street banks used to be open 6 days a week from 9 am to 5 pm. This was excellent to satisfy their commerical as well as private customers.

On the Monday closest to certain specified Holy Festival days (but not the Patron Saint days) the banks did not open their doors. The exceptions to the religious holidays are New Year's Day (in England and Wales, Scotland also has the 2nd January) and May Day, which is a politically based day off introduced by the Labour Government in the 1960's.

This gave most of the banks' branch office staff a "long weekend" and enabled some financial "stock taking" to be done.
Because most businessess took their cash to the banks on a daily basis they were stuck when the banks took their "holiday". So, everyone else took a day off too.

In the 1960s banks gradually stopped Saturday opening and also limited their weekday hours to 10 am - 4.40 pm. Which was a really bad idea. Now most bigger bank branches are open Saturday morning.

The rest of the world followed the trend and introduced their own Public Holidays to mark special national or religious days.

Microsoft Outlook's Calendar has an option to display the UK public holidays, but perhaps not on the USA version.

mark m

We have in the UK two bank holidays during the month of May, 1st is May Day ( UK& Rep, Ireland ) the second one is White Sunday- Pentecost, which is tomorrow and we having Monday off for it.

The Ghost

A bank holiday is where all the banks take one day off (usually a monday but can be a friday) because most of the business's and ordinary people depend on the banks and because we can not get to our money we take a day off as well

Tony

in england it is a one day national holiday...usually a monday.

.Lizzie.

Usually we take a day off, like Monday or Friday. Pretty much all the shops close or are late opening and early closing.

waldo_mcginty

A public holiday as in 4th of July, Labor Day etc.Don't panic though most shops and pubs etc. stay open .

Mommad

It's a day off! yay!. I think it started off as literally a bank holiday - for people that worked in banks to take a day off and so other people couldn't work because they needed the banks.

Kevan M

A Bank Holiday only happens on Mondays except for Good Friday and is quite like your Public Holidays, most Industry shuts down for 1 extra day and most over places either work to a Saturday or Sunday hours trading, everyone who does not have to work goes silly and stocks up with food and booze, take a day trip to the beach or attraction, clog the roads or take a risk on Public Transport to try and get somewhere, start Holidays if they have Children around then (A BankHoliday will normally be the start of Half Term or School Holidays), many villages in the Summer will have there Fetes then and in the larger towns Carnivals.
Quite frankly Bank Holidays are a just a more stressful time for those of us who do have to work and a waste on most people.

Cynical_Si

This Sunday is Whitsun, which has some significance to the bible. But a bank holiday is just the general name for something like Martin Luther King, or Thanksgiving.

Its a Monday that we have off work, where the banks are also closed.

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