British Billy explains the British Bank Holiday

  • Published
  • By British Billy
  • ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH, England
ROYAL AIR FORCE LAKENHEATH,England --  We all get excited about holidays, and I am no exception. A bank holiday is guaranteed to put a bounce in my paws and a twitch in my tail, as it will usually mean a long weekend break when the family is at home and I get extra attention.

There are two bank holidays in the merry month of May - May Day, or the early May Bank Holiday, and the Spring Bank Holiday, which is the last Monday in May. In spite of the capricious British weather, many people use bank holidays to go away for a long weekend. This means that museums and other public attractions such as historic houses, zoos, sports centres and the like remain open. But it also means that the traffic on British roads can be horrendous, often exacerbated by essential road works or engineering work on the railways.

But why are they called bank holidays, I was asked by a puzzled American pal?

We can thank Sir John Lubbock for introducing bank holidays. A banker who became a Member of Parliament, he pledged to secure additional holidays for workers. He introduced the Bank Holidays Act in 1871 which designated holidays on Boxing Day (the day after Christmas), Easter Monday, Whit Monday (the Monday after Whitsun or Pentecost) and the first Monday in August. Christmas Day and Good Friday were traditional days of rest and Christian worship so they were not included in the Act.

The reason we call them 'bank' holidays is because they are days on which banks, by royal proclamation, may close for business. The law makes provision for certain payments to be deferred until the next appropriate day for this purpose.

Over the years there have been changes, and there is some variation between the different nations that form the United Kingdom. There are currently eight permanent bank holidays in England and Wales and nine in Scotland. In Northern Ireland, there are 10 permanent bank holidays - the same eight as in England and Wales, plus St. Patrick's Day and the Anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Sir John Lubbock is reputed to have been a wise and tender-hearted fellow, who once said, "Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."

As one who does a lot of lying around in contemplation, which some mistakenly believe to be sleep, I heartily concur. Such times of deep thought are the very wellspring of my wisdom.

When you lead the kind of hectic life that I do, it's good to have a break occasionally. Keeping myself at the peak of mental and physical health is a top priority in this dog-eat-dog world we live in. I much prefer a cat-eat-mouse world.