"Bank Holidays" are holidays in which the right to a "day off" is enshrined in English Law. (Scotland has its own legislature, and its own Bank Holidays, and Wales, although it has an Assembly, is still governed by laws made in Westminster.)
On a Bank Holiday many businesses - and all banks - are closed to enable the workers to have a holiday, often spent on family activities (especially trips to the seaside or countryside) and those workers who do work on Bank Holidays usually get paid extra - "time-and-a-half" or even "double time," negotiated for them by the Trades Unions.
At present there are eight Bank Holidays in England, three around Christmas, four in spring, and the August Bank holiday. If any of the Christmas holidays happens to fall on a weekend (when workers would be off anyway) there is a day off in lieu - thus in 1999 / 2000, when Christmas Day and Boxing Day fell on a Saturday and a Sunday and New Year's Day was also on a Saturday, there were Bank Holidays on December 27th and 28th and January 3rd. For this year only, the Queen announced an extra Bank Holiday for New Year's Eve, December 31st 1999.
| New Year's Day | January 1st (unless on a weekend - see above) |
| Good Friday | A "moveable feast," the Friday before Easter Sunday |
| Easter Monday | A "moveable feast," the day after Easter Sunday |
| May Day | The Monday nearest May 1st |
| Spring Bank Holiday | Held on the last Monday in May. Also called Whit Monday, which is not always correct, Whit being a moveable feast. |
| August Bank Holiday | Last Monday in August "Bank Holiday Monday." |
| Christmas Day | December 25th (unless on a weekend - see above) |
| Boxing Day | December 26th (unless on a weekend - see above) |