US vs. UK Holidays

Mem

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I know you guys call vacations holidays, so what do you call Holidays? :biggrin1:

What different holidays do you have? You obviously don't have 4th of July and Thanksgiving. Do you have something similar to Memorial Day and Labor Day to start and end the summer season?

Do you guys have Halloween, if so is it on October 31st?

You obviously have New Years Eve and Christmas and Easter.

We have Presidents day and Martin Luther King day, do you guys celebrate any holidays honoring similar people (Queen's Birthday, etc)?
 

mitchymo

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Apart from the obvious xmas, new year and easter:-

Yes halloween and on 31st oct

We celebrate bonfire night on 5th nov
remembrance day on 11th nov

St patricks day
st georges day (not widespread)

We have numerous bank holidays but they are not celebration days, just days given to the public in honor of a specific event in the past but lots of people still work those days.

I cant think of any other days which we celebrate but April fools day we have pranks played on each other and there is mothering sunday and fathers day
 
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We do have the Queen's birthday yep - but it's not a day off work.

We have Remembrance Day on November 11th for all the soldiers who've died in action, etc.

We have Halloween (Oct 31) and Guy Fawkes/Bonfire Night (Nov 5th I think - everyone has bonfires - remembers the time Guy Fawkes almost blew up the Houses of Parliament in the 1600s, lol).

We also have various Bank Holidays - one at the beginning and one at the end of May - and also one at the end of August. :)
 

D_Jared Padalicki

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Not from the UK here, but when you US guys celebrate Halloween, we have free because it's first 'All Saints' day' and then 'All souls' day'
I'm from Belgium, so we have free on the 21st of July because that is our National day. Wel also have bankholidays, day of labour at the first of May.

And then a few others I can't come up with at the moment.
 

kalipygian

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Most of the rest of the world except the US celebrates labor day on the anniversary of the haymarket riots in Chicago, the first of May.
 

Mem

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Not from the UK here, but when you US guys celebrate Halloween, we have free because it's first 'All Saints' day' and then 'All souls' day'
I'm from Belgium, so we have free on the 21st of July because that is our National day. Wel also have bankholidays, day of labour at the first of May.

And then a few others I can't come up with at the moment.

Halloween in the U.S. is not an official holiday where banks and government offices are closed.
 
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We have Mayday cos it's an old pagan thing i think :s

Yup Mem - Halloween isnt a public holiday here either. All the bank holidays are plus easter friday and monday - xmas n new year.

Piet - grrr..so u lot get a holiday on Halloween then? :p
 

JF

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The holidays in the UK vary from country to country as follows :

England & Wales have 8 statutory holidays :

New Year's Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, Early May Bank Holiday (1st Monday in May), Spring Bank Holiday Monday (Last Monday in May), Summer Bank Holiday (Last Monday in August), Christmas Day & Boxing Day (26th December). When New Years Day, Christmas Day & Boxing Day fall on weekends, the official dates for the bank holidays move to the next week-days.

Northern Ireland have the above plus St Patrick's Day (17th March) and Battle of the Boyne (12th July).

Scotland have almost the same as England & Wales except no Easter Monday Bank Holiday, but with 2nd January and St Andrew's Day (30th November) as holidays. Some holidays can also apply based on local tradition.

As you can see, we're not that adventurous in naming our Bank Holidays and we don't get that many in comparison to other countries. Also, we don't all get our country's patron saint's day off (23rd April for St George / England or 1st March for St David / Wales).

As for special situations, the most recent special Bank Holidays were for the Royal Wedding in 1981, the Millennium holiday in 1999 and the Queen’s Golden Jubilee in 2002 - so they don't come around too often !
 

D_Jared Padalicki

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Piet - grrr..so u lot get a holiday on Halloween then? :p

Halloween is All Souls' day, so not free then, but on the 1st of November when we celebrate All Saints' day we have the day off.

We also have free on 'the day that our lord went too heaven' free (I really have no clue how u would say it in English :tongue:), that date change every year because of the Christian Calendar. Also free on the 11th of June that is because it's the celebration of the Flemish Community.

Also free tomorrow the first of June because we celebrate Whitsuntide.

That's about it I guess lol. Those are good reasons to be Christian in Belgium :rolleyes:
 

SpeedoGuy

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We have Remembrance Day on November 11th for all the soldiers who've died in action, etc.

The US Nov 11th national commemorative day is now called "Veteran's Day" in honor of military veterans, although Nov 11th was previously called "Armistice Day" to commemorate the end of WWI. I don't know when the government changed the name although I suspect it was sometime after the second WW iteration.
 

DaveyR

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We have many holidays and fiesta days here in Spain. There is at least one every month and sometimes we have two in the same week but never consequetive days. They vary by region and local area.

This month for example was labour day on May 1st. Fiesta de la Cruz on May 3rd and Canarian Day yesterday on May 30th (huge Fiesta)

Christmas day is celebrated as per what we are used to on December 25th but January 6th (Kings Day) is when the kids traditionally get their presents and it is accepted as a bigger celebration than December 25th. It was the day the 3 Kings arrived with gifts.

It's amusing to us Brits who live in Spain and are used to our sparse bank holidays to see a fiesta on a Monday and a Wednesday and not much happening in between workwise. God bless the Spanish :smile:
 

BiItalianBro

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I have had the experience of spending two Easters in the U.K. and man...it was WILD!! It was like the town was letting loose after Lent. Easter in the US and Latin America is a bit more solemn. Is that typical of the U.K. or was it because my layover hotel was in Brighton? :rolleyes:
 

hud01

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We have Remembrance Day on November 11th for all the soldiers who've died in action, etc.
November 11th is called veterans day here and it is now only a holiday for a few and school kids.

The date is when WWI ended. The armistice was signed in the 11th month, on the 11th day, at the 11th hour
 

D_Cock_Hudson

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I'd like the UK to have November 11th as a holiday so we don't forget those who've died in war.

Have to say I enjoyed being in Belgium on Shrove Tuesday for the Binche carnival.
 

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Scotland have almost the same as England & Wales except no Easter Monday Bank Holiday, but with 2nd January and St Andrew's Day (30th November) as holidays. Some holidays can also apply based on local tradition.

Not quite as simple as that. Holidays even differ between some cities - Edinburgh and Glasgow trade holidays for instance. St. Andrews Day isn't an additional holiday - banks aren't required to close and employers can choose to substitute a local holiday in place of the 30th November.
 

D_Ivana Dickenside

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You obviously don't have 4th of July and Thanksgiving.

well they technically do have a 4th of july but it just isn't a national holiday in the UK.


Halloween in the U.S. is not an official holiday where banks and government offices are closed.

the month of october would be so much better if halloween was an official holiday :frown1: oh well...
 

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well they technically do have a 4th of july but it just isn't a national holiday in the UK.

LMAO!

I wish we had Thanksgiving - it acts as a great demarcation for Christmas. Honestly, we get bombarded with Christmas adverts from the middle of October.