When is Boxing Day?
To all you non British people, this post may make little sense.
When is Boxing Day? The popular answer is December 26th. Which is usually true. What most people don't realise is that Boxing Day is a mobile holiday. Technically it occurs on the first weekday after Christmas Day. Boxing Day could conceivably fall on December 27th or 28th then.
It gets better though. If a bank holiday falls on a non-working day (another holiday or a weekend) the next day becomes a bank holiday. This is why most people don’t realise Boxing Day moves, they think it’s just the bank holiday status that moves. But it also leads to a peculiar situation. If Christmas is on a Saturday or Sunday, the Monday afterwards is Boxing Day and therefore a bank holiday. The Tuesday is then also a bank holiday because of the lost holiday of Christmas Day – after Boxing Day.
How strange.
Comments
3 Comments on When is Boxing Day?
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RyanC on
Fri, 26th May 2006 12:56 am
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Oliver on
Fri, 26th May 2006 8:26 am
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Jon on
Tue, 1st Aug 2006 2:53 pm
I like it – more bank holidays means more paid days off!
< ![CDATA[We have fewer bank holidays than most of Europe. Some people have suggested new bank holidays including Britian Day and European Day.
Of course if we get too many then more places will ask you to work through them :P]]>
< ![CDATA[Boxing Day doesn't actually move - it's always the 26th December! But of course, you knew that!!
The 'holiday' for Christmas is on a Monday-Friday following the 25th, and the 'holiday' for Boxing Day is on a Monday-Friday following the Christmas 'holiday'.
'Boxing Day' is of course the day after Christmas when society's servants are given a Christmas Box, that is a tip of some sort and wasn't originally a 'holiday' (as it isn't in Scotland), but became one because staff needed to recover from hangovers following Christmas (in Scotland it's Jan 2nd instead).
The good side of the floating Christmas & Bank holidays for those that work over the Christmas period, it provides a nice 3 or 4 day holiday instead of the meanie 2 days!
My only complaint about Bank Holidays in general is there seems to be an acute shortage of Bank Holidays between August and Christmas! I thought the idea of an October Day (21) was a good idea, but nothing appears to have came of it :-(]]>