Britain doesn’t have a national holiday – we have no Bastille Day, no Independence Day, no Founder’s Day: instead we have Christmas.
Christmas in Britain, and most particularly in England, is the biggest party season of the year. Christmas Day itself, the start of the great holiday period, is the one day in the year on which the head of state – the King – speaks to the nation. Christmas Day is the high point of a festive period that lasts at least two days, but depending on the calendar, can become a holiday period of up to nine days, and one which people have been getting ready for up to two months.
The essential Christmas holiday in England can be up to four days off in a row. Not only is Christmas Day, December 25th, a public holiday, but so is the day after Christmas, December 26th, known as Boxing Day. In addition, according to a now-established tradition, if one or both of these holidays fall on a Saturday or Sunday, Britons enjoy one or two extra days of public holidays on the Monday and possibly on the Tuesday that follow.
In 2023, December 25th being a Monday, most activity in Britain except shopping will close down from some time on Friday December 22nd to Tuesday 26th inclusive. Some firms let their employees off as from the evening of December 23rd, and until the morning of January 2nd. As for public transport, services are considerably reduced during the two days of 25th and 26th December.
Among the major activities of modern Christmas in Britain, the Winter sales are particularly important. In Britain, people do not need to wait until January, the winter sales begin in England on 26th or 27th December, if not before, because stores are free to have Sales as and when they want ….. and notably to organize them when the people are still on holiday, not after the holiday period ends. Throughout the Christmas and New year period, stores are always full – to the point that gift-vouchers have become a popular form of Christmas present, allowing the recipient to buy the gift they really want, and make the most of the bargains that are to be had in the Christmas – New Year sales period.
Even if shopping is now a more important part of Christmas for most people than remembering the nativity of Christ, the origins of Christmas as a Christian festival are not forgotten. In many public and private schools, especially at primary level, the “nativity play”, a theatrical staging of the birth of Christ, remains an important event in the calendar; and according to a recent ORB (Opinion Research Business) survey, over a third of the UK population attends a Christmas Mass or a carol service during the Christmas period – far more than the 3% or 4% of the population that are regular church-goers.
Richard
HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR