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Original poster

Half term didn't used to exist did it?

238 replies

EthicalNonMahogany · 09/04/2022 09:51

I feel gaslit by the world! The number of people who are saying to me "oh, at school we always used to call the Easter, Christmas and summer break half term". No you didn't! You used to call it the Easter holidays. It was the holiday that happens at the end of term.

"Half term" used to happen three times a year and was the week off, half way through each term.

I know there have been threads on this before - I'm not disputing that many people now call all the holidays half term. It seems to be the thing now. (Stupid and inaccurate as it may be, but I shall endeavour to cope and life will go on Grin)

My AIBU is this - people are saying it was always that way. AIBU to say no it bloody wasn't!!

OP posts:
Seeline · 09/04/2022 10:05

I've only ever seen this daft idea that the end of term holidays are half term on MN. Until this holiday. The number of people that have asked whether my DD is on half term astounds me!

I am 54 and I always had week long half term breaks - surprisingly halfway through each term 😆

RussianSpy101 · 09/04/2022 10:05

Totally agree OP.
We’re currently on Easter holidays. Summer holidays and Christmas holidays are the correct terms 😂
The only difference is the May half term has always been known as spring bank round here.

ExplodingElephants · 09/04/2022 10:04

@SoManyTshirts Baker days 😆 When I used to use that term to my son he was like 🙄 Brings me back.

ExplodingElephants · 09/04/2022 10:03

No idea what you’re talking about but my son left school three years ago. Is this a very new thing?

SoManyTshirts · 09/04/2022 10:03

In my unreliable memory of the 60s and early 70s, half term was only 2 days (later extended with Baker days) and the other holidays were a bit longer.

dementedpixie · 09/04/2022 10:02

I'm in Scotland and don't think I've ever called any holidays a half term holiday. Easter holidays Christmas holidays, October week, September weekend, etc. Then various long weekends or random in service days

707smile · 09/04/2022 10:01

I'm in my 30s. At school in the 90s and 00s we had two half terms plus Christmas, Easter and six-weeks off for Summer.

merryhouse · 09/04/2022 10:00

Where are you hearing this?

I mean, come on, it's literally the name: half-term holiday.

Wasn't invariably a week though - where I grew up we had two or three days for at least one of them (definitely October, quite possibly all three) but we then had eight weeks in the summer.

But yes you're right: the December, March/April and July/August holidays are not half-term.

KitKattaktik · 09/04/2022 10:00

Totally agree. It's the Easter Holiday. After which another term starts.

PlinkPlankPlunk · 09/04/2022 09:59

Yes, I’ve only ever seen it called halfterm here on MN - except when it’s the holiday that is half way through the term… Right now it’s Easter holidays

hookiewookie29 · 09/04/2022 09:57

I'm 53. Summer holidays, Easter holidays, Christmas holidays- all end of yerm. Half term is halfway through those terms- February half term is halfway through the spring term,October half term is halfway through the autumn term, Whit week in May is halfway through the summer term.

BernadetteRostankowskiWolowitz · 09/04/2022 09:53

I suppose it depends on the age and location of those people. I was born mid eighties in England and we had 1 week half term and two weeks end of term/6 weeks summer. As it is now.

MiniatureHotdog · 09/04/2022 09:53

Yep. Halfterm is the one week off halfway through each term. At the end of each term is the Easter, Summer or Christmas holidays.

Mind you I only see people using halfterm incorrectly on MN, everyone I know in real life uses the right names.