Can anyone explain bank holidays/term dates in Scotland

[randomsabreuse]

Especially bank holidays because they seem not to be consistent across the entire country!

How do they work generally?

Are there half terms in all terms? East Dunbartonshire seems to have long weekends/half weeks other than Autumn term?

DH works in a university so has oddball holidays but how do bank holidays work with public sector and private sector jobs - will I hit a whole new level of childcare complexity when I get back to work.

I can deal with my child's holiday dates as they're published but really confused.

Is it just Glasgow that's weird?

Thanks!

Been up here for 14 years and it still confuses me!

Aberdeen had a local holiday on Monday but not Aberdeenshire although our GP surgery was shut.

It is confusing. We don't get Good Friday off for the schools or public sector here in Shetland.

So it looks like Christmas, Boxing Day, 1st and 2nd January are the only consistent dates across the whole of Scotland!

Actually January 2nd isn’t a given anymore and I work for a bank!!

I think I'm right in saying Christmas Day only became a public holiday in Scotland in 1957 or so. I've lived in Scotland 30 odd years and I'm still wrong footed by them. It's more heterogeneous than it used to be (most things are these days) but there used to be much more local variation in England and Wales too with different towns having different market days and works weeks.

I’m in my 50s, and it’s only fairly recently that we’ve used the term “bank holiday” in Scotland, and we only do it now because of the creep of English terms and concepts over the border. We had/have public holidays and local holidays. Banks also take some or all of these holidays as do butchers, bakers and candlestick makers.

Scottish Bank holidays 2020

I've always thought it a bit odd that Glasgow seem to have a long weekend just a couple of weeks before the October holidays.

We have 2 weeks in October and a Friday/Monday in February then a local holiday in June which is silly as it's only a couple of weeks before the summer break. One year it was tagged onto May Day weekend which made much more sense.

I think the September weekend is the historic holiday and the October week was added later to tie in with the parts of the country with two weeks.
I could be wrong but I think the summer holiday was reduced when the October week was added.

Holidays in Scotland make sense if you think of the central belt holidays being linked to holidays taken for the benefit of those who worked in traditional heavy industry, factories, domestic services etc and Holidays outwith the central belt being in line with the seasons and important harvesting dates.

Now that we all have children I really notice that my English friends know and love their Bank Holidays. I don’t know them or love them - I diary what the school tells me each year and then I deal with it. It’s a difference.

We still call the October break the tattie holidays because we used to pick tatties for local farmers when we were young many moons ago and hated every minute but the pay was very good

I think the confusion is partly mixing up Official bank holidays With school holidays etc.. the September weekend isn’t a bank holiday, the schools are just shut. The only difference on bank holiday is that Scotland has 2nd jan instead of Easter Monday in England. St Andrew’s day is also a holiday but pretty much no one recognises it and the schools aren’t off. These are standard across Scotland.

School holidays however are set by councils and aren’t tied to bank holidays at all.

I had assumed September was a school holiday then there was Facebook stuff saying "open/closed for the Bank Holiday" and I'm like what bank holiday? Which is how I got confused in the first place.

Yeah they’ve confused you then, it wasn’t a bank holiday. Just a holiday local
Businesses take because the schools are off.

Right so there's basically no nationwide bank holidays, big chains are probably open normal hours, other services/businesses might or might not be open and I need to look out for local holidays if I'm ever planning a day trip but the roads shouldn't be a total disaster...

So apart from school holidays (published) other holidays aren't really a big problem/exciting thing!

We get Good Friday, but not Easter Monday which may happen in term time. We have been known to go back after our "Easter holidays" and then get the Friday off if Easter is very late that year, Our last day of school is always the last Friday of March with the following 2 weeks off regardless of when Easter falls, so they shouldn't really be called Easter holidays

Technically, they're no longer called the "Easter Holidays". They're called the "Spring Break"

Most employers I've worked for have just added public holiday entitlement to my annual leave, and I've been able to take them whenever.

Before I had kids, I was generally completely unaware of bank holidays, and e.g. would only realise it was Easter Monday when the bus to work didn't turn up at the usual time.

@prettybird

Technically, they're no longer called the "Easter Holidays". They're called the "Spring Break"

Except for all us non school people who'd still say they are taking a week off at Easter :o

my Council took the September weekend for all office staff but schools were in - there really is no discernible pattern!!

and i think some of the comments about us all knowing how it works in England are a bit much, even after a couple of years living down south I still struggled with how many hours the 24-hr supermarkets shut at the weekend... and the first time i got chucked out of a pub at 10pm on a Friday I was mesmerised!

Wax - that's why I said "technically"

My last employer used to add all the "stats" (statutory holidays) onto our holiday allowance, to take when we wanted, with the exception of 3 days in England (25, 26 December, 1 January) and 4 days in Scotland (25, 26 December, 1 and 2 January), when the offices would be fully shut.

I'd assumed (from experience of living in England and France) plus film/Facebook type implications from US, Germany and Italy the bank holidays (or equivalent) were a thing everywhere, only variation was number and when.

Not in the shape they are in England. In lots of places you have significant days and you have time off on that date. If it falls on a Saturday or Sunday, then tough luck!

Sorry the significant days should probably be national holidays.

I've never heard of them being called Spring Break - how American

We always refer to them as the Easter holidays