England is one of the only countries not to get a day off for its national day.
Whether we like to admit it or not, St George’s Day is one of the most divisive days in the English calendar and, despite being a day of national celebration, it is, famously, not a bank holiday.
Pretty much every nation on Earth has a national day on which they celebrate cultural, identity and history and, for most of them, this comes with a day off work too.
The French enjoy Bastille Day (La Fête Nationale) on the 14 July, the Americans celebrate the 4 July and the Irish famously have St Patrick’s Day.
Even England’s noisy neighbours north of the border get St Andrew’s Day as a public holiday in Scotland.
In fact, only a handful of nations do not have a national day which is not observed as a public holiday.
These are notably England and Denmark.
Other countries do have national days as public holidays, however, often businesses stay open and people work.
If you’re looking at who gets the most holiday for a national day, that would be China, who get a week off for ‘Golden Week’.
So why isn’t St George’s Day a public holiday?
So, let’s address the red and white elephant in the room, why isn’t St George’s Day a public holiday?
Well, some argue it comes down to England’s past as a major part of the British Empire.
Over 60 nations enjoy a national day which celebrates independent from Britain.
Some suggest this makes it hard to celebrate English pride when everyone else is celebrating not being a colony of you anymore.
Meanwhile, the nature of the UK being made up of four nations also makes it tough for England, the largest of the constituent countries, to have a national day – although Scotland and Northern Ireland both get days off for their respective national holidays.
Ultimately, what it really comes down to, like everything in life, is money.
As per the UK Parliament website, the cost of a bank holiday to the UK economy is between £2 billion and £2.4 billion.
It read: “There are regular calls to introduce new bank holidays to mark events including sporting victories and saints’ days. The overall economic impact, likely to be a cost, associated with an additional bank holiday is hard to measure accurately, and estimates vary.
“In February 2022, the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport published an impact assessment of an additional bank holiday to mark Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee in June 2022. This estimated the cost to the economy, in terms of GDP, to be £2.4 billion.”
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