Public & Bank Holidays in UK 2018 - 2019 - 2020
The holidays for 2018, 2019 and 2020 in UK are listed below
| United Kingdom (UK) | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Official, public bank holidays | |||
| New Year's Day | 1st January | 1st January | 1st January |
| Good Friday | 30th March | 19th March | 10th April |
| Easter Monday | 2nd April | 22nd April | 12th April |
| Early May bank holiday | 7th May | 6th May | 4th May |
| Spring bank holiday | 28th May | 27th May | 25th May |
| Summer bank holiday | 27th August | 26th August | 31st August |
| Christmas Day | 25th December | 25th December | 25th December |
| Boxing Day, St Stephen's Day (off.) | 26th December | 26th December | 26th December |
| Local or regional holidays for 2018, 2019 and 2020 | |||
| 2nd January (Scotland only) | 2nd January | 2nd January | 2nd January |
| St Patrick’s Day (Northern Ireland only) | 17th March | 17th March | 17th March |
| Battle of the Boyne (Orangemen’s Day) (Northern Ireland only) | 12th July | 12th July | 12th July |
| Summer bank holiday (Scotland only) | 6th August | 5th August | 3rd August |
| St Andrew’s Day (Scotland only) | 30th November | 30th November | 30th November |
| *Note: | |||
| if a bank holiday is on a weekend, a ‘substitute’ weekday becomes a bank holiday, normally the following Monday. | |||
| Observances and Celebrations in UK, 2018 - 2019 - 2020 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 |
| Epiphany | 6th January | 6th January | 6th January |
| Valentine's Day | 14th February | 14th February | 14th February |
| Carnival/Shrove Tuesday | 13th February | 5th March | 25th February |
| Carnival/Ash Wednesday | 14th February | 6th March | 26th February |
| Chinese New Year | 16th February | 5th February | 25th January |
| St.David's Day (Wales only) | 1st March | 1st March | 1st March |
| Mothering Sunday | 11th March | 31st March | 22nd March |
| March equinox | 20th March | 20th March | 20th March |
| Palm Sunday | 25th March | 14th April | 5th April |
| Holy Saturday | 31st March | 20th April | 11th April |
| St.George's Day | 23th April | 23th April | 23th April |
| Shakespeare Day | 23th April | 23th April | 23th April |
| Ramadan begins | 16th May | 4th June | 24th April |
| June Solstice | 21st June | 21st June | 21st June |
| Father's Day | 17th June | 16th June | 21st June |
| September equinox | 22nd September | 22nd September | 22nd September |
| Yom Kippur | 19th September | 10th October | 28th September |
| Halloween | 31st October | 31st October | 31st October |
| All Saints' Day | 1st November | 1st November | 1st November |
| Guy Fawkes Day | 5th November | 5th November | 5th November |
| Remembrance Sunday | 11th November | 10th November | 8th November |
| Diwali/Deepavali | 7th November | 27th October | 14th October |
| First Sunday of Advent | 2nd December | 1st December | 29th November |
| December Solstice | 21st December | 21st December | 21st December |
| Christmas Eve | 24th December | 24th December | 24th December |
| New Year's Eve | 31st December | 31st December | 31st December |
Bank Holidays and Observances in UK
Bank Holiday is the term used to refer to public holiday in United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland).It is also used on some other Countries which were part of the Commonwealth.
At the beginning, the bank holidays were those days in which the banks were closed, so, the only persons who benefited of them were the banks' workers.Later, the bank holidays were extended to other work branches and, nowadays, they are proclaimed each year by a royal proclamation.
Substitute holidays
This aspect is very important because, when a bank holiday falls on a weekend (Saturday or Sunday), the holiday itself is moved to the next working day, usually a Monday.Like this, a bank holiday is never lost.The deferred bank holiday day is commonly knows as “bank holiday in lieu”, but it's formal name is: “substitute day”. That's why, on our yearly calendar, you will find both the official and substitute day, if any.If this happens, it means that a bank holiday falls on a weekend day and, therefore, a substitute day is needed to grant the right to off work, or extra pay for working on these days to the workers, of course depending on their own contract.
Local or regional holidays in UK
The substitute day, sometimes, is also used for local or regional holidays in UK.In effect, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland benefit of public holiday which are their own.Being these holidays official, even if local or regional, a substitute day is used if they fall on a weekend day, exactly as for the official holidays that involve the whole Country.Speaking of regional holidays, the greatest number of differences involves Scotland.In this country, for example, Easter Monday is not a holiday and Summer Bank Holiday falls on the first Monday of August, instead of falling on the last Monday of the same month, as it happens in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Occurrences and celebrations
Of course, being UK a big Country with people coming from all over the World, there are also a lot of occurrences which are not bank holiday.At the same time, they are very important events for the people and some of them are very much valued, such as Saint Valentine's Day, Halloween, Carnival or New Year's Eve (for their commercial nature), or Mothering Sunday and Father's Day.Some other occurrences are strictly related to Christian, Hebrew and Muslim people, such as Christmas Eve, Yom-Kippur or the beginning of Ramadan.
We tried to summarize the most important among them, to give you a very simple and schematic chart to be consulted any time.