[See BANK sb.3 and HOLIDAY.] A day on which banks are legally closed, so as to afford a holiday to those employed in them. (Bills payable on these days are paid on the following day.)
Certain Saints’ days and anniversaries, to the number in all of about 33 days per annum, were kept as Holidays at the Bank of England. In 1834 these holidays were reduced to Good Friday, the 1st of May, 1st of November, and Christmas Day. By Sir John Lubbock’s Act, passed in 1871, the following bank-holidays were constituted in Great Britain: In England and Ireland, Easter Monday, Whit Monday, the first Monday in August, the 26th of December (Boxing Day); in Scotland, New Year’s Day, the first Monday in May, the first Monday in August, Christmas Day. When any of these days falls on Sunday, the Monday following is the bank-holiday.
1871. Act 34 Vict., xvii. (title), An Act to make provision for Bank Holidays.
1879. Jefferies, Wild Life in S. Co., 103. These two main fairs are the Bank Holidays of rural life.
