Bank holiday: Is today Whitsun, what is the origin of today's bank holiday?

Today is the fifth - or sixth if you are Scottish - bank holiday of the year. It’s one of the days off work that was codified by first the Bank Holidays Act of 1871, and then the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971, which is now the legal basis for shops’ and businesses’ closures.

As with many aspects of British history, our bank holidays are often the result of blending Christian and pagan - and other - traditions. Here’s the story behind the spring bank holiday.

What is today’s bank holiday?

Today’s bank holiday was originally known as Whitsun, which in Christian teaching is the day of the Pentecost. The Pentecost was when the Holy Spirit descended upon Christ’s disciples, and became commemorated 50 days after Easter.

Originally, though, Whitsun was a literally a moveable feast, dictated as it was by when Easter fell. Because there was such a large window for it, to make things more simple the 1971 Act renamed it the spring bank holiday and ruled that it should fall on the final Monday in May. Since then it has coincided with school half-terms in England and Wales. Despite its new-ish name, it is still known informally by many as the Whitsun bank holiday, even though this year Whitsun fell on Sunday, May 19.

Historically, what happened on Whitsun?

As well as marking a Christian festival, the week of Whitsuntide took on some features of the pagan spring festival of Beltane. Those tenant farmers who worked for the lord of the manor had a break from work, as a break in the farming year took advantage of the gap between sowing and harvesting. Later Whitsuntide traditions included children being given a new set of clothes.

There were also many “fairground-like” traditions. Wrestling and archery, as well trying to catch a greased pig were common, and Whitsun was a common time to see Morris and Maypole dancing. One tradition that continues to this day, transplanted to the spring bank holiday rather than Whitsun, is cheese-rolling, most famously - and dangerously - seen at Cooper’s Hill in Gloucestershire.

Why is it called Whitsun?

Whitsun is short for "White Sunday" - although it is also noted that “hwitmonedei” appears in the early 13th-century Ancrene Riwle. There are some interpretations that it was white because the young women of the parish came to church in new white dresses that day - see the tradition above of new clothes. But there is also a school of though that said the Holy Spirit brought “wit” - as in wisdom - to the disciples and that is what was being commemorated.