UK May bank holiday *2020* changed for VE Day anniversary - a note for your diaries :

[Anniemcc2]

Next year's early May bank holiday will be moved back by four days for the whole of the UK to coincide with the 75th anniversary of VE Day.

May Day is traditionally held on a Monday but will be put back to Friday 8 May 2020.

The holiday will form part of a three-day weekend of commemorative events.

They will include more than 20,000 pubs encouraging people to toast the heroes of the war, while churches will take part in a Ringing Out For Peace.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48565417

[cornishmaid1961]

Woohoo the 8th May is Flora Day in Helston, so double celebrations ! Methinks that means I can go next year ! I like the sound of the toasting too !

[bluebedouin]

...more than 20,000 pubs encouraging people to toast the heroes of the war...

It'd be nice if they charged 1945 prices!

[tony41]

It'd be nice if they charged 1945 prices!

But not the rationing of quantity!!!

[maplegin]

We were just talking yesterday about that as here on Bank Holiday Mondays there are Carboots that only are then, wonder if they will change to Friday, am sure there are lots of things will have to be changed.

[olivia8143]

Woohoo the 8th May is Flora Day in Helston, so double celebrations ! Methinks that means I can go next year ! I like the sound of the toasting too !

Woohoo the 8th May is my birthday - so triples all round

[cornishmaid1961]

Woohoo the 8th May is my birthday - so triples all round

Lol, shame you were not born in Helston, you would have had a good birthday party every year. Even the fair ground rides would have been laid on !

[yellerbelly]

We were just talking yesterday about that as here on Bank Holiday Mondays there are Carboots that only are then, wonder if they will change to Friday, am sure there are lots of things will have to be changed.

Read this week of a young couple complaining about the change because they had planned their wedding day around the May bank holiday so guests could recover from their hangover etc the next day, what's wrong with booking an extra day holiday.

Somebody remarked that a tradition should not change as it was 'Labour Day' but not that much of a tradition as I am sure someone will correct me if I am wrong but I think the only bank holiday in May used to be 'Whit Monday'.

Traditions change some for the better some for the worse, I remember as a child growing up in Lincoln and running out to watch the RAF band playing and marching through our local streets on an ocassional Sunday, loved it.

As for next years VE day celebrations enjoy and celebrate the lives of those that gave theirs.

[Anniemcc2]

Furious Morris dancers to march on Parliament over May Day bank holiday switch.

From the Suffragettes demanding the vote for women to Remain activists calling for a second referendum the Mother of Parliaments has seen a fair number of protests in its day.

But few are likely to be as colourful, noisy and frankly eccentric as the one set to descend on the Palace of Westminster later this month.

With a lusty “Hey Nonny Nonny” and a thwack of their sticks, Morris dancers from all over Britain will gather in full costume to protest against the Government’s decision to scrap the early May Bank Holiday in favour of holding one the following Friday, to mark next year’s 75th anniversary of the end of the Second World War in Europe.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/201...oliday-friday/

[astral276]

The sensible thing to have done would have been to insert an extra holiday specifically for the VE Day anniversary and leave May Day as is.

The likely problem government had with doing that is each bank holiday is reckoned to cost the economy around £2.3bn (currently around £20bn a year). That's why they are so resistant to the creation of new ones.

If they really did have to double them up by moving one they have had 75 years notice so could and should have announced it years ago.