May Day to be shifted?

Subject: May Day to be shifted?
From: GUEST,George Frampton
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 05:49 AM

According to a report in The Times, Greg Clark, the business secretary, has suggested that date should be moved from Monday, 4 May, to Friday, 8 May, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day, or VE Day.

... as though the government hasn't got enough to do what with this infernal Brexit business, and the (dis)honourable member could be seen as rather insensitive further claiming that VE Day vanquished the rise of fascism in Europe - cannot he see what's happening in the UK and Europe (and USA) today?

To say nothing of the disregard the value that we folkies regard May Day in England, what with Rochester Sweeps, Hastings Jack, Whitstable weekend, to say nothing of the other festivals created with the rise of May Bank Holiday (which some Tories want shifted to Trafalgar Day for political ends). It's a pity that May Bank Holiday weekend hasn't picked up on some local historical tradition in the north-east to amplify and celebrate. I recall Gordon Newton, Keith Leech and myself coming up to London to lobby parliament on a Friday - not that you see anyone in the House on Friday being private member's bill day when MPs are away in their constituencies.

So why am I being cynical about parliament's capacity to govern 'for' ragher than despite the 'people'? Makes you wonder, dunnit?

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: Jos
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 07:05 AM

I assume this would be for 2020, not this year.

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: GUEST,FloraG
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 10:33 AM

With traffic likely to be at a standstill from Dover to Maidstone post Brexit, Kent is not likely to be a viable option whichever day May day is on.
May as well have the Friday as well?
FloraG.

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: GUEST,Henry Piper (of Ottery)
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 10:46 AM

May Day is May 1st, irrespective of what day the Government of the day decides to have the Bank Holiday on !!!

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: GUEST,George Frampton
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 12:46 PM

Yes Henry ... and it'll be party time in Padstow. Ah knaa, coz I bin!

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 05:05 PM

What about 29 March ?...

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: GUEST,Derek Schofield
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 05:18 PM

Surely this would be a decision of the culture Secretary, not the business Secretary.
It's entirely appropriate that we should recognise the defeat of fascism, and mark the sacrifices of allied soldiers (including my own father, a prisoner of war in Italy and Germany), but we also need to move on, look to the present day, celebrate peace and international cooperation.
Derek

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: peteglasgow
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 05:32 PM

we need more public holidays here to bring us up to the level of other european countries. my preference would be a michael eavis day on the monday after glastonbury. as about 200,000 people will be in recovery, far too wasted to work anyway. and maybe an ivor cutler day where everything goes quiet....May day is the best of the lot of them - nothing religious about it

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: Jos
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 05:57 PM

We could celebrate an Ivor Cutler Day by having gruts for tea.

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: RTim
Date: 22 Feb 19 - 05:57 PM

WE have all be Shafted - not sure about shifted......

Tim Radford

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 23 Feb 19 - 03:15 AM

They've messed us all around before. Why not celebrate the occasion with an extra holiday?

From timeanddate.com; In Scotland, the Early May Bank holiday has been observed on the first Monday in May since 1871, but was only introduced in the rest of the United Kingdom in 1978.

In 1995, and only in that year, this bank holiday was moved to the second Monday in May (May 8) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the allies accepting the surrender of the armed forces of Nazi Germany. This was the formal end of World War II and is known as VE Day.

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: BobL
Date: 23 Feb 19 - 03:43 AM

I remember it well! It meant I could get to Helston to see the Furry Dance.

nothing religious about it other than the feast day of apostles St. Philip & St. James (12 and a spare, how many can you name?)

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 23 Feb 19 - 04:47 AM

I think it should be moved to July when the weather is nicer!

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: Jos
Date: 23 Feb 19 - 05:47 AM

Maybe they should put Whitsun back where it belongs, six weeks after Easter instead of the meaningless 'Late May ...', which seems to arrive before we've got over Easter and May Day. And any new bank holidays would be better somewhere in the four holiday-less months from September to Christmas. Maybe, as well as gloomily remembering the loss of life, in November, we could celebrate the end of what should have been the 'War to End All Wars'.

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 23 Feb 19 - 06:25 PM

At least the Early May and Late May Bank Holidays are fixed.

If only the religious bodies could be persuaded to fix the date of Easter.

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: Mr Red
Date: 24 Feb 19 - 02:39 AM

Nero fiddles while Rome burns

Brexshit and Rome - now there's a coincidence

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: Jos
Date: 24 Feb 19 - 03:29 AM

Christmas is 'fixed' but it's still confusing because it's always a different day of the week from the previous one.
If Easter was fixed to happen on, for example, the first Sunday in April, the date would still keep changing though not by as much as now.
I like the way it moves around and I'm happy to keep it that way.
As for May Day? It's on the first day of May, of course.

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 24 Feb 19 - 04:53 AM

Both calendars (Gregorian and Julian) calculate Easter as falling on dates between March 22 and April 25. In the UK, the financial year starts on April 6.

So some financial years have two Easters, and some have none. That causes problems for businesses and for holidays too. Early Easters can be very cold! And the occasion of many other events is dictated by Easter.

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: Jos
Date: 24 Feb 19 - 05:16 AM

To ensure only one Easter in a financial year, then, it would have to be either a Sunday in March (possibly cold), or the second Sunday in April or later (close to the first May bank holiday).

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: BobL
Date: 24 Feb 19 - 07:34 AM

The date of Easter is fixed - but according to a lunar calendar, not the Gregorian one.

Perhaps though we could adjust our Bank Holidays to correspond more closely with Wheel of the Year festivals:

Candlemas (Imbolc), or even Chinese New Year as this seems to be getting increasingly popular in some areas, particularly supermarkets - new BH.
Easter (Ostara) - unchanged.
May Day (Beltane) - unchanged.
Midsummer (Litha) - move Late Spring BH to Summer Solstice.
Lammas (Lughnasadh) - move August Bank Holiday back to its old date, first Monday in August.
Autumn Equinox (Mabon) - new BH.
Hallowtide (Samhain) - new BH.
Christmas (Yule) - unchanged.

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: banjoman
Date: 25 Feb 19 - 07:25 AM

Haven't they any more important things to do?
Leave well enough alone

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Feb 19 - 09:47 AM

Is this an attempt to deradicalise the day, with 1 May being the international day of labour, whereas they can make it more of a Little England day by changing it to celebrate WWII?

Subject: RE: May Day to be shifted?
From: Tattie Bogle
Date: 27 Feb 19 - 07:00 PM

So what will they do with VJ Day? Just as important, in fact more so to my father-in-law, who served in Burma in WW2. (Just to confuse the issue, it is already celebrated on 3 different dates!)