Today, Monday 2nd May, is a bank holiday.
Thursday 2nd June is also a bank holiday because of the Queen's Jubilee.
This is the first time there have ever been bank holidays one month apart.
You can either believe me on that and go off and enjoy your day...
...or you can follow my rationale in the following proof.
Proof
Suppose there had been two bank holidays exactly one month apart.
Sub-theorem: They can't both be Mondays
If they were, they'd have to be 28 days apart.
If they were 28 days apart, one would have to be in February.
But there have never been any bank holidays in February.
QED
For the same reason they can't be 29 days apart.
So they must be 30 or 31 days apart.
Bank Holidays in England and Wales
• New Years Day (or the following Monday) [Jan]
• Good Friday/Easter Monday [Mar/Apr]
• First and last Mondays in May [May]
• Last Monday in August [Aug]
• Christmas Day/Boxing Day (or the following weekdays) [Dec]
Sub-theorem: In the normal run of things, bank holidays cannot be one month apart.
In normal years bank holidays only occur in January, March/April, May, August and December.
The only possibility of bank holidays in two adjacent months is December/January, March/April or April/May.
i) It can't be December/January because Christmas is at the end of December and New Year is at the start of January. ii) It can't be March/April because Good Friday and Easter Monday are only three days apart, not one month. iii) It can't be April/May because May bank holidays are always on a Monday and 30 days before that is a Saturday.
So in a normal year, bank holidays cannot be one month apart.
QED
n.b. Before 1965 the May and August bank holidays were defined differently, but...
...Whit Monday was 49 days after Easter Monday, not one month.
...the first Monday in August was at least 49 days after that.
So for two bank holidays to be a month apart, we need a special one-off bank holiday.
There have only been 15 of these since 1871.
Special one-off bank holidays Coronation: 2 Jun 1953 Royal Weddings: 14 Nov 1973, 29 Jul 1981, 29 Apr 2011 Jubilees: 6/7 Jun 1977, 3/4 Jun 2002, 4/5 Jun 2012, 2/3 Jun 2022 VE Day: 8 May 1995, 8 May 2020 Millennium: 31 Dec 1999
Let's cross these out one by one.
Coronation
...but Whit Monday was a week before Coronation Day, not a month.
Millennium
...but there isn't a 31 November, and 31 January can never be a bank holiday.
VE Day
...but Sat 8 Apr 1995 and Wed 8 Apr 2020 were not bank holidays, and 8 June can never be a bank holiday.
Royal Weddings Wed 14 Nov 1973: ...but Sun 14 Oct and Fri 14 Dec were not bank holidays Wed 29 Jul 1981: ...but Mon 29 Jun and Sat 29 Aug were not bank holidays Fri 29 Apr 2011: ...but Tue 29 Mar and Sun 29 May were not bank holidays
Jubilees
The 1977, 2002 and 2012 Jubilee holidays were on Mondays and Tuesdays in June.
One month beforehand was a Friday and Saturday in May, so not a bank holiday.
One month afterwards was in July, so not a bank holiday.
So only 2022 works.
QED
Therefore this is the first time there have ever been bank holidays one month apart.
n.b. This is only true for England and Wales
In Scotland there are bank holidays one month apart whenever 30 November falls at the weekend.
This shifts the St Andrew's Day holiday to either Mon 1 or Mon 2 December, which is one month before the New Year holiday on Wed 1 January or Wed 2 January.
This happens two years out of seven.
In Northern Ireland there are bank holidays one month apart whenever Easter falls on 16 April or 19 April.
St Patrick's Day was one month before Easter Monday in 1911, 1922, 1933, 1995, 2006 and 2017.
St Patrick's Day was one month before Good Friday in 1908, 1981, 1987 and 1992.
Residents of Northern Ireland went precisely one month without a bank holiday in 1981, 1987 and 1992.
But residents of Scotland have never previously done this - Christmas always gets in the way.
And residents of England and Wales have never done this either... until today.
Make the most of the nicely-spaced one month gap, it may never happen again.
