It's Bank Holiday Monday.
It's also the earliest possible date for the August bank holiday.
And that means we're about to enter the longest possible gap between bank holidays.
Let's prove that.
There are three bank holiday clusters in the English bank holiday year.
» The Christmas/New Year cluster
» The Easter/May cluster
» The late August bank holiday
The longest possible gap is going to be between two of those sectors.
Very roughly they last 3-4 months, 3 months and 4 months respectively.
We can ignore the summer gap between May and August.
Double Check
It's always either 91 days or 98 days (as we discussed in 2020).
It's thus too short to be of interest.
So we're only interested in the autumn gap and the spring gap.
Both of these can be about 4 months long.
The autumn gap is from the last Monday in August to Christmas Day.
The longest possible gap is 25th August - 25th December, as in 2025.
The gap is exactly 4 months, or 122 days.
Double Check
In such years 25th December is a Thursday.
So it is indeed a bank holiday.
Double Check
The first Christmas bank holiday can also be on 26th or 27th December.
You might think this could lead to a longer gap.
But Monday 26th December only happens in a year with Monday 29th August.
And Monday 27th December only happens in a year with Monday 30th August.
And those are only 119 day gaps, so we can ignore them.
The spring gap is from New Year's Day to Good Friday.
The longest possible gap is 1st January - 23rd April.
This gap is exactly 16 weeks, or 112 days.
Double Check
Both of those are Fridays, so 1st January is indeed a bank holiday.
Double Check
The latest Good Friday comes before the latest Easter Day, which is 25th April.
This next happens in 2038 (and then not again until 2258).
Double Double Check
Technically the gap could be 113 days in a leap year with a late Easter.
But 25th April Easters don't happen in leap years (as we discussed in April).
Whenever Easter falls, the spring gap can never be longer than 112 days.
So it never beats the autumn gap.
122 days is thus the longest possible gap in England.
Also in Wales and Northern Ireland.
Double Check
But in Scotland the August bank holiday is at the start of August.
But they also have a St Andrew's Day bank holiday at the end of November.
The longest possible gap in Scotland is thus 1st August - 30th November.
This is 121 days.
This doesn't beat England, it's one day less.
Double Double Check
Yes the St Andrew's Day holiday is sometimes held back until 1st or 2nd December.
But this only happens in years when the previous holiday is 4th or 5th August.
So it doesn't help.
Conclusion
The longest gap between UK bank holidays is 122 days.
It only happens when the August bank holiday is on Monday 25th August.
And it starts tomorrow.
