Five-Year UK Public Holiday Dates - 2019 through 2023

Use these calendars of UK public holidays when planning your visits and getaways through 2021.

In the UK, legal holidays are known as Bank Holidays because (with a few exceptions), the banks are closed, and mail is not delivered on those days. You need to take bank holidays into account if you are making arrangements that rely on the passing of a fixed number of normal working days (delivery of tickets, money clearing a bank account, refunds, for example). Bank holidays do not count as normal working days even though, nowadays, the shops are open and some people work on them.

Though many of the same holidays are observed in the four nations that make up the United Kingdom - England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - there are slight variations, reflecting different national customs and priorities. England and Wales have the fewest bank holidays, with only 8, and Northern Ireland has the most generous allocation of holidays, with ten.

You may notice that some bank holidays in these calendars are on different days then the holiday occurs. For example, in 2021, the Christmas Bank Holiday is observed on December 27 and Boxing Day on December 28. That's because that year, Christmas falls on a Saturday and Boxing Day on a Sunday, so weekday bank holidays are added to the holiday weekend.

The Scots celebrate Hogmanay, a three or four-day New Year's blowout - so the official New Year's holiday includes an extra day, simply called 2nd January Holiday or 2nd New Year's Day.

The Summer Bank Holiday is celebrated at the beginning of August in Scotland but at the end of August elsewhere in the UK. But a word of warning if you are planning on visiting a bank. Most Scottish banks close at the end of the month as well, to correspond with the rest of the UK.

St. Andrews Day, the national day in Scotland, has, since 2007, been an optional or voluntary public holiday. Around Scotland, there are several traditional holidays, based on local tradition and determined by local authorities. St Andrew's Day can be an alternative to replace one of these local days. Banks and schools may not necessarily be closed on Scottish public holidays since, for business reasons, they mirror England and Wales. Similarly, while Easter Monday is not observed as a public holiday in Scotland, the banks - to harmonize with the rest of the UK - are closed.

Mutual respect for the culture and traditions of the different communities that make up Northern Ireland is hardwired into the Good Friday Agreement that has brought peace to the region. For that reason, St Patrick's Day and Orangemen's Day (the commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne) are both bank holidays there. Nevertheless, there is still occasional friction in parts of Northern Ireland on Orangemen's Day, when Protestant fraternal organizations traditionally march. You may want to factor that into your travel plans.