With a few tweaks, this traditionally Protestant celebration is the perfect excuse for a day off work In many ways, Britain lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to nation-specific holidays. We don’t have days to commemorate the passing of a beloved leader, for example, and we certainly don’t have an independence day – possibly because we’re usually the country that everywhere else wanted independence from. Similarly there’s no Thanksgiving here, because what on earth do we have to be thankful for? Twixes? Superdrug? It hardly seems worth it. Everywhere else does it so much better. Ukraine has a holiday to mark the Russian military intervention of 2014. Japan has different holidays for its mountains, oceans and shrubbery. Bhutan has a day off just so everyone can go out in the rain. But us? Just Christmas, Easter and a handful of badly defined days in the middle. It’s a legitimately dismal state of affairs. So let’s make a pact: next year, let’s make bonfire night a national holiday. Continue reading... |