Celebrating Trafalgar Day

My colleague, Dr Eamonn Butler, will not like this proposal at all because he has expressed the view that Bank holidays are an anachronism that should be abolished, although he did once grudgingly tell the ASI staff that they could take Christmas morning off.

There is, however, a strong case for scrapping the early May UK holiday and replacing it with a Trafalgar Day holiday on October 21st. Doing so would help rebalance the calendar, celebrate national history, and potentially boost economic and educational benefits.

The UK’s Bank holidays are heavily concentrated between April and August, leaving a significant gap in public holidays between August and Christmas. October, despite being a full working month, currently has no public holidays. Moving the holiday to October 21st helps distribute time off more evenly across the year. This help bring a break in the long autumn stretch and give employees something to look forward to.

Trafalgar Day is a symbolic date marking the 1805 Battle of Trafalgar, a defining British naval victory in which Admiral Lord Nelson became a national hero and a symbol of courage, sacrifice, and patriotism. Trafalgar Day offers a secular, unifying alternative holiday that can foster national pride without religious or partisan overtones.

Other countries (e.g. the US with Independence Day, France with Bastille Day) use national historic events as public holidays.

There are economic considerations, too, in that an October Bank holiday could stimulate domestic tourism during a traditionally quiet period. It could help extend the tourism season, especially in coastal and rural areas, benefiting local economies.

There are educational and cultural benefits, with an opportunity for civic education. Trafalgar Day could be a moment for schools, museums, and cultural institutions to teach about Britain’s naval history, the Napoleonic Wars, and the concept of service. It promotes a shared historical narrative.

While May Day has strong historical ties to workers' rights and tradition, International Workers’ Day (May 1) is not a holiday in many countries, and its political associations lack universal appeal. The US, for example, celebrates its Labor Day in the Autumn, when the harvest is in, not in the Spring of planting and promise, as Socialist countries do.

The UK doesn’t formally recognize it as "Labour Day" in any official capacity, whereas Trafalgar Day has the potential to be a less divisive, more inclusive option.

Scrapping the early May Bank holiday and replacing it with Trafalgar Day on October 21st would be a balanced, symbolic, and strategic reform, one that honours the past while improving the present.

Madsen Pirie