Easter Monday
Easter Monday is a bank holiday. Because Easter Day is always a Sunday the bank holiday for this date is moved to the day after.
The Easter Monday bank holiday date changes each year depending on which date Easter falls on. The reason it changes is because Easter Day is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon (which is the first full moon after 21st March).
This variation in dates means that the Easter Monday bank holiday can range from 23rd March to 26th April.
Easter Day
Easter Day comes 2 days after Good Friday.
Easter is a religious day and represents that day that Jesus rose from the dead.
The date of easter changes each year because it is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon (which is the first full moon after 21st March). This varies each year meaning that Easter Day can range from 22nd March to 25th April inclusively.
As Easter is on a Sunday when people are off anyway, we are given the Monday (Easter Monday) on the day after Easter day as a bank holiday.
View dates for Easter 2009
Good Friday
Good Friday is the Friday before Easter day.
It is a religious day and represents the day that Jesus was crucified.
Good Friday can fall between 19th March and 25th April.
The reason that the date of Good Friday changes each year and doesn’t have a set date is because Easter day is the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon (which is the full moon on or after 21st March). As this changes each year so does the date of Easter day, which in turn means that Good Friday also changes to correspond with when Easter Day is.
Good Friday 2009 is on Friday 10th April 2009.
New Year’s Day
New Years Day is the 1st of January. This is always a Bank Holiday.
If New Years Day falls on a weekend (Saturday or Sunday) then the New Years Day bank holiday is carried forward to the Monday 2nd or 3rd of January.
New Years day as the name suggests represents the start of a new calendar year.
Many people make “New Year resolutions” that tend to start on this day.