The 11-day weekend

The 11-day weekend was the name given by the British media to the period of time between Friday 22 April and Monday 2 May 2011.[1][2]

The 11-day weekend
Also called11 day weekend
Observed byThose who took extra three days off work
Liturgical colorRed, Violet then White
TypeNational
SignificanceEleven days
CelebrationsHoliday
BeginsFriday 22 April 2011
EndsMonday 2 May 2011
FrequencyOnce
Related toGood Friday, Holy Saturday, Easter Week, The Wedding of HRH Prince William with Miss Middleton, May Day, Early May bank holiday

As a moveable feast, the Easter bank holidays (Good Friday and Easter Monday) can occur any day between 20 March and 26 April.[3] Since the early May Day bank holiday was introduced in 1978[4] it has occasionally fallen on the Monday immediately after Easter Monday. As this was due to happen in 2011, many forward-thinking workers were able to book four days of holiday that in reality meant eleven days off work.

On 23 November 2010, Buckingham Palace announced that the date of the Wedding of Prince William of Wales and Kate Middleton was to be 29 April 2011 and that it would be a bank holiday, thus reducing the need for holiday entitlement to three days.[5]

An "11-day weekend" had previously occurred in Scotland between 25 December 1999 and 4 January 2000, a period which contained five bank holidays.[6] This event happened at a time of year when it accepted that many days' productivity will be lost, whereas the 2011 "weekend" was during the Spring and at a time of global recession.[7] These economic "lost 11 days" echo an actual loss of 11 days that occurred in September 1752 following Great Britain's switch from the use of the Julian calendar to the Gregorian calendar.[8]

Notes
  1. "Get ready for the 11 day weekend". Evening Standard. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  2. "Time to be a Killjoy". City A. M. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 21 September 2022.
  3. Ltd, Not Panicking. "h2g2 - Calculating the Date of Easter - Edited Entry". h2g2.com.
  4. "Early May Bank Holiday in the United Kingdom". www.timeanddate.com.
  5. Those workers fortunate enough to be able to earn flexi time (i.e., working an extra hour a day for a period of time and thus earn an extra day's holiday) even managed to reduce it to two.
  6. "Proceedings of the Scottish parliament". parliament.uk. Archived from the original on 23 April 2010.
  7. Wallop, Harry (23 November 2010). "Royal Wedding: four bank holidays in 11 days" – via www.telegraph.co.uk.
  8. "Old Christmas Day and the Lost 11 Days". projectbritain.com.


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