A strange day today, as in Glasgow it’s treated as a holiday by many. But for the rest of the country (and those of us working for national companies who only observe UK holidays), it’s very much business as usual. The holiday in question is Glasgow Fair Weekend, a holiday founded in traditions from the 12th century. I’m a huge fan of Wikipedia, so as there was nothing on the subject, I’ve just created an entry, which I hope will be improved on by some local folk with more knowledge than I do about the history of this event.
Going to work was certainly curious: I’d left Frances behind, enjoying a well-earned lie-in (she works for Strathclyde University, which observes the holiday), and set off into the drizzle on my own. There were far fewer buses, and those that were about were almost empty when I finally boarded one. All that said, on getting in to the centre of town there were plenty of folk about. Mainly office workers, as many other shops were closed (thankfully not the Cafe Nero close to the office).
We don’t have enough public holidays in the UK – certainly after the August Bank Holiday weekend, it’s a long stretch through to Christmas. Here’s hoping that they’ll consider, at the very least, moving one of the May bank holidays. However, an extra holiday wouldn’t go amiss, especially as the British work longer hours than the rest of Europe!
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July 19th, 2005 at 12:28 am
I don’t know much, but I do know it was a week and not just a weekend as Glasgow Fairs week was very important to the North East resort of Whitley Bay, which up until cheap packages to the Costa Brava, was the place where many Glaswegians spent Fairs week and a great time was had by all.
I will dig around and see if I can find out more. What childhood memories come flooding back.
August 29th, 2005 at 8:08 am
[...] Certainly listening to national television and radio programming and you’d think it was a national holiday, and I’d suggest that most people don’t even realise that Scotland has a number of different holidays. Most people realise that the 2nd January is taken, but there are a few other differences (such as Glasgow’s Fair Monday, and a September holiday (essentially equivalent to the August Bank Holiday). So it’s not that they don’t get as many (more, in fact), just that they’re a little different away from religious holidays. [...]
July 12th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Thanks for this, I was wondering why i didn’t have to go to work tomorrow!
July 17th, 2007 at 9:17 am
[...] postbox (Oh, they’ve changed it, I thought first of all). Then, Eh? Of course, yesterday was Glasgow Fair Monday, so it seems there was no normal collection. Grrr. So I’d posted the items and they’re [...]
August 28th, 2009 at 9:55 am
[...] cutting of mens’ ties during Carnival). I’d written a few years back about Glasgow fair, early in [...]