Easter Monday 2025 and in 2026 year

What Do People Do?

For many people in the three countries in the United Kingdom specifically, Easter Monday is the last day in a four-day weekend. So, if people have been on a short vacation or have visited family or friends, who live some distance away, they often travel back on this day (for officeholders or businesspersons to go and get ready to resume their working places on the following day). For other people, it could just be a welcome day off to enjoy the spring weather or work on their garden or home improvements. In some places, there are egg-rolling competitions, Easter bonnet parades, displays of traditional Morris dancing fairs, or particular sports matches.

There are spectacular activities that are memorable, which often takes place on Easter Monday. For instance, in Biddenden, Kent, special cakes are distributed in memory of conjoined twins born in 1100, who lived to the age of 34. In Leicestershire, the villages of Hallaton and Medbourne hold a bottle kicking match. It has been held at least since the early eighteenth century, though its roots may be traced to the pagan times. The event starts with the three bottles and a hare pie, which are wooden barrels, a parade through the two villages. Two of the barrels are filled with beer. The third is solid wood. The actual game consists of the two teams taking turns to get the three barrels across two streams a mile apart, by any means possible. The game is quite rough, and participants could leave the game for refreshments at any time. Meanwhile, the attractive village gets to take the filled barrels to the local pub.

What people do on this day?

Easter Monday is recognized as a bank holiday in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, but not Scotland. In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, many businesses and organizations are closed on this day. Stores are most of the time open to welcome shoppers, but public transport systems may run to a different timetable. There is a tendency for some congestion because of the returnees who had gone to go and expend the holiday with family, relative or friends. However, in Scotland (where the event is not officially recognized for a holiday),Easter Monday is just another regular Monday.

History and symbols

Historically, Easter Monday stems from the medieval festival of Hocktide. This was a two-day festival - on Monday and Tuesday after Easter. It began for consideration in the eleventh century. Some stories contextualize that on a Monday, the men of a town tied up the women and demanded a kiss from them before they were freed. Others say that a man had to carry a woman for a certain distance or lift her a given number of times in return for a kiss. Today, Hocktide is only celebrated in the town of Hungerford in Berkshire, and the main events are often on the Tuesday after Easter. In all, the Easter date depends on the ecclesiastical approximation of the March equinox.