I Hate Bank Holidays

Tomorrow is a bank holiday in Ireland. All my life I've hated bank holidays-- well, at least since leaving school.

I hate the whole bank holiday atmosphere. Instead of reducing stress it just seems to increase it. Everything around you seems to be overloaded, crowded, groaning under the weight of the holiday-makers. Even if this doesn't directly affect you, even if you stay at home, the atmosphere still seeps in.

Public holidays are different. I like St. Patrick's Day and the new St. Bridget's Day because they're about something. Bank holidays have no soul, no personality.

Because I'm a social conservative, I've spent about fifteen years (if not more) complaining about the 24-hour society.

I'm beginning to realize this was me fooling myself all again. I actually like the 24-hour society. I like the idea of the "city that never sleeps". One of my favourite things about hotels is that there's always someone on reception, at any time of the day or night.

I hated Sundays, growing up in eighties Ireland. I hated the whole atmosphere. They were not joyous. They were desolate and depressing.

I do not fantasize about little Tuscan villages where everybody stops to have lunch together. I like cities.

I liked my experience of America where everything is open much longer than in Ireland and where shutting up shop isn't the solemn ritual it is here, requiring twenty announcements and increasingly dirty looks from the staff.

My least favourite part of Christmas is when everything closes and everybody retreats to their private worlds. I like the public aspect of Christmas.

Yes, I love difference and I hate sameness, that's true. But, even in a 24-hour society, there are still big differences between early morning, late night, and so on. Everything isn't open all the time.

G.K. Chesterton was not a Sabbatarian and was quite critical of Sabbatarianism, considering it puritanical. He also thought Sunday trading laws unfairly favoured big businesses. When I discovered this, it bothered me a bit and I thought it was one of the things I disagreed with Chesterton about. I've changed my mind.

This blog post is a confession, not an argument.

I won't have much internet access over the stupid bank holiday, so apologies if I don't respond to any comments right away.