United Kingdom — Time & Holidays
The United Kingdom uses Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0) in winter and British Summer Time (UTC+1) in summer, moving the clocks twice a year for daylight saving.
National & Public Holidays
| Date | Holiday | What it marks |
|---|---|---|
| 1 January | New Year's Day Fixed | Bank holiday to start the year. |
| Movable | Good Friday & Easter Monday Movable | The Easter weekend, which shifts each year. |
| 1st Mon May | Early May Bank Holiday Movable | A spring long weekend. |
| Last Mon May | Spring Bank Holiday Movable | Late-May long weekend. |
| Last Mon Aug | Summer Bank Holiday Movable | England, Wales & NI. |
| 25 December | Christmas Day Fixed | The principal winter holiday. |
| 26 December | Boxing Day Fixed | The day after Christmas. |
Time and holidays in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom is the home of the prime meridian, the line at Greenwich from which the world measures longitude, so it is fitting that its winter time is Greenwich Mean Time, written as UTC+0. In the warmer half of the year the country moves to British Summer Time, one hour ahead at UTC+1, by putting the clocks forward on the last Sunday of March and back on the last Sunday of October. This twice-yearly change shifts an hour of daylight into the evening through spring and summer, which is why the gap between the UK and countries that do not observe daylight saving is not constant across the year.
Bank holidays, fixed and movable
British public holidays are known as bank holidays. A few are fixed to a date — New Year's Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day — while the rest are movable and usually fall on a Monday, conveniently creating long weekends: the early May bank holiday on the first Monday of May, the spring bank holiday on the last Monday of May, and the summer bank holiday on the last Monday of August in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with a slightly different date in Scotland. The Easter weekend of Good Friday and Easter Monday is the most prominent movable holiday and can fall anywhere from late March to late April, because its date follows a lunar rule tied to the spring equinox. When a fixed holiday lands on a weekend, a substitute day off is usually given on the following Monday. The live clock above applies the summer or winter offset automatically.