National holidays

The usual 8 Scottish holidays are:

1 Jan Ne'ers day (for traditions see [12.16], [12.17]) 2 Jan Scottish New Year holiday
Good Friday
May day holiday (First Monday in May)
Spring Holiday (Last Monday in May)
August holiday (First Monday in August)
25 Dec Christmas day (for traditions see [12.15]) 26 Dec Boxing day

These holidays differ from England as follows:
England gets Easter Monday instead of 2 Jan.
England's August holiday is at the end of August.

There are also "harmonised" Scotland holidays in which Scotland gets the holidays listed above except the August holiday is the English one rather than the Scottish one. Scottish School holidays are generally the end of June to the middle of August; about 2-3 weeks ahead of the holidays in England.

Scotland also has local holidays at various times of the year, (eg September) and also trade fairs fortnight. Edinburgh's is the first two weeks in July, Glasgow's is the 3rd and 4th weeks in July. Although it is called trades fortnight, the first day of the fortnight is widely taken as a local holiday across many businesses, particularly public sector. During this time, local travel may operate a cut down timetable.

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