The Origins of School Holidays

by Rebecca Stone

Pilgrims en route to Canterbury, 14th century

With the summer solstice having past, and summer holidays fast approaching and just around the corner, preparations for holidays abroad in the six-week break are being made exhilaratingly. However, the original use of school holidays was far less frivolous.

While many believe school holidays pre-twenty first century (particularly summer) were made for the sake of farmers and for children to help around the fields to aid collecting the harvest, since the term starts again in September this was of no use to farmers.

The word “holiday” originally derives from “holy day” and these are exactly what holidays were meant for in the middle ages. These “holy days” were religious festivals, and were, effectively, an excuse for a party. Examples of festivals would be advent, or Easter or Christmas. Similar to when we have our holidays now. In addition, there were also festivals on patronal feast days or “name days”, celebrated in each place’s patron saint day. Another use for holidays were for pilgrimages to holy sites (the PRS teachers may advise you on some) and this was one of the very few times people would leave their villages and travel from their home county. Pilgrimages, as Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales” tells, were not only for the religious experiences and, while some devout pilgrims would travel purely for their religion, others would travel for the experience and opportunity to meet new people from other regions of the country whom they would not otherwise meet.

The mid-seventeenth century offered a different way to spend a holiday. This was during the time of the Enlightenment period where people believed that to see a picture in a book, perhaps of the Acropolis in Athens, would not give you the same emotional experience as visiting Athens itself. The Grand Tour was particularly common for upper-class men, who would travel abroad from England to Europe and, accompanied by a guide called a “Cicerone”, they would revel in the delights and amuses of foreign hospitality, and the culture that came with it. The Grand Tour usually left from France to Italy, to Germany, and then home again, although some went on to Greece, and less commonly, further afield to Turkey. This often lasted a few months although for some it continued for several years. The Grand Tour was seen as an extension of education where men could further their knowledge of history and art, and practice different languages.

In the nineteenth century the Industrial Revolution made it possible to spend a day at the sea-side with the invention of steam trains. This is the closest many would get to having a holiday, as the working class would be in factories and going abroad was too expensive for the common mass. The belief at the time that sea air was good for your health motivated a lot of people to travel to the seaside for their holidays. In addition, similar to the reason for a pilgrimage, sea-side adventures were seen as a way to make new friends.

Although presently many summer holidays are for the purpose of the sun, sea and tan, the similarities between “The Grand Tour”, and today's touristic adventures of needing to see all the historic sites and museums around the capitals of European countries are visible. In many ways, the original purposes of holidays have not altered drastically.