I really dislike the Christmas and New Year holiday season here in Ould Blighty. Everything shuts down or has morbidly shortened hours, so you never know when anything is open. Everything (and I do mean EVERYTHING!) shuts down for Christmas Day, with the exception of the corner stores owned and operated by Muslims. No public transport, no large stores, no nothing. Again, on New Year’s Day, everything is shut. Today everything shut at 5 pm.
Tomorrow the world regains its equilibrium. Stores are open normal business hours. The shelves are almost free of Christmas junk. The first trayful of chocolate Easter eggs will be put out in Tesco’s.
God’s in her heaven, all’s right with the world.
Everything shuts down for Christmas Day … Again, on New Year’s Day, everything is shut
That’s because IT’S A HOLIDAY. A day off for just about everyone. Only people in the service industries (hotels, etc) and emergency services are at work. Everyone else gets a holiday!
I’ve been in the United States on so-called Holidays, and it’s hard to tell, because the rhythm of life continues just as if it was the middle of August or September. The only indications that a holiday is happening is the big “XXXX Sale!” signs in the local emporia. No pause at all.
Here in the Great White North, we also (like the UK) tend to shut down, or at least, slow up significantly on holidays. As is meet and right, for they are, after all, holidays.