Yesterday was SPRING Bank Holiday

I've already written about my memories of the Bradford 50km walk.

http://parishwalkcom.blogspot.com/2008/01/it-used-to-be-best-walking-event-in.html

So although my memory was racing back to those days again yesterday I've decided to write more specifically about bank holidays.

Why is it that in the Isle of Man we have such problems with their names?

Until 1967 (NB 42 YEARS AGO) we used the celebrate the religious occasion of Whitsuntide. But because the date of Whit, like Easter, was variable the date of the public holiday was fixed on the last Monday in May and renamed the Spring Bank Holiday in 1971.

Educate yourselves here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whit_Monday

Why is it that so many people insist on calling yesterday Whit Monday.

What is worse, the Isle of Man Hockey Association have decided to move their hockey festival from "Whit weekend" to, wait for it, the Spring Bank Holiday weekend. They've got it wrong again - they are actually moving it to the first weekend in May which is the May Bank Holiday Weekend.

May Day Bank Holiday has been there for more than 40 years - why do people find this so hard to grasp?

We have one of the two additional Manx public holidays next week so I'll probably be wearing by grumpy old man hat again on Tynwald Day next Friday!