For many, but not all, a bucket and spade will mean one thing – memories of holidays at the seaside. Why is it that children, young and old, love the seaside? For children, their laughter makes their delight obvious as they splash in the sea, build sandcastles and eat ice-cream. For adults, perhaps it’s being away from routine or responsibilities, being free to play, to read and to indulge in leisure-pleasures. What do you look for in a holiday? Some like activities but others prefer the quieter and slower pace of life. When you think about the idea of ‘holiday’, it becomes clear that it is unique to humankind – animals and plants are too busy surviving to think about it!
- ‘It is not more vacation we need – it is more vocation’ – Eleanor Roosevelt
- ‘I love writing about my job because I loved it, and it was a particularly interesting one when I was a young man. It was like holidays with pay to me’ – James Herriot
- ‘Holidays are our one big family indulgence’ – Ben Fogle
To find ongoing fulfilment through your work is ideal but relatively few achieve it as you know if you think about your friends and acquaintances. The ideas of ‘job fulfilment’ or four weeks for annual leave were unheard of pre-Middle Ages and still is in some places. If you live in Mongolia then you can expect no more than 15 days annual leave, in Mexico 13 days or in Guyana just 12 days.
Today, we expect annual leave as an entitlement but how did they begin?
- ‘I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up – they have no holidays’ – Henny Youngman
Originally, ‘Holy Days’ were days set aside for spiritual reflection and to mark the key events in the Christian calendar such as Christmas and Easter. In 1871 the first law was passed to introduce Bank Holidays by UK politician and banker Sir John Lubbock and then various governments introduced other dates to mark national events. They were called ‘Bank Holidays’ as banks and financial buildings closed on those days. In the early 19th Century everyone had Sunday off. In the 1870s some skilled workers began to have Saturday afternoon off. Even at the end of the 19th Century, most people had no paid holidays except Bank Holidays. It was at the start of the 20th Century that annual holiday became a ‘right’, partly through the work of Trade Unions, along with Sick Leave. The concept of a special day to rest goes even further back!
- ‘Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done’ – Genesis 2:3
- ‘Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work’ – Deuteronomy 5:13-14
We all enjoy these ‘rest days’ whether or not we embrace the symbolism behind them. Sunday was known at ‘The Lord’s Day’ marking the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Further ‘Holy Days’ were added by the early Church to commemorate each martyr annually on the date of their death, or ‘birth into heaven’, and so referred to in Latin as the martyr’s ‘dies natalis’ (‘day of birth’). See if you have a ‘Saint’s Day’ by checking on line. During Lockdown (and in times of financial hardship) people switched from ‘vacation’ to ‘stay-cation’ to use home as a base to rest or (when rules permitted) to have days out. Why not take a day to get in tune with the ‘inner you’ and find time for the spiritual dimension of your life? This could be a day of ‘Re-creation’ with a difference to renew your energies, priorities and purposes, a vacation to refresh your vocation. Imagine doing that, getting in touch with God as you set aside rest time – now that could become your very own ‘Saint’s Day’, the first of many. If you do this, you will find it fulfilling but be sure not simply to fill it with noise and activity for then you would miss the full benefit. There’s a time for the bucket and spade but there’s also a time to lay it aside to dig deeper!