It all began with a fairly innocuous post on Threads…
“Why do people persist in saying it’s half term when it’s the Easter Holidays?” asked user Henny Heawood (@delirioushappy). “Who started this?”
Oh gosh, I thought. I am one of those people.
I’ve been referring to the current break which children are on (from school, nursery, etc.) as half term. But am I in the wrong?!
I checked my text messages from my child’s school (where she attends nursery for a handful of hours each day).
“School finishes at the earlier time of 2pm today,” reads the reminder from a week ago. And then: “Have a lovely Easter holiday.” Cripes.
In response to Henny’s post, some suggested not everyone refers to it as the Easter holidays because not everyone celebrates Easter.
But half term is definitely incorrect, as many Threads users pointed out.
Why isn’t it half term then?
Caz Young explained there are “3x ‘big’ holiday breaks each year” – these are Easter, summer and Christmas.
“They break up the school terms,” she said, adding that “between each holiday, there is a week holiday. It is in the middle of the term. It is half term. The current school break is Easter Holidays.”
They’re completely right. A quick visit to your local council’s school term dates page should show when each term starts (spring, summer and autumn) with a clear start date, half term date and end of term date.
And the summer term begins next week (in my local area, at least).
It turns out incorrectly labelling the school holidays is a bone of contention for quite a few people, too.
In my defence, half the time I don’t even know what day it is (that’ll be the teething toddler-induced sleep deprivation talking). But yes, I stand corrected.
And I’m not the only one who’s been calling it half term (thank goodness).
Anyway, happy “less traffic” week!
#Term #Easter #Holidays
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