Twice a year the UK comes to a stop for a string of holidays. We often forget that the very word holiday comes from holy days. Without the concept of the need to stop our activities to devote ourselves to worship, the regular pause on Sundays would never have happened, let alone the prolonged time off of Christmas and Easter.  Good Friday and Easter Monday are both national holidays, and on Easter Sunday most shops are required to be totally closed. Huge temples to the god of Mammon are shuttered up and their car parks lie empty.  The irony is of course we consume huge amounts of food on holidays and they have become commercialized.  Read more