Beauty surrounds us, but we usually need to be walking in a garden to know it - Rumi
Have you taken your summer holiday yet, or are you still looking forward to a break from work? Perhaps you are restricted to taking your holiday when school is out. Maybe you are planning a winter holiday this year. Whatever your plans remember that eighty years ago a manual worker would have had to make do with the statutory Bank Holidays as the only respite he would have from his daily grind. And he would not be paid for not working on those days either! In contrast a senior local government employee would be granted up to 48 days paid holiday each year in addition to the Bank Holidays.
The Holidays with Pay Act which was passed by Parliament in 1938 changed all that. Now everyone was entitled to one weeks paid holiday. Not that everyone could afford to go away of course; the lowest earners needed their basic weekly income just to pay for rent and food. For them the passing of the Act meant they could have a few days off work without having to worry about making ends meet, but it did not mean they could suddenly afford a seaside holiday. As you jet off to sunny climes, think about your not too distant relatives. Think, too, about all those today struggling to make ends meet, for whom a holiday in the sun away from the daily grind is a mere pipe dream. Jesus said: Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28 KJV. Let us be grateful that He is here for us to give us the rest we need.
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AuthorI am an Authorised Local Preacher in an Anglo Catholic parish church, in the Diocese of Essex UK Archives
February 2022
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