Why Are Some Hollidays Called Bank Hollidays

[timestamp]

and why are only banks closed ?

[Hopkirk]

It's not just banks that are closed.

There is a legal definition of a bank holiday, and some of what you think are bank holidays are just public holidays.

For instance Christmas Day is not a bank holiday in England and Wales, just a public holiday. Oddly it is a bank holiday in Scotland.

[Buenchico]

The Bank Holidays Act 1871 defined the days upon which financial institutions were prohibited from doing business:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_Holidays_Act_1871
It was that Act which introduced the term 'bank holiday' into our everyday language.

That act was replaced by the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971
https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1971/80

[KARL]

I have always wondered about the arcane expression and now I have some light on it, thank you Chris. Isn't it a curious fact that there seems to be a need for idiosyncrasy coupled with obscurity (or is it cover up) ? "Holiday" is not enough, it has to be divided into classes, classes which themselves are arrived at with the deliberate aim of dividing life into compartments. It turns out it should have been "holidays" for all and "closed" days for some - the latter being a legal requirement forbidding certain activity, a bit like the Sabbath really. But we are coy about instructing (licensing ?) a secular Sabbath for a particular class of people so we call it a "bank holiday". As Trump put it - Wow.