Why does the october break exist?

Question

i need a reason for why we have an october break there must be a particular reason

Answer 1

"In the day" it had to do with kids being home to help harvest...Now it has to do with memorializing war heros, Columbus Day, and Hunting season.

Answer 2

Within the UK the October break came about years and years ago before farm machinery was modernised.

It was really for the farmers to get their crop of potatoes in. All the kids would get 'Tattie Holidays' to help with the lifting of the crop.

Now that the farmers use modern machinery there is really no need for a gang of workers. However, this break became tradition and has remained ever since, and there are still some who help out on the farm during the Break.

Another point to note is that if a person was unemployed and capable of worker during the fruit picking and tattie picking season their benefits were stopped and they had to pick to earn money.

Days of Old eh!

Answer 3

There are two reasons for it:
School and college terms are organised in groups of weeks. Ideally, they'd have exactly even numbers of weeks so that work can be allocated sensibly year on year (a module a term, for example).

The original school calendar was fixed around the Christian holidays - Christmas, Easter and Whitsun (the spring half-term) and the needs of an agricultural society (so you get the harvest, which is supposedly August, off). These dates fix the length of the whole terms, and they are broken in half by a holiday to make sure that teachers don't lose the will to live!

Easter moves so this changes the length of the spring and summer terms. This means that the only term that has a fixed(ish) length is the autumn one. The october half-term is.... half-way through the term!

Answer 4

Many moons ago there used to be a holiday called September break, it was brought about for the engineering companies, but most of them either closed or petered out in the late 80's to mid 90's, flexible holidays took over in most companies but the schools still needed a half term break for the children, as most of the kids have had their summer holidays moved forward and go back to school at the beginning of September, councils throughout Britain chose October as a half term break instead.

Answer 5

I think it's a hangover from the days when Michaelmas (September 29th, the Feast of St Michael and All Angels) was very important and a major public holiday. In England before the Reformation, as in churches throughout the world, mass was said on this day in honour of St Michael, hence the name Michaelmas Day, but in rural England, there were other events and celebrations.

Some of these were in the form of fairs or livestock sales, often with the hiring of workers occurring at the same time. In most cases, though, hiring fairs were held later in the year, at Martinmas (the feast of St Martin of Tours on November 11), with the Michaelmas fairs being more of a holiday. One of these was the famous Nottingham Goose Fair which is now held on October 3; nonetheless, in some areas, Michaelmas Day continues to be known as Goose Day and for a long time, goose fairs and sheep sales were held on this day in various parts of England.
The association with geese arises because Queen Elizabeth I was eating goose on this day when she received news of the defeat of the Spanish Armada; at the celebratory meal which followed the victory, goose was eaten and thus it became customary to eat goose on Michaelmas Day. This goose feast continued for centuries afterwards, even if the original reason had been forgotten. Indeed, lots of landlords used to hold goose feasts for their tenants on this day because Michaelmas Day was one of the quarter days when rents were due.

Interestingly, the whole year seems to have undergone a shift. In Celtic times the year began in February. February-April was spring, May-July was summer, August-October was autumn and November-January was winter. With the climatic changes which have occurred, the year seems to have slipped forwards, so that it doesn't seem untoward for a September holiday to slide into October.

Answer 6

The october break goes back to the days when children were needed to help with potato picking.

Answer 7

Its mostly for the Freshman, their just about ready to jump off of the library roof by the itme mid October comes around because they cant get a handle on all the work and stuff. So colleges send them home just before they can leap : )

Answer 8

October break means nothing. I think its just a small break for the kids between the summer hols and xmas.

Answer 9

its half term end of term is xmas then u get another half term b4 easter and the last before the summer hols its to break up the cirriculam and bcos children bcome restless how would u feel having to go months without a week off? september through to december, its easy for adults but not for children.

Answer 10

OK I'm game, what is an October break?

Answer 11

In UK it's called 'half-term' halfway through the long arduous autumn/winter term to give the hard working teachers another well deserved break.
Then the resorts and holiday companies have another excuse to raise prices.
Only the teachers can afford to go - wheels within wheels, eh?