LAST Sunday I visited my mother to celebrate her 97th birthday.

She is of a generation who has seen so much and such a huge amount of change. The world she first grew up in is now so dramatically different, which at times must be quite hard for her to comprehend.

But the most important point about the day was that her family was with her to share in her birthday celebrations. Birthdays and anniversary events are about celebrating the moment, but they are also about anchoring us to the past. Amongst families we celebrate birthday and wedding anniversaries to put our lives and experiences in context.

As well as for the parties, of course. 

As a country, it is important that we must also mark historic events – and in Britain we have plenty to choose from. For example, in the last couple of years in Carlisle alone we had the 1900th anniversary of Hadrian’s Wall as well as the 900th anniversary of Carlisle Cathedral.

This year, the country will be celebrating the 80th anniversary of D-Day. Quite rightly, this will be widely commemorated, celebrated, and respectfully reflected upon when we consider the sacrifices made.

But 2024 will also be the 200th year anniversary of the RNLI, the RSPB and the National Gallery, and the 375th anniversary of the trial and execution of Charles I.

It will also be the 100th anniversary of the first Labour Government and the 50th anniversary of the first McDonald’s in Britain. Not everything is necessarily worth celebrating for everyone.

But while we have plenty of history in Britain and are good at remembering dates, we take a slightly different approach than many other countries in one quite significant regard.

Unlike the French, we do not have a Bastille Day or the July 4 Independence Day celebrations that the Americans have. We don’t the equivalent of an Australia Day.

Yes, we take time to commemorate funerals, coronations, and weddings of our Royal Family, but we do not have an annual specific day allocated to celebrate the unity of our country. This is a missed opportunity, I feel, to come to together and celebrate what unites us as a people. 

We have our Patron Saints – St David, St Andrew, St Patrick, and this week on April 23, we marked St George’s Day.

The Irish and Northern Irish appear to be the best at celebrating their St Patrick’s Day, but the other countries are a little more tepid in their celebrations – not even really having a Bank Holiday to celebrate. 

There are often discussions as to whether we should increase the number of Bank Holidays. If we were to do so, my suggestion would be that we give some serious thought to celebrating something that has some meaning for either the individual parts of our United Kingdom, or that we have a day where we celebrate the union of our constituent parts into what has proved to be a hugely successful nation for more than 300 years – which is certainly something worth commemorating.