Sunday Explainer: why do we have holidays?

But have you bothered to ask yourself: why? What's the point of all this merry-making? Blowing off steam? Hitting the reset? Rediscovering your inner self?

Good luck with that, but it's not the only thing you're breaking for.

We can chart the observance of high holy days, or Lent, or even go right back to the biblical commandment to "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy".

But with all respect to that tradition, holy days are more commonly honoured today in the breach. For most of us, holidays simply equal days off work.

We become accustomed as school children to six weeks of summer, so we think we deserve a nice long hiatus. But that period of youthful bliss is a relatively recent phenomenon.

In Victorian times, when the British educational system set up the holiday schedule we broadly adhere to, children needed to be home in the summer to work.

It was harvest time on the many farms around the British countryside and there was fruit to be picked. Grains needed to be scythed and threshed. Vegetables needed tending and, near the end, preserves needed to be made to sustain the family through the lean winter months.

Seen many kids running around with scythes in your neighbourhood? It's unlikely they're heading to harvest. Bolt the door and call 000.

This is particularly the case in Australia, where the summer break is married with the Christmas feast that happily bridges into the New Year.

In the northern hemisphere, at least, there are narratives that provide sense to the holidays: summer break is harvest and winter break is Christmas. Simple.

Here in Australia, we have summer break for both harvest (ostensibly) and Christmas.

Winter holidays are for … what? Giving school teachers a break from our children?

"I do work in schools and see students and teachers and they look pretty happy on last day of term," says Melbourne University educational psychologist Erica Frydenberg.

"It's a way to really miss your work, or miss your school, so you look forward to going back."

Well, exactly. You need a break from work. But, to be honest, your work also needs a break from you.

It's a management truism that a rested employee is a happy employee, and that when a worker has a bit of a break, their productivity jumps.

This is where the "blowing off steam" and "rediscovering your inner self" stuff we were taking about earlier is given economic value.

Back in 1999, a study at Cornell University found that workers who take short breaks and stretch were more productive that those who kept their nose to the grindstone.

Researchers studied the accuracy of keystrokes among workers at a New York insurance company.

A little pop-up was created to appear on computer screens reminding the workers to take a break from time to time. Researchers found those receiving the reminders were 13 per cent more accurate on average in their work than those who received no reminders.

This equated to a 1 per cent improvement in productivity, which meant faster returns for the company and a healthier workforce: win-win!

But in reality, the insights here go right back to Henry Ford and the five-day, 40-hour work week.

In 1926, Ford realised two things:

In an interview with World's Work magazine that year, he said leisure was "indispensable" to a growing economy because "working people need to have enough free time to find uses for consumer products, including automobiles".

So, you're on holidays from work so that you have time to buy things. It turns out work wants their money back.

You're welcome.