Every two weeks, a fortnightly event or publication occurs or appears. Fortnightly events usually last for 14 days and then stop (unless they continue into the next month). Therefore, you can say that a fortnight is fourteen days. Fortnights were first introduced by Henry VIII to provide him with an official notification of when court was held so that he would not have to wait until his next chance encounter with the king's face. The term eventually came to mean any period of 14 days, but this is not what it originally meant. In English law, a fortnight is any period of 14 days beginning and including a Monday. At common law, there are only five legal holidays: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, and Independence Day. Other days may be made legal holidays by statute or local ordinance. In Scotland, where civil servants have the right to choose their own working hours, some work longer hours than others.