Thursday a consequence, some call Thursday "thirstday" or "thirsty Thursday". In the United Kingdom, all general elections since 1935 have been held on a Thursday, and this has become a tradition, although not a requirement of the law — which merely states that an election may be held on any day ""except Saturdays, Sundays, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Good Friday, bank holidays in any part of the United Kingdom and any day appointed for public thanksgiving and mourning."" Additionally, local elections are usually held on the first Thursday in May. The Electoral Administration Act 2006 removed Maundy Thursday as an excluded
Royal Maundy by Mint officials as gifts. Small quantities of Maundy twopences and fourpences (principally the latter) were obtained by colleges at the University of Cambridge for use in making token annual payments. These requests were fulfilled until the middle of the 20th century, after which the Royal Mint refused them; the colleges thereafter used obsolete circulation groats (fourpences), or dispensed with the custom. According to Robinson, the practice of recipients being asked to sell their gifts "is of long standing". Robinson recounts a description of the scenes after a Maundy service at the turn of the 19th century: [A]s soon as