What is Happy Hour - and where does it come from?

Event: Happy Hour

Happy Hour is a time where people mingle, do business meetings, have fun with their coworkers and friends and usually takes place on weekdays after work hours.

Updated: Tuesday, December 11, 2007

In the 1920s USA, happy hour was Navy slang for the scheduled period of entertainment on-ship. After the passage of the Volstead Act when alcohol was prohibited in the United States, civilians held "cocktail hours" at speakeasies, and in their own homes, to fortify themselves before dinner. Post-prohibition cocktail lounges continued the custom of pre-dinner cocktails.

Happy hour became a common term around 1960; it appeared in a 1959 Saturday Evening Post article on military life. Owing its name to the word "happy" as meaning 'slightly drunk' happy hour became known more as an after-work ritual, instead of a prelude to the evening. In the 1980s, bars offered complimentary hors d'oeuvres for happy hour, in response to the heightened enforcement of anti-drunk-driving laws.

Happy Hour is also a time to get plenty of food that is usually offered at a 50 percent discount at participating bars and restaurants. The most popular happy hours are those that offer a combination of drink and food specials as well as entertainment either in the form of a DJ, band, darts, juke box, karaoke, pool or special TV programs such as sports.

Glasgow and Oklahoma City are two of many cities which has banned happy hours to reduce binge drinking, as has the Republic of Ireland. Even the U.S. military got in the act, when in 1984 they abolished happy hours at military base clubs.