Happy hour

Key takeaways

Happy hour belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Happy hour to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Happy hour from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Happy hour is a marketing term for a time of day when a venue such as a restaurant or bar offers reduced prices on alcoholic drinks. Menu items like appetizers are also often offered at a discounted price during happy hour. This is a way for bars and restaurants to draw in more business before or after peak business hours.

Origin The words "happy" and "hour" have appeared together for centuries when describing pleasant times. In Act I, Scene 2 of William Shakespeare's Henry V, he says, "Therefore, my lords, omit no happy hour/That may give furtherance to our expedition..." The use of the phrase "happy hour" to refer to a scheduled period of entertainment is, however, more recent. One possible origin of the term "happy hour," in the sense of a scheduled period of entertainment, is from the United States Navy. The name "Happy Hour Club," "Happy Hour Social Club," and similar variants had been in use as the names of social clubs, primarily by women's social clubs, since at least the early 1880s. In early 1913, a group of homemakers called the "Happy Hour Social" organised "semi-weekly smokers" on board USS Arkansas. By June 1913, the crew of Arkansas had started referring to their regularly scheduled smokers as happy hours. The happy hours included a variety of entertainment, including boxing and wrestling matches, music, dancing, and movies. By the end of World War I, the practice of holding happy hours had spread throughout the Navy. The idea of drinking before dinner has its roots in the Prohibition era. When the 18th Amendment and the Volstead Act were passed banning alcohol consumption, people would host "cocktail hours", also known as "happy hours", at a speakeasy before eating at restaurants where alcohol could not be served. Cocktail lounges continued the trend of drinking before dinner. The Random House Dictionary of American Slang dates "Happy hour," as a term for afternoon drinks in a bar, to a Saturday Evening Post article on military life in 1959. The article detailed the lives of government contractors and military personnel who worked at missile-tracking facilities in the Caribbean and the Atlantic. "Except for those who spend too much during 'happy hour' at the bar – and there are few of these – the money mounts up fast." Barry Popick's online etymology dictionary The Big Apple lists several pre-1959 citations to "Happy Hour" in print, mostly from places near naval bases in California, from as early as 1951.

Regulations

Canada The Province of Alberta created restrictions to happy hours that took effect in August 2008. All such promotions must end at 8:00 p.m, and drink prices must conform to the Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission's minimum price regulations at all times. In Ontario, while establishments may vary liquor prices as long as they stay above the minimum prices set by the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario, they are not permitted to advertise these prices "in a manner that may promote immoderate consumption." Formerly, the phrase "happy hour" could not be used in such advertisement. That restriction was removed in 2019.

Ireland Happy hour has been illegal in the Republic of Ireland since 2003, under the Intoxicating Liquor Act.

Netherlands The Koninklijke Horeca Nederland (KHN), a hospitality sector lobby group, agreed with its members to stop happy hours to discourage binge drinking by youth, but only if the government would vote to not raise the minimum drinking age. In March 2013, the law to raise the drinking age to 18 was passed.

United Kingdom The National Mandatory Licensing Conditions introduced in 2010 required licensees to take "all reasonable steps" to prevent irresponsible drinks promotions which effectively banned traditional happy hours. Under the 2014 revision to these conditions, the licensee "must ensure" such promotions do not take place, although there is a subjective test, that takes account of the kind of establishment and its track record, for any promotions that offer unlimited or unspecified alcohol free or for a fixed or discounted fee.

Glasgow In 2004, Glasgow banned happy hours to reduce binge drinking.

United States

Massachusetts was the first U.S. state to implement a statewide ban on happy hours in 1984. Several other U.S. states also have similar restrictions. The reasons for each ban vary, but include preventing drunk driving, avoiding the nuisance to neighbors from loud crowds and public drunkenness, and discouraging unhealthy consumption of a large amount of alcohol in a short time. In 1984, the U.S. military abolished happy hours at military base clubs. In 2011, the Utah State Legislature passed a ban on happy hours. In July 2011, Pennsylvania extended the period of allowable time for happy hour from two hours to four hours. In June 2012, happy hour became legal in Kansas after a 26-year ban. In July 2015, a 25-year happy hour ban was ended in Illinois. As of July 2015, happy hour bans existed in Alaska, Hawaii, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Utah, and Vermont. A bill filed in 2023 in the North Carolina General Assembly would end the state ban on happy hours, but the bill is still pending.

For other services By extension, certain file-hosting websites such as RapidShare and Megaupload use the term "happy hour" to designate periods during which users have complimentary access to certain premium features, such as increased bandwidth, elimination of queues, and bypassing of CAPTCHA verifications.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Happy hour

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Happy hour claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Happy hour before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Happy hour ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Happy hour

In research: Happy hour appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Happy hour in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Happy hour is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Drinking culture, Parts of a day, Restaurant terminology, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Happy hour outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Happy hour in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Happy hour means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Happy hour out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Happy hour in simple terms?

Happy hour is a marketing term for a time of day when a venue such as a restaurant or bar offers reduced prices on alcoholic drinks. Menu items like appetizers are also often offered at a discounted price during happy hour.

Why does Happy hour matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Happy hour?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Happy hour.