In most states this means a week-long frenzy of grease-gulping, rollercoasters and pig-racing, as well as more civilised activities such as goat-milking and quilting.
Now that I am a grown up with a proper job and council tax bills, I like to imagine my summers filled with healthy adult activities: civilised lunch spreads in the park with hampers and blankets, chilled drinks and good food.
In one of his recent LRB pieces he recollects a period in the 1950s when studying English literature was not just regarded as important, but as the most valuable intellectual and moral activity a civilised man or woman could pursue.
This is the nightmare of southern Italy: you have normal, decent, civilised life and then you have the activities of the gangs, and they seem to be two utterly different realities that have nothing to do with each other.
Mr Hain said that this was "not the action of a civilised country".
Kuantan has a sweeping bay of pearl-coloured sand, a sea of jade, and the Swiss Garden - a four-star hotel with fine food, free children's activities and live Premiership football at a civilised drinking hour, perfect for exploring the south-eastern coast of the Malay peninsula.
Civilised society risked being undermined by "the most bestial activities", he warned.
"Now most people would consider such activities to be perverted, depraved, the very abrogation of civilised behaviour of which the law is supposed to be the safeguard.
Now Paul Dacre says "most people would consider such activities to be perverted, depraved, the very abrogation of civilised behaviour of which the law is supposed to be the safeguard".
"I think we have a job in this country, in a civilised, free, open democracy, to protect ourselves from the most bestial activities and from dangers that would undermine a civilised nation".
