my $now = time;
my $today = $now - ($now % 86400);
while (<DATA>) { # read bank holiday file
    ...
    next if $bh_start < $today; # history
    ...
}
...

##</code><code>##

start of day (epoch based):Thu Oct 17 01:00:00 2013
Bank Hols
Mon Oct 21 00:00:00 2013
Mon Feb  3 00:00:00 2014