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Holiday

A holiday is day set aside by a nation or culture (in some cases, multiple nations and cultures) typically for celebration but sometimes for some other kind of special culture-wide (or national) observation or activity.

Based on the English words holy and day, holidays originally represented special days of the Christian Church calendar. The word has evolved in general usage to mean any special day, or even non-special day on which school and/or offices are closed such as Sunday.

In late 20th century, Saturday has become increasingly considered holiday as well as Sunday.

In the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia, a holiday is also a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation (e.g. "I'm going on holiday to Majorca next week."), like an American "vacation".

Table of contents
1 Public Holiday
2 Consecutive holidays
3 Religious holidays
4 National holidays
5 Farmy Holiday
6 Others
7 Related Topics
8 External links

Public Holiday

A public holiday or legal holiday is a holiday endorsed by the state. Public holidays can be either religious, in which case they reflect the dominant religion in a country, or secular, in which case they are usually political or historical in character.

Consecutive holidays

Consecutive holidays are a string of holidays taken together without working days in between. They tend to be considered a good chance to take short trips, for example. In late 1990s, the Japanese government passed a law that increases the likehood of consecutive holidays by moving holidays fixed on certain day to a relative position in a month such as the second Monday. A well-known consecutive holiday in Japan is golden-week, roughly lasting a whole week.

Religious holidays

Jewish holidays

Main article: Jewish holidays
  • Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)
  • Passover
  • Rosh Hashanah (Spiritual New Year)
  • Purim (Based on the events in the Biblical book of Esther)
  • Sukkot (The Feast of Tabernacles)
  • Hannukah (also: Chanukah; the Feast of Lights)
  • Tu B'shevat (New year of the trees)
  • Purim
  • Yom HaShoah (Holocaust remembrance day)
  • Yom Ha'atzma'ut (Israel independence day)
  • Shavuot (The Feast of Weeks)
  • Tisha B'Av

Christian holidays

See liturgical year for a detailed list.

Islamic/Muslim holidays

Hindu holidays

National holidays

Australia

Canada

See list at http://www.pch.gc.ca/progs/cpsc-ccsp/jfa-ha/index_e.cfm

Cyprus

  • 1st January - First Day of January
  • 10th March - Green Monday
  • 25th March - Greek Independence Day
  • 1st April - Cyprus National Day
  • 25th April - Good Friday
  • 28th April - After Easter
  • 29th April - After Easter
  • 1st May - Labour Day
  • 16th June - Holy Spirit
  • 15th August - Assumption Day
  • 1st October - Cyprus Independence Day
  • 28th October - Greek National Day
  • 25th December - Christmas Day
  • 26th December - After Christmas Day

France

Germany

See Holidays in Germany.

Italy

Japan

See Japanese Holidays.

Mexico

The Netherlands

Puerto Rico

Mondays are public holidays for any public holiday that falls on a Sunday. See also Holidays in Puerto Rico for a detailed list.

Singapore

Mondays are public holidays for any public holiday that falls on a Sunday.

South Africa

Sweden

See Holidays in Sweden.

United Kingdom

See Bank Holiday.

United States

Unlike countries where holidays are required by law, there are no national holidays in the United States. However, the United States Congress has created federal holidays for employees of the United States Government. While these are not legal holidays outside of the District of Columbia, most states have declared state holidays to coincide with these federal holidays. In spite of numerous attempts, the United States has never established true national holidays.

The holidays, and the days on which they are normally celebrated, are:

The federal government still observes Veterans Day on 11 November. The state of Washington does also, because it was admitted to statehood on 11 November 1889.

Farmy Holiday

See Agriturismo.

Others

Many other days are marked to celebrate events or people, but are not strictly holidays as time off work is rarely given.

Related Topics

Federal holiday, Bank Holiday, D-Day

External links



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