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.

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.

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 or offices are closed such as Sunday.

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.

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

For farm holiday, see Agriturismo.

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".

Religious holidays

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

   * Christmas (Birth of Jesus Christ)
   * Holy Thursday (Celebration of The Last Supper)
   * Good Friday (Death of Jesus Christ)
   * Easter (Resurrection of Jesus Christ)
   * Ascension Day (Ascension of Jesus Christ into Heaven)
   * Pentecost (Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the disciples of Jesus Christ)
   * Whitsun
   * All Saints Day

Islamic/Muslim holidays

   * Ramadan
   * Eid: date determined by the lunar calendar and observation of the moon
        o Eid al Fitr, Lesser Bairam
        o Eid al Adha, Greater Bairam

Hindu holidays

   * Rama-Lilas

National holidays

   * Australia
        o ANZAC Day (also New Zealand) (April 25)
        o Australia Day (January 27)
        o Remembrance Day (November 11) - NOT a public holiday
        o Queen's Birthday Holiday (June 8)
        o Melbourne Cup Day (first tuesday in November) - Victoria only
        o Show Day (localised holiday, on a different day in each region)

   * Canada
        o Victoria Day (First Monday on or before May 24)
        o Canada Day (July 1)

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

   * France
        o Bastille Day

   * Japan
        o See Japanese Holidays

   * The Netherlands
        o Queen's day (April 30)
        o Remembrance of the dead (May 4)
        o Liberation day (May 5)

   * Singapore - Mondays are public holidays for any public holiday that
     falls on a Sunday
        o New Years Day
        o Lunar New Year aka Chinese New Year (2 days) - varies (based on
          the Chinese Calendar,Lunar Calendar), Jan 22 & 23 2004
        o Hari Raya Haji - varies, Feb 1 2004
        o Good Friday - Apr 9 2004
        o Labour Day aka May Day - May 1
        o Vesak Day - varies (Buddhist calendar), Jun 2 2004
        o National Day aka Independence Day - August 9
        o Deepavali - varies, Nov 11 2004
        o Hari Raya Puasa aka Ramadan - varies, Nov 14 2004
        o Christmas

   * South Africa
        o Human Rights Day (March 21)
        o Freedom day (April 27)
        o Youth Day (June 16)
        o National Womens Day (August 9)
        o Heritage Day (September 24)
        o Day of Reconciliation (December 16)

   * United Kingdom
        o see Bank Holiday

   * United States: Contrary to popular belief, there are no national
     holidays in the United States. All of the so called national holidays
     are in fact federal holidays. These apply only to employees of the
     federal government. Most states have declared state holidays to
     coincide with these federal holidays, but not all have. There has been
     numerous attempts to establish national holidays in the United States,
     but every attempt has failed.
        o New Year's Day (January 1)
        o Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. (third Monday in January)
        o Washington's Birthday (third Monday in February)
        o Memorial Day (fourth Monday in May; originally May 30)
        o Independence Day (July 4)
        o Labor Day (first Monday in September)
        o Columbus Day (second Monday in October; originally October 12)
        o Veteran's Day (second Monday in November; originally November 11)
        o Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November)
        o Christmas Day (December 25)

   * Mexico
        o D’a de la Constituci—n (February 5)
        o Natalicio de Benito Ju‡rez (March 21)
        o D’a del Trabajo (May 1)
        o Cinco de Mayo (May 5)
        o DiecisŽis de Septiembre (September 16), Mexican independence day
        o D’a de la Revoluci—n (November 20)

   * Italy
        o Capodanno (New Years Day) (January 1)
        o Epifania (January 6
        o Rome's foundation (April 21) (in Rome only)
        o St. Peter and St. Paul (June 30) (in Rome only)
        o Ferragosto (August 15)
        o The Victory on WWI (November 4)

Other holidays

   * Groundhog Day (February 2)
   * April Fool's Day (April 1)
   * Earth day (April 22)
   * Boxing Day (December 26)
   * Father's Day (3rd Sunday in June)
   * Grandparent's Day (Sunday after September Labor Day - proclaimed by
     Jimmy Carter in 1978)
   * Halloween (October 31)
   * Mother's Day (2nd Sunday in May)
   * Sweetest Day (Sometime in October)
   * Mother-in-Law's Day (4th Sunday in October)
   * New Year's Day - (January 1)
   * Programmer's day (256th day of the year)
   * Valentine's Day (February 14)
   * Worker's Day or May Day (May 1, most countries - United States and
     Canada are prominent exceptions)

How to - Physics - History - Companies - Internet - Video Games - List of Phobias - September 11, 2001
Radio - Timelines - Chemistry - Genealogy - Family - Film - SARS - Cancer - Medicine - DVD - Calendar
Countries - Disease - Health Science - Dentistry - Economics - AIDS - Law - Autism - Statistics - Bible
Recipes - Architecture - Computers - History of the Internet - Personal computer - Apple Macintosh
War - Presidents of the United States - United States Constitution - Universe - Philosophy - Animals
Biology - United States Constitution - Marketing Topics - Sports - Television - History of Computing

Car Credit - Info Videos - Hotel Las Vegas - Payday Loans - Problem Mortgage