Holiday Flags

The word holiday has related but different meanings in English-speaking countries. Based on the Old English words holy and day (halig dæg), holidays originally represented special religious days. The word has evolved in general usage to mean any special day. more...

In Canada and the United States, a holiday is a 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 holiday can also be a special day on which school and/or offices are closed, such as Labor Day.

In most of the rest of the English-speaking world (including Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, and the United Kingdom) a holiday is also a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation (e.g. "I'm going on holiday to Mallorca next week"), the North American equivalent being "vacation". However, some Canadians (especially those of English or Irish decent) will use both the terms vacation and holiday interchangeably when referring to a trip away from home or time off work.

Public holidays

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. "Public Holiday" is the term used in Australia and "Bank Holiday" in the UK, although some industries in the UK work through Bank Holidays. "Legal Holiday" is not a term used outside the United States.

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. In late 1990s, the Japanese government passed a law that increased the likelihood of consecutive holidays by moving holidays from fixed days to a relative position in a month, such as the second Monday. Well-known consecutive holidays include:

• In Japan, golden-week, lasting roughly a full week.
• In Poland during holidays on the 1st and 3rd of May, when taking a few days of leave can result in 9-day-long holidays; this is called The Picnic (or Majówka).
• In Ireland, St. Patrick's Day can occasionally occur in Holy Week, the week before Easter; in this case the three holidays (St. Patrick's Day, Good Friday, and Easter Monday) plus three days leave can result in a 10-day break.
• In Australia, a public holiday otherwise falling on a Sunday will result in observance of the public holiday on the next available weekday (generally Monday). This arrangement results in a long weekend
• The U.S. Congress changed the observance of Memorial Day, Veterans Day, and Washington's Birthday from fixed dates to certain Mondays in 1968 (effective 1971). Several states had passed similar laws earlier.

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