A holiday is a single day set apart by law or custom where normal daily activities, particularly work or school including church, are either suspended or completely stopped. In general, holidays are meant to let people to commemorate or celebrate an occasion or belief of religious or cultural value. There are many different types of holidays that we celebrate around the world. Some of the major ones are Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Halloween and Mother’s Day.
In United States, most of the states and communities observe two major religious holidays: Christmas and New Year’s Day. In most of these states, Christmas is observed as a legal holiday while New Year’s Day is not. Some communities also have their own variant of New Year’s Day and / or a version of Valentine’s Day. While some of the major holidays have been specified in our Constitution, such as the national Thanksgiving holiday, others like Mother’s Day and National Volunteer Week may be celebrated as special events within a state.
In many countries around the world, there are also various celebrations that are designated as particular holidays. For example, Chinese New Year, unlike the Gregorian calendar, falls on the first day of the new year. This also falls on the night of the mid-winter period. Japan celebrates the event of Tanakasai, which is the date when Emperor Meiji was born. The Islamic month of Ramadan falls on the ninth month of the Islamic calendar.
One can find a great number of ways to celebrate a holiday. They are marked by customs and traditions and are meant to symbolize the meaning of the event or day. People use holidays to rest from their work and socializing and spend some time away from home. Some use this period to get closer to family and friends, or devote themselves to other worthwhile spiritual pursuits.
Historically, Christians have celebrated a number of different religious festivals throughout the year. During the spring season, like the one on Mother’s Day, Christians commemorate motherhood and the gift of birth with gifts and flowers. In China, there is the Great Mongolian Fire Festival, in which fire is viewed as the element that makes everything good in the world, and on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, the Great Migration, which involves migrating to another country to start a new life in that nation, is marked with the Great Wall festival.
There are various definitions of what a holiday is and its etymology is also uncertain. In some instances, the word holiday is used to define a series of related days such as payday, Christmas, and St. Patrick’s Day. On the other hand, in other instances the word holiday can be used to describe normal activities. In British English, for example, it refers to mid-winter period, while in American English, it refers to mid-autumn period. Based on the etymology of the word, a British holiday may be described as the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off the work week, while a more common American holiday is the mid-weekend.