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Holiday

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 Australia, Canada, 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 Majorca next week."), like an American "vacation".

Table of contents

1 Public Holiday 2 Consecutive holidays 3 Religious holidays 3.1 Jewish holidays 3.2 Christian holidays 3.3 Islamic/Muslim holidays 3.4 Hindu holidays 4 National holidays 4.5 Albania 4.6 Australia 4.7 Belgium 4.8 Canada 4.9 China 4.10 Cyprus 4.11 Denmark 4.12 Finland 4.13 France 4.14 Germany 4.15 India 4.16 Ireland 4.17 Italy 4.18 Japan 4.19 Latvia 4.20 Malaysia 4.21 Mexico 4.22 The Netherlands 4.23 New Zealand 4.24 Poland 4.25 Russia 4.26 Singapore 4.27 South Africa 4.28 Sweden 4.29 United Kingdom 4.30 United States 4.30.1 Puerto Rico 5 Farmy Holiday 6 Others 7 Humorous, Entertaining Holidays 8 Related Topics 9 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 likelihood 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. Similar phenomenon appears in Poland during holidays of 1st and 3rd of May, when taking few days of leaves can result in even 9 days long holidays. This is called The Picnic or (Majówka).

The US Congress changed the observance of Memorial Day, Veteran's Day, and Washington's Birthday from fixed dates to certain Monday's in 1968 (effective 1971). Several states had passed similar laws earlier.

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)
• Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras (last day of Carnival)
• Ash Wednesday
• Holy Thursday or Maundy 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) also known as Whitsun
• Corpus Christi
• Assumption Day (Assumption of the Virgin Mary)
• All Saints Day

Islamic/Muslim holidays

• Ramadan
• Eid: date determined by the lunar calendar and observation of the moon
  • Eid_ul-Fitr, Lesser Bairam
  • Eid_ul-Adha, Greater Bairam
• Aashurah (especially in Shi'a Islam)

Hindu holidays

• Rama-Lilas

Albania

• Public holidays in Albania

Australia

• New Year's Day (January 1)
• Australia Day (January 26)
• Easter - Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday
• ANZAC Day (also New Zealand) (April 25)
• Adelaide Cup Day (second Tuesday in May) - South Australia only
• Queen's Birthday Holiday (Second Monday in June)
• Melbourne Cup Day (first Tuesday in November) - Victoria only
• Remembrance Day (November 11) - NOT a public holiday
• Christmas Day (December 25)
• Boxing Day (December 26)
• Proclamation Day (December 26) - South Australia only
• Labour Day (localised holiday, on a different day in each region)
• Show Day (localised holiday, on a different day in each region)

Belgium

See the list at Public holidays in Belgium for the names of the holidays in Flemish and Walloon.

• New Year's Day (January 1)
• Easter (variable date)
• Easter Monday (variable date)
• Labour Day (May 1)
• Ascension (variable date)
• Pentecost (variable date)
• Pentecost Monday (variable day)
• Holiday of the Flemish Community (July 11) only held in Flanders
• National holiday (July 21)
• Assumption of Mary (August 15)
• Holiday of the Walloon Community (September 27) only held in Wallonia
• All Saints (November 1)
• All Souls Day (November 2)
• Armistice Day (November 11)
• Christmas (December 25)

Canada

• Victoria Day (First Monday on or before May 24)
• Canada Day (July 1)
• Thanksgiving Day (Second Monday in October)
• Remembrance Day (November 11)

China

Traditional holidays:

• Chinese Lunar New Year (month 1 day 1)
• Lantern Festival (month 1 day 15)
• Qing Ming Jie (April 4 or 5)
• Dragon Boat (month 5 day 5)
• Qi Qiao Jie (month 7 day 7)
• Ghost Festival (month 7 day 15)
• Mid-Autumn Festival (month 8 day 15)
• Double Ninth Festival (month 9 day 9)

• New Year's Day (January 1)
• International Labor Day (May 1)
• CPC Founding Day (July 1)
• Army Day (August 1)
• National Day (October 1)

• Founding Day (January 1)
• Peace Memorial Day (February 28)
• Tomb Sweeping Day (April 5)
• Double Tenth Day (October 10)

• Chinese calendar
• Holidays in Taiwan
• Public holidays in Hong Kong

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

Denmark

Finland

France

• 1st January - New Year's Day
• Easter Sunday
• Easter Monday
• Ascension Day (Forty days after Easter)
• Pentecost (7th Sunday after Easter)
• Monday after Pentecost
• 1st May - May Day
• 8th May - Victory in Europe Day
• 14th July - Bastille Day
• 15th August - Assumption Day
• 1st November - All Saints Day
• 11th November - Armistice Day (1918 War)
• 25th December - Christmas Day

Germany

India

Ireland

Italy

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

Japan

Latvia

Malaysia

• Hari Buruh - Labour Day (May 1)
• Hari Kebangsaan - National Day (August 31)

Mexico

• Día de la Constitución; (February 5)
• Natalicio de Benito Juárez; (March 21)
• Día del Trabajo; (May 1)
• Cinco de Mayo (May 5)
• Dieciséis de Septiembre; (September 16), Mexican independence day
• Día de la Revolución; (November 20)

The Netherlands

• Queen's day (April 30)
• Remembrance of the dead (May 4)
• Liberation day (May 5)

New Zealand

• New Year's Day and the day following. (January 1 and January 2) (Monday-ised)
• Waitangi Day (February 6) - The day the Treaty of Waitangi was signed. (Has also been known as New Zealand Day
• Easter
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