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".
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2 National holidays 3 Others 4 External links |
Many other days are marked to celebrate events or people, but are not strictly holidays as time off work is rarely given.
Religious holidays
Jewish holidays
Main article: Jewish holidays
Christian holidays
Islamic/Muslim holidays
Hindu holidays
National holidays
See Holidays in Germany
See Holidays in SwedenOthers
External links
