Holiday

A holiday is a day or other period of time set aside for festivals or recreation. Public holidays are set by public authorities and vary by state or region. Religious holidays are set by religious organisations for their members and are often also observed as public holidays in religious majority countries. Some religious holidays, such as Christmas, have become secularised by part or all of those who observe them. In addition to secularisation, many holidays have become commercialised due to the growth of industry.^[1]

Holidays can be thematic, celebrating or commemorating particular groups, events, or ideas, or non-thematic, days of rest that do not have any particular meaning. In

The celebration of the New Year has been a common holiday across cultures for at least four millennia.[3] Such holidays normally celebrate the last day of a year and the arrival of the next year in a calendar system. In modern cultures using the Gregorian calendar, the New Year's celebration spans New Year's Eve on 31 December and New Year's Day on 1 January. However, other calendar systems also have New Year's celebration, such as Chinese New Year and Vietnamese Tet.^[4] New Year's Day is the most common public holiday, observed by all countries using the Gregorian calendar except Israel.^[5]

Christmas is a popular holiday globally due to the spread of Christianity. The holiday is recognised as a public holiday in many countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Australasia and is celebrated by over 2 billion people.^[6] Although a holiday with religious origins, Christmas is often celebrated by non-Christians as a secular holiday. For example, 61% of British people celebrate Christmas in an entirely secular way.^[7] Christmas has also become a tradition in some non-Christian countries. For many Japanese people, it has become customary to buy and eat fried chicken on Christmas.^[8][9]

Recently invented holidays commemorate a range of modern social and political issues and other important topics. The United Nations publishes a list of International Days and Weeks. One such day is International Women's Day on 8 March, which celebrates women's achievements and campaigns for gender equality and women's rights.^[10] Earth Day has been celebrated by people across the world since 1970, with 10,000 events in 2007. It is a holiday marking the dangers of environmental damage, such as pollution and the climate crisis.^[11]

Common secular holidays

Other

Another example of a major secular holiday is the Lunar New Year, which is celebrated across East Asia and South East Asia. Many other days are marked to celebrate events or people, but are not strictly holidays as time off work is rarely given; examples include Arbor Day (originally U.S.), Labor Day (celebrated sometimes under different names and on different days in different countries), and Earth Day (22 April).

Public holidays

Substitute holidays

If a holiday coincides with another holiday or a

National days are days of significance to a nation or nation state. National days are typically celebratory of a state's independence (e.g. 4 July in the US), founding or unification (e.g. German Unity Day), the commemoration of a revolution (e.g. Bastille Day in France) or liberation (e.g. 9 May in the Channel Islands), or the feast day for a patron saint (e.g. St Patrick's Day in Ireland) or ruler (e.g. 5 December in Thailand). Belgium's national day, on the 21st of July, commemorates the oath of office of the first King of the Belgians (an uncle of the then-future Queen Victoria), i.e., so to say, the day Belgium became a kingdom by ending the initial interregnum. Every country other than Denmark and the United Kingdom observes a national day.^[16] In the UK, constituent countries have official or unofficial national days associated with their patron saint. A British national day has often been proposed, such as the date of the Acts of Union 1707 (1 May) or the King's Official Birthday, but never adopted.^[17]

Other days of national importance exist, such as one to celebrate the country's military or veterans. For example, Armistice Day (11 November) is recognised in World War I Allied nations (and across the Commonwealth) to memoralise those lost in the World Wars. National leaders will typically attend remembrance ceremonies at national memorial sites. Maybe surprisingly, World War II Armistice Day (and victory against Nazism) day, on 8 May, is much less celebrated.

Religious holidays

Many holidays are linked to

Some religious holidays are also celebrated by many as secular holidays. For example, 61% of Brits celebrate Christmas in an entirely secular way.[7] 81% of non-Christian Americans also celebrate Christmas. A 2019 Gallup poll found that two-thirds of Americans still celebrate an at least somewhat religious Christmas.^[19]

The claimed over-secularisation of particular holidays has caused controversy and claims of censorship of religion or political correctness. For example, in the 1990s, Birmingham City Council promoted a series of events in the Christmas season under the brand Winterval to create a more multi-cultural atmosphere about the seasonal festivities. The Bishop of Birmingham responded to the events, saying "the secular world, which expresses respect for all, is actually embarrassed by faith. Or perhaps it is Christianity which is censored".^[20] In the United States, conservative commentators have characterised the secularisation of Winter festivities as "the War on Christmas".^[21]

Unofficial holidays

These are holidays that are not traditionally marked on calendars. These holidays are celebrated by various groups and individuals. Some promote a cause, others recognize historical events not officially recognized, and others are "funny" holidays celebrated with humorous intent. For example,

Commercialism

In the United States, holidays have been drawn into a culture of consumption since the late 19th century. Many civic, religious and folk festivals have been commercialised. As such, traditions have been reshaped to serve the needs of industry. Leigh Eric Schmidt argues that the growth of consumption culture allowed the growth of holidays as an opportunity for increased public consumption and the orderly timing of it. Thus, after the Civil War, as department stores became the spatial expression of commercialism, holidays became the temporal expression of it.^[1]

See also

• Christmas and holiday season
• Holiday heart syndrome
• Public holiday
• List of holidays by country
• Commemoration (Anglicanism)
• Tribute

References