The main holidays I celebrated growing up through the decades, and still do, were New Year, Easter, Bonfire Night and Christmas. Celebrating Halloween came much later in my adult years. All these contain happy memories with my family, kids and grandkids.
These holidays carry their traditions and traditions meant a lot to my Mom and they mean a lot to me because as long as I carry on doing the things she did, and my own, they will never die out in a world where such things don’t seem to matter anymore to a lot of people. The traditions that Mom loved, and the ones we did together, forever bring a smile to my face and happy memories and as long as I can do them I will and keep them alive, not just for me but for my grandkids and Mom too because I know she is here in spirit to enjoy them too.
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About Holidays
A holiday is a day or other period set aside for festivals or recreation. They appear at various times during the four seasons. 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.
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 Commonwealth English, the term can refer to any period of rest from work, (a.k.a. vacations) or school holidays. Holidays typically refer to the period from Thanksgiving (in the United States, Canada, Grenada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil, Germany and the Philippines. It is also observed in the Dutch town of Leiden and the Australian territory of Norfolk Island) to New Year’s.
If there is a celebration of some sort you will usually see lots of colourful fireworks.
A great display of blue fireworks.
New Year
You can read about New Year here.
Easter
You can read about Easter here.
Halloween
You can read about Halloween here.
Bonfire Night
You can read about Bonfire Night here.
Christmas
You can read about Christmas here.
Terminology
The word holiday comes from the Old English word hāligdæg (hālig “holy” + dæg “day”). The word originally referred only to special religious days.
The word holiday has differing connotations in different regions. In the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth nations, the word may refer to the period where leave from one’s duties has been agreed upon. This time is usually set aside for rest, travel, or participation in recreational activities, with entire industries targeted to coincide with or enhance these experiences. The days of leave may not coincide with any specific customs or laws. Employers and educational institutes may designate holidays themselves, which may or may not overlap nationally or culturally relevant dates, which again comes under this connotation, but it is the first implication detailed that this article is concerned with. Modern use varies geographically. In the United States, the word is used exclusively to refer to the nationally, religiously, or culturally observed day(s) of rest or celebration or the events themselves and is known as a vacation. In North America, it means any dedicated day or period of celebration.
Global Holidays
The celebration of the New Year has been a common holiday across cultures for at least four millennia. Such holidays normally celebrate the last day of the 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 the 31st of December and New Year’s Day on the 1st of January. However, other calendar systems also have New Year’s celebrations, such as Chinese New Year and Vietnamese Tet. New Year’s Day is the most common public holiday, observed by all countries using the Gregorian calendar except Israel.
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. 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. Christmas has also become a tradition in some non-Christian countries. For example, for many Japanese people, it has become customary to buy and eat fried chicken on Christmas.
Public Holidays
Read more about Public Holidays here.
Substitute Holidays
If a holiday coincides with another holiday or a weekend day a substitute holiday may be recognised in lieu. In the United Kingdom, the government website states that “If a bank holiday is on a weekend, a substitute weekday becomes a bank holiday, normally the following Monday.” The process of moving a holiday from a weekend day to the following Monday is known as Mondayisation in New Zealand.
Religious Holidays
Many holidays are linked to faiths and religions (see etymology above). Christian holidays are defined as part of the liturgical year, the chief ones being Easter and Christmas. The Orthodox Christian and Western-Roman Catholic patronal feast day or name day is celebrated on each place’s patron saint’s day, according to the Calendar of Saints. Jehovah’s Witnesses annually commemorate The Memorial of Jesus Christ’s Death but do not celebrate other holidays with any religious significance such as Easter, Christmas or New Year. This holds especially true for those holidays that have combined and absorbed rituals, overtones or practices from non-Christian beliefs into the celebration, as well as those holidays that distract from or replace the worship of Jehovah. In Islam, the largest holidays are Eid al-Fitr (immediately after Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha (at the end of the Hajj). Ahmadi Muslims additionally celebrate Promised Messiah Day, Promised Reformer Day, and Khilafat Day, but contrary to popular belief, neither are regarded as holidays. Hindus, Jains and Sikhs observe several holidays, one of the largest being Diwali (Festival of Light). Japanese holidays as well as a few Catholic holidays contain heavy references to several different faiths and beliefs. Celtic, Norse, and Neopagan holidays follow the order of the Wheel of the Year. For example, Christmas ideas like decorating trees and colours (green, red, and white) have very similar ideas to modern Wicca (a modern Pagan belief) Yule which is a lesser Sabbat of the wheel of the year. Some are closely linked to Swedish festivities. The Bahaʼí Faith observes 11 annual holidays on dates determined using the Bahaʼí calendar. Jews have two holiday seasons, the Spring Feasts of Pesach (Passover) and Shavuot (Weeks, called Pentecost in Greek) and the Fall Feasts of Rosh Hashanah (Head of the Year), Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), Sukkot (Tabernacles), and Shemini Atzeret (Eighth Day of Assembly).
See Also
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