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Holidays

The word holiday has related but different meanings in English-speaking countries. Based on the words holy and day -, holidays originally represented special religious days. The word has evolved in general usage to mean any special day.

In most of the English-speaking world a holiday is also a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation (e.g. "I'm going on holiday to Cyprus next week"), the North American equivalent being "vacation". However, some Canadians (especially those of English or Irish decent) will use both the terms vacation and holiday interchangeably when referring to a trip away from home or time off work.

In Canada and the United States, a Holiday is a day set aside by a nation or culture (in some cases, multiple nations and cultures) typically for celebration but sometimes for some other kind of special culture-wide (or national) observation or activity. A holiday can also be a special day on which school and/or offices are closed, such as Labour Day.

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. "Public Holiday" is the term used in Australia and "Bank Holiday" in the UK — although some industries in the UK work through Bank Holidays — while "Legal holiday" is the term used within the United States of America.
 

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