Best of Holidays
Discount Holiday Hotel Accommodation Reservation
Discount hotel accommodation reservation is a comprehensive directory of hotels throughout the world, including secure hotel reservations,
travel and lodging worldwide.
The word holiday has related but different meanings in English-speaking countries. A contraction of holy and day,
holidays originally represented special religious days. This word has evolved in general usage to mean any special day of
rest (as opposed to regular days of rest such as the weekend). In the English-speaking world a holiday can mean a period spent away
from home or business in travel or recreation (e.g. "I'm going on holiday to Malta next week"); the North American equivalent is "vacation".
Canadians often use the terms vacation and holiday interchangeably when referring to a trip away from home or time off work. In Australia,
the term can refer to a vacation or gazetted public holiday, but not to a day of commemoration such as Mothers' Day or Halloween.
In all of the English-speaking world, a holiday can be 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) observance or activity. A holiday can also
be a special day on which school and/or offices are closed, such as Labor Day.
When translated into other languages, the meanings of the word "holiday" are sometimes conflated with those of "observance" and "celebration".
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. In late 1990s, the Japanese government passed a law that increased the likelihood of consecutive holidays by moving holidays from fixed days to a relative position in a month, such as the second Monday. Well-known consecutive holidays include:
Beginning in 2000, Spring Festival, Labor Day and National Day are week-long holidays in the People's Republic of China.
In Japan, golden-week, lasting roughly a full week. Then, in 2007, the law was amended so that if any 2 public holidays occur both on a weekday and are separated by a day, then that intermediate day shall also be a public holiday, thus creating a 3-day long public holiday.
In Colombia, in the the holy week there are consecutive holidays Jueves Santo (Holy Thursday) and Viernes Santo (Holy Friday) (variable dates in March or April)
In Poland during holidays on the 1st May and 3rd May, when taking a few days of leave can result in 9-day-long holidays; this is called The Picnic (or Majówka).
In Ireland, St. Patrick's Day can occasionally occur in Holy Week, the week before Easter; in this case the three holidays (St. Patrick's Day, Good Friday, and Easter Monday) plus three days leave can result in a 10-day break. See Public holidays in the Republic of Ireland.
In Australia, Canada, Poland and the UK, a public holiday otherwise falling on a Sunday will result in observance of the public holiday on the next available weekday (generally Monday). This arrangement results in a long weekend
The U.S. Congress changed the observance of Memorial Day and Washington's Birthday from fixed dates to certain Mondays in 1968 (effective 1971). Several states had passed similar laws earlier.
In The Netherlands, Queen's day is celebrated on 30th April, Remembrance of the Dead on the 4th May and Liberation day every 5 years on the 5th May. When Queen's day falls on Friday and Liberation Day is celebrated, two days' break can result in a 10-day break.
