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American Holidays

The federal government establishes national holidays for federal employees and Washington D.C., but each state sets its own legal holidays. Most states follow the federal holidays which include New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Some states also observe additional holidays like Confederate Memorial Day. Religious holidays are observed but not given legal status. Other popular holidays like Valentine's Day and Halloween are neither legal nor official. The two most quintessentially American holidays are Independence Day, celebrated with patriotic events and picnics, and Thanksgiving, a day for families to gather and remember those less fortunate.

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Elise et Toby Alderweireld
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65 views1 page

American Holidays

The federal government establishes national holidays for federal employees and Washington D.C., but each state sets its own legal holidays. Most states follow the federal holidays which include New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Some states also observe additional holidays like Confederate Memorial Day. Religious holidays are observed but not given legal status. Other popular holidays like Valentine's Day and Halloween are neither legal nor official. The two most quintessentially American holidays are Independence Day, celebrated with patriotic events and picnics, and Thanksgiving, a day for families to gather and remember those less fortunate.

Uploaded by

Elise et Toby Alderweireld
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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American Holidays

Each of the fifty states in the USA establishes their own legal holidays. The federal government, through
the President and Congress, can legally set holidays only for federal employees and for the District of
Columbia. Most states however accept the federal legal holidays which are: New Year’s Day, Martin
Luther King’s Day, Washington’s Birthday, now called ‘President’s Day’ (the 3 rd Monday in February),
Memorial Day (last Monday in May), Independence Day, Labour Day (1st Monday in September),
Columbus Day, Veterans’ Day (November, 11th), Thanksgiving Day and Christmas.
Most states have holidays which are ‘observed’ but not necessarily legal. The name of the holiday goes
on the calendar for a state, yet it does not mean that business is always closed or children let out of
school. For example, Confederate Memorial Day is celebrated on the last Monday in April only in
Alabama and Mississippi.
Many religious holidays such as Good Friday, Hanukkah or Ramadan are observed by the religious, but
have no national or officially legal status. Rather each state sets its own laws, and whether or not an
employee is given time off also depends on individual company decisions.
There are many other traditional holidays, observed by a large number of Americans, which are neither
legal nor official. Among these are Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day (not just people with Irish ancestry
will ‘wear the green’ on March 17th), Mother’s Day and Halloween.
Perhaps the two ‘most American’ of the holidays are the 4 th of July – Independence
Day, and Thanksgiving. The first one is like a big nationwide birthday party. Some
towns and cities have parades with bands and flags, and most politicians will try to
give a patriotic speech, should anyone be willing to listen. But what makes this
holiday special is the atmosphere and enjoyment of, for instance, the family picnic
with hot dogs, hamburgers and volleyball, fireworks and rockets at night.
Like Christmas, Thanksgiving is a day for families to come together. Traditional
foods are prepared for the feast – turkey or ham, cranberry sauce, bread rolls and pumpkin pie. At the
same time Thanksgiving is a solemn occasion, a day to remember the many who are less well off, in
America and throughout the world.
Memorial Day honours the dead and it is celebrated on the 4 th Monday of May. Although
it originated in the aftermath of the Civil War, it has become a day on which the dead of
all wars and the dead generally, are remembered in special programs held in cemeteries,
churches and other public meeting places.
Labour Day is celebrated on the 1st Monday of September is the national holiday that
honours national working people, typically with parades. For most Americans it means the end of the
summer vacation season, and for many students it is the beginning of academic year.
Columbus Day on October 12, 1492, Italian navigator Christopher Columbus landed in the New World.
Although most other nations of the Americans observe this holiday on October 12, in the USA it takes
place on the 2nd Monday of October.
Veterans Day is originally called Armistice Day. This holiday was established to honour Americans who
had died in World War I. It falls on November 11, the day when that war ended in 1918, but it now
honours veterans of all wars in which the USA has fought. Veterans’ organizations hold parades, and the
president customarily places a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery,
across the Potomac River in Washington D.C.
The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., an African-American clergyman, is considered a great American
because of his tireless efforts to win civil rights for all people through nonviolent means. Since his
assassination in 1968, memorial services have marked his birthday on the 15 th of January. In 1986, that
day was replaced by the 3rd Monday of January, which was declared a national holiday.

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