Okay, this is something that's kind of stumping me. Are things like Halloween, Mother's Day, Father's Day and other similar days considered holidays? I know for a fact days like Thanksgiving, Christmas and other similar days are holidays, but if the former holidays I just mentioned (Halloween, Mother's Day, Father's Day) fall on a school / work week (for those that don't work on weekends), we still have to go to school or work, whereas with the latter holidays I mentioned (Thanksgiving, Christmas), we don't have to go to school or work. Doing some researching, it seems that days like Halloween are technically holidays, they just aren't religious or something and we therefore don't get days off for them. However, my mom says that days like Halloween aren't holidays. Discuss.
They are holidays, but they don't have the "significance" the other ones do. We get Christmas off because of the religious connotation of the event. Even though it's very much marketed in the present day, at its roots, it's still a Christian holiday (much like Easter). Thanksgiving is a cultural celebration for the US, so that's why we get it off too. In the end, there is a clear bias in our country's views on holidays, as the ones who decided these days were the ones we get off were, mostly, old Christian white dudes. Halloween isn't considered as "significant" a holiday for this reason because it was originally a Pagan holiday. Mother's/Father's Day, while I believe they don't carry any religious weight (could be wrong), but they're also unfortunately rather forgettable at times.
So going by memory, I believe this is correct: Legend: Red = Day Off Orange = Unsure Green = No Day Off January 1: New Year's Day Third Monday in January: Martin Luther King Jr. Day February 14: Valentine's Day March 17: Saint Patrick's Day April 1: April Fools' Day May 5: Cinco de Mayo Second Sunday in May: Mother's Day May 31: Memorial Day Third Sunday in June: Father's Day July 4: Independence Day First Monday in September: Labor Day First Sunday after Labor Day: Grandparent's Day Second Monday in October: Columbus Day October 31: Halloween November 11: Veterans Day Fourth Thursday in November: Thanksgiving Day - Then we also have Friday off for some unknown reason. December 24: Christmas Eve - People still work, but get off early. December 25: Christmas Day December 31: New Year's Eve - I think it's the same as December 24. For a full list of US holidays, see this Wikipedia article. I only listed the ones we're most aware of.
Why did you list Cinco de Mayo? That's not relevant to the US. It's not even relevant to Mexico considering they got their asses handed to them after that battle by the French. It's not significant to anyone. Just people who believe that Cinco de Mayo is Mexico's independence day(which it's not). For some strange reason, there are people who celebrate it here in the US though...I don't know why. It'd be like someone here in the US(or in Canada) celebrating Canada Day. Anyways, we don't get Veteran's Day off over here. At least not in colleges/universities. You don't need to have a day off to call something a holiday. It just needs to be a time of year that is nationally(globally?) recognized.
This is partly tied to understanding what exactly a holiday is. Not all "holidays" are days off, and not all days off can be considered "holidays" in the sense (I never consider staying at home due to a tearful bout of bronchitis or flu a holiday, no matter how many games I get to play or books I get to read). From a number of sources (Wiki, dictionaries, etc.) it can be safely gauged that a "holiday" is just any sort of day where common day-to-day activities in society, such as work, have the potential to be suspended for celebration or leisure under custom, or in certain cases (such as Christmas), the law. By and by, this definition is very loose, and accordingly so different nations around the world (and heck, even different parts of the nations themselves) put different levels of significance on certain holidays, and the consideration of which holiday is important is usually dependent on the region's established customs itself. For example, Eid is a public holiday in Turkey, but in the United States, it is not treated as one.* Furthermore, holidays do not require an established religious or cultural background to exist. Some exist purely on the backs of marketing and commercialization, such as today's interpretation of Father's Day. A number of civic holidays exist more or less to literally give the working force a break. The idea of what constitutes a holiday is highly varied. You can work on a holiday as well, but at the bare minimum what they do seem to constitute is some slight difference or change in everyday conditions in order to celebrate or have some sort of leisure time. Whether or not this would be a holiday to certain people, or in cases of government-sponsored holidays, all people, is dependent upon the culture and the customs of the region. * = This comparison was used because both Turkey and the United States are considered in their respective spheres of influence (the Eastern Mediterranean/Northern Middle East and North America) to be regional-dominant secular states, and the comparison lies in these secular states' acknowledgements of traditionally religious holidays (Eid and Christmas) as public holidays, despite not recognizing the other. Although in the case of the US, Christmas is arguably secularized enough internationally, and it is given observance in Turkey.
I consider them, and have always considered them, as holidays. They are days that for me are different to other days, so they stand out for me. Also, so long as it's an annual day that is in commemoration of something positive I see it as a holiday. Heck, I even think of "talk like a pirate day" as a holiday, so maybe i'm not the best when it comes to them, but that is my two cents.
If a day has some title(s) that some people celebrate, I consider it a holiday, regardless of whether or not I observe it. Whether or not school is out for the day isn't what defines it as a holiday (there are cultural holidays that aren't nationally recognize for which observant students are still excused). I don't support Columbus Day nor Black Friday for instance, but I understand that others do (though I still think those two should be blacklisted, but that's a different thread altogether). As an Atheist, I don't observe the traditional Christmas, and I'm not the type to get into the commercial-Santa-Claus-Christmas-Carols spirit, though I'll still celebrate the latter. I don't agree with Thanksgivings' history, but I enjoy the way it's celebrated now (the thankful part, not the honoring the actual history part). I call my mother and my aunts on Mother's Day, American and Dominican, and my uncles on the Father's Days as well as greet ("Happy Mother's Day!") people it applies to. Hell, Ask an Atheist isn't a "real" holiday, but there's still events around my town for it; "fun holidays" like that can become more...observed and bigger if enough people end up observing it over time.
You let me know when everything starts shutting down for Mother's Day and I'll tell you if it's a real Holiday. I'd almost go as far to say Christmas isn't even a holiday anymore. I don't think there is one. You're supposed to get the day off on Holidays to spend time with your family and friends. Don't see much of that anymore. So to answer your question, by my new modern definition, yes those are all Holidays.
