Portal:Holidays
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In all of the English-speaking world, 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 observance or activity. A holiday can also be a special day on which schools and/or offices are closed, such as Labor Day. In most of the English-speaking world a holiday is also a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation; the North American equivalent is "vacation". However, some Canadians will use both the terms vacation and holiday interchangeably when referring to a trip away from home or time off work.
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 of rest (as opposed to regular days of rest such as the weekend). When translated from/to other languages, the meanings of the word "holiday" may be conflated with these of "observance" and "celebration". Most holidays can be placed into one of several groupings depending upon origin, calendar placements, and national observance. Almost all involve traditions of music, dance, art, and/or food facilitating social engagement and relaxation.
Thanksgiving is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks, traditionally to God, for the things one has at the end of the harvest season. In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Certain kinds of food are traditionally served at Thanksgiving meals. First and foremost, turkey is usually the featured item on any Thanksgiving feast table (so much so that Thanksgiving is sometimes referred to as "Turkey Day"). Stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce, Indian corn, other fall vegetables, and pumpkin pie are commonly associated with Thanksgiving dinner. All of these primary dishes are actually native to the Americas or were introduced as a new food source to the Europeans when they arrived.
In New York City, the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held annually every Thanksgiving Day on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Families and friends usually gather for a large meal or dinner, the result being that the Thanksgiving holiday weekend is one of the busiest travel periods of the year. Known as "Black Friday", although most stores actually start to stock for and promote the December holidays immediately after Halloween, and sometimes even before. American football is often a major part of Thanksgiving celebrations in the U.S. Professional games are traditionally played on Thanksgiving Day, referred to as the Thanksgiving Classic.
Punxsutawney Phil is a groundhog and the most famous resident of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. On February 2 (Groundhog's Day) of each year, the town of Punxsutawney celebrates the beloved groundhog with a festive atmosphere of music and food. During the ceremony, which begins well before the winter sunrise, Phil emerges from his temporary home on Gobbler's Knob, located in a rural area about 2 miles east of town. According to the tradition, if Phil sees his shadow and returns to his hole, the United States will suffer six more weeks of winter. If Phil does not see his shadow, spring will arrive early.
General To-dos
- Get this WikiProject Up and Running
- Get more members
- Figure out all the stuff we need
- Find some holiday page to re-do so we can show what we're doing.
- Re-do all holiday pages.
Specific To-dos
- Templates
- Division of labor
- Figure out categories and what to do with multicategorical holidays
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Credit: User:Kvasir
Sydney New Year's Eve fireworks, 2005.
“ | My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that? | ” |
Holidays - Anniversaries - Civic holidays - Federal holidays - Hallmark holidays - Heroes' Day - National holidays - Observances - Public holidays - Victory Days
Lists: Christmas carols - Christmas dishes - Halloween songs - Hindu festivals - Holidays by country - Objects dropped on New Year's Eve - Winter festivals
Religious festivals: Buddhist festivals - Christian festivals - Islamic festivals - Neopagan holidays - Hindu festivals - Jain festivals - Jewish holidays - Roman festivals
Secular holidays: April Fools' - Armed Forces Day - Boss's Day - Children's Day - Cinco de Mayo - Commonwealth Day - Earth Day - Father's Day - Grandparents' Day - Halloween - HumanLight - International Waffle Day - Labor Day - May Day - Mother's Day - Naadam - Pi Day - Presidents' Day - Spring break - Teachers' Day - Thanksgiving - Yom Yerushalayim
Winter holidays: Chinese New Year - Christmas - Dōngzhì - Festivus - Groundhog Day - Hanukkah - Kwanzaa - New Year's Eve - Sol Invictus - Twelfth Night - Valentine's - Solstice - Yule