[:en]Holidays[:]

[:en]Holidays are special days that are related to certain events that happened in the past. We can celebrate all sorts of things that happened on those days with parties or special events. The word ‘holiday’ actually comes from ‘Holy day’ because in the past, holidays were known as days when people stopped their daily activities to pray. In the modern world however, most people use the word ‘holiday’to describe vacations and special days. For example, Independence Day is often called a holiday even though it has no religious background. There are also funny holidays such as April Fool’s day and ‘Say-the-Opposite Day’.

Holidays are set by customs from the past and by the law. Some holidays are set to celebrate the birthday of important people in history such as Victoria Day in Canada that celebrates the birthday of Queen Victoria; some holidays are set because of the tradition in the area such as the Day of the Dead in Mexico. Some holidays are more famous than others. You probably know some of these, such as Halloween, Valentine’s day, St. Patrick’s Day, Thanksgiving, Chinese New Year, and of course Christmas.

Have you ever wondered why some people call Sunday a holiday? Isn’t it just normal day? Why is it that many of us consider Sundaysto be holidays? You might not know this but Sunday is actually a holiday according to Christianity. For the readers who are not Christians, there is a passage in the bible that describes how God created earth and everything on it (Bible, Genesis 1:1-26). According to the bible, God created earth in 6 days and rested on the 7^th day. That’s why we take a day off from work on Sundays. It’s also the day when Christians can go to church and pray without being bothered by work.

The other use of the world holiday in the modern world is ‘vacation’. This one might seem obvious because most people go on vacations during holidays. After a long time, some words will eventually change meaning because of the misuse of the word or the similarity that the word has with another. That’s why there is some confusion about the words ‘holiday’ and ‘vacation’.

The word ‘holiday’ is interesting but do you know what’s also interesting? It’s the people. Every holiday is celebrated in different ways all over the world. In the United States, kids dress up in costumes of ghosts and monsters (normally) and go trick or treating around their neighborhoods on Halloween. On Valentine’s day, we give chocolates to people who are dear to us.

Another fun fact about holidays is how every holiday has a theme to it. The Christmas theme usually involves snow, Santa Claus, Christmas trees and gifts. Even though Christmas is actually a really religious day for Christians since Christmas celebrates the birthday of Jesus Christ, we often visualize Christmas as a day for gifts and having fun. Santa Claus has become an inseparable aspect of Christmas. He doesn’t have anything to do with the birth of Christ. He was just a man who was known to be generous and gave a sock filled with gold to a poor family through a chimney (He dropped it through the chimney). The Halloween theme is usually about ghosts, candies, and Jack o’ lanterns. Some of you might already know this but Halloween was actually not as fun and exciting as it is today. Halloween is believed to be the day when the dead would rise and walk throughout the land. The reason why people dressed up as ghosts and monsters was so that the souls of the dead would be tricked and think that those people in costumes were also the dead. There are many more holidays out there that we’ve never heard about. They are weird, fun, scary, and interesting. But one thing is true for all of them, and that is the fact that all of them are indeed special.[:]