USA Holidays
Holiday is a day set apart for
religious observance or for the commemoration of some extraordinary event or
distinguished person, or for some other public occasion.
National holidays are days set aside
by official government proclamation to celebrate different occasions.
The U.S. has no national holidays.
Legal holidays - days on which banks, schools, or other public institutions and
most places of business are closed.
Memorial Day is a legal holiday,
observed annually on the last Monday in May in most of the United States, It
honours the nation's armed services killed in wartime. The holiday, originally
called Decoration Day, is traditionally marked by parades, memorial speeches
and ceremonies, and the decoration of graves with flowers and flags. Memorial
Day was first observed on May 30, 1868, on the order of General John Alexander
Logan for the purpose of decorating the graves of the American Civil War dead.
It was observed on May 30 until 1971, when most states changed to a newly
established federal schedule of holiday observance.
Independence Day is an annual
holiday commemorating the formal adoption by the Continental Congress of the
Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776, in Philadelphia. Although the
signing of the Declaration was not completed until August, the Fourth of July
holiday has been accepted as the official anniversary of United States
independence and is celebrated in all states and territories of the US
The Fourth of July is traditionally
celebrated publicly with parades and pageants, patriotic speeches, and
organised firing of guns and cannons and displays of fireworks. Family picnics
and outings are a feature of private Fourth of July celebrations.
Thanksgiving Day, a legal holiday in
the US, was first celebrated in early colonial times in New England. The
actual origin is probably the harvest festivals that are traditional in many
parts of the world. After the first harvest was completed by the Plymouth
colonists in 1621, Governor William Bradford proclaimed a day of thanksgiving.
In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln
appointed a day of thanksgiving, and since then each president has issued a
Thanksgiving Day proclamation, generally designating the fourth Thursday of
November as a holiday.
New Year's Day is the first day of
the year, January 1 in the Gregorian calendar. In the Middle Ages most European
countries used the Julian calendar and observed New Year's Day on March 25,
called Annunciation Day and celebrated as the birth to the Son of God. With the
introduction of the Gregorian calendar in 1582, Roman Catholic countries began
to celebrate New Year's Day on January 1.
The custom of visiting friends,
relatives and neighbours on New Year's Day is one of the Old World traditions
that has taken on a new form in the United States. A favourite place to see the
old year out is New York City's Time Square.
Christmas is an annual festival,
held on December 25, to celebrate the Nativity, or birth of Christ. The
Christmas tree, an evergreen trimmed with lights and other decorations, is
derived from the so-called paradise tree, symbolising Eden.
Saint Valentine's Day, a holiday
honouring lovers, is celebrated on February 14. There is a custom of sending greeting
cards or gifts to express affection. The cards, known as valentines, are often
designed with hearts to symbolise love. The holiday probably derives from the
ancient Roman feast of Lupercalis (February 15). The festival gradually became
associated with the feast day (February 14) of two Roman martyrs, both named
St. Valentine, who lived in the 3rd century. St. Valentine has traditionally
been regarded as the patron saint of lovers.
Список літератури
Для
підготовки даної роботи були використані матеріали з сайту http://www.multikulti.ru/
