# Holidays

A holiday is a day designated as having special significance for which individuals, a government, or a religious group have deemed that observation is warranted. It is generally an official (more common) or unofficial observance of religious, national, or cultural significance, often accompanied by celebrations or festivities.

## Quotes

* Remunerated joy, weekends off or annual holidays paid by the boss is like paying to make love. It seems the same but there is something lacking.
** Alfredo Bonanno, Armed Joy (1977)
* We take notice of all feasts, and the almanack is part of the common law, the calendar being established by Act of Parliament, and it is published before the Common-prayer Book.
** Holt, C.J., Brough v. Parkings (1703), 2 Raym. 994; reported in James William Norton-Kyshe, Dictionary of Legal Quotations (1904), p. 92.
* I have a theory that "holidays" evolved from the medieval pilgrimage, and are essentially a kind of penance for being so happy and comfortable in our daily lives.
** Philip Larkin, letter to Barbara Pym, 1971.
* You, masters of the earth – princes, kings, emperors, powerful majesties, invincible conquerors – simply try to make the people go on such-and-such a day each year to a given place to dance. I ask little of you, but I dare give you a solemn challenge to succeed, whereas the humblest missionary will succeed and be obeyed two thousand years after his death. Every year the people gather around some rustic temple in the name of St John, St Martin, St Benedict, etc.; they come, animated by a feverish and yet innocent eagerness; religion sanctifies their joy and the joy embellishes religion; they forget their troubles; on leaving they think of the pleasure that they will have on the same day the following year, and the date is set in their minds.
** Joseph de Maistre, Considerations on France (1796), ch. V

### Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations

Quotes reported in Hoyt's New Cyclopedia Of Practical Quotations (1922), p. 368.
* The second day of July, 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires, and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forevermore.
** John Adams, Letter to Mrs. Adams, July 3, 1776.
* There were his young barbarians all at play There was their Dacian mother]], he, their sire, Butcherd to make a Roman holiday.
** Lord Byron, Childe Harold, Canto IV, Stanza 141.
* And that was the way The deuce was to pay As it always is, at the close of the day That gave us]], Hurray! Hurray! Hurray! (With some restrictions, the fault]], finders say) That which, please God, we will keep for aye Our National Independence!
** Will Carleton, How We Kept the Day.
* The holiest of all holidays are those Kept by ourselves in silence and apart; The secret anniversaries of the heart, When the full river of feeling overflows;]], The happy days unclouded to their close; The sudden joys that out of darkness start As flames from ashes; swift desires that dart Like swallows singing down each wind that blows!
** Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Holidays, line 1.
* For now I am in a holiday humour.
** William Shakespeare, As You Like It, Act IV, Scene 1, line 69.
* If all the year were playing holidays, To sport would be as tedious as to work.
** William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part I, Act I, Scene 2, line 228.
* Being holiday, the beggars shop is shut.
** William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act V, Scene 1, line 56.
* You sunburnt sicklemen, of August weary, Come hither from the furrow and be merry: Make holiday; your rye, straw hats put on And these fresh nymphs encounter every one In country footing.
** William Shakespeare, Tempest, Act IV, Scene 1, line 134.
* Time for work,—yet take Much holiday for arts and friendships sake.
** George James de Wilde, Sonnet, On the Arrival of Spring.

## See also

* Baptism
* Festival
* Marriage
* Mass
* Rite
* Worship