We hope that this book will help your students understand some aspects of American culture and life as well as increase their reading proficiency. We wish to express our appreciation to Ms. Michiko Inoue for helping with the production of this textbook and to Ms. Linda Yamashita for reading and commenting on the manuscript. We also wish to thank Mr. Leslie Sackett and Mr. Tsukasa Matsui, who helped with the preliminary research. By studying American holidays, it is possible to understand American culture better. On federal holidays, federal and state offices, banks, schools, and companies close throughout the United States.
Most people have a day off.
There are ten federal holidays now. State holidays are legal holidays in a particular state or states. State offices, banks, schools, and companies in that state close. For annual events, offices and stores do not close, and people work as usual. American holidays can be divided into four categories based on their content.