Celebrated Holidays

[meow]

Although most DFers are in the US, there are some of us in other countries.
At the moment, the US is celebrating Thanksgiving. Some may know the origin of that holiday and like to share.
I thought it would be interesting for us to post about celebrated holidays, some of which we all share and some which we don't. I'm sure there are holidays in other countries that I have never heard of.

So, I will start.

ANZAC DAY

ANZAC stands for 'Australia New Zealand Army Corps'. It is celebrated on 25 April and is a public holiday.
It stems from WW1 and is in honour of those who fought and died in that war. Many Australians travel to Gallipolli (Turkey) for the Dawn Service there; in that place is where the Anzacs became honoured in history.
It now encompasses all the wars, WW1, WW2, Vietnam etc.
The day has the formalities in the morning with a Dawn Service, the laying of wreaths and a bugler playing the 'Last Post'.
Then there is the Anzac Day Parade in which the 'old diggers' march. Some are in wheelchairs. As some war veterans have died, a relative will march in their place wearing their medals.
The rest of the day is spent doing whatever you like. Some people just get together with friends or family, have picnics or stay home.
The RSL Club (Returned Servicemens League) has many clubs all over the country and old diggers can go there for a chat, meal or a drink.

It is a day of reverence, respect and thankfulness to those who returned and for those who did not.

 

[tj]

There are a few holidays here in the US that some states/companies/people/religions will honor that others won't. Martin Luther King Day, Veterans Day, Columbus Day, and the Jewish holidays come to mind immediately.

Companies that I have worked for, generally, offer floating holidays so that I can honor the holiday of choice (or none at all and just use it as an extra personal/vacation day).

 

[meow]

There are some Jewish, Muslim and other religious holidays that people of those religions honour BUT they are not recognised by companies or the State so they are not given time off from work. And that is the first time I have heard of 'floating holidays'. Sounds like a good idea but it doesn't happen here.

 

[tanya_the_dancer]

I think US companies over a certain size are required to give their empoyees 10 holidays per year (in addition to vacation days). How they're doing it, is their own business. Typical situation is this. they take most important federal holidays (Thanksgiving, Independence day, President day, Christmas Day, New Year's Day), then start spreading out the remainder as they like. Banks will go with other federal holidays and will add MLK day, Columbus Day and Veteran's Day to the list and add the remainder to vacation days. Other companies might keep MLK, Columbus and Veteran days as business days and instead take Friday after Thnaksgiving, Christmas Eve and New Year's eve (which are better choices for days off IMO). In addition state governments might declare other holidays as state holidays and close state-run offices for those days. I.e. in NY there is large Jewish population, so NY has Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah as its state holidays, which means - schools, state university and state government offices are closed, but mail still gets delivered (since it is a Federal entity), and obviously those who work in private sector still go to work, unless they want to take a personal day off to observe.