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National HolidaysNational holidays, sometimes called Federal holidays, are an important part of every country's culture. National holidays come to be for many reasons. Some national holidays are created to honor individuals. Other national holidays honor events. As indicated by the term, national holiday, it is often customary for the country to declare these days as holidays and most official offices, at least many of those involved in government business as well as many business in the private sector declare the national holiday as a day off from work to enable the employees to participate in the observance of that given national holiday. Naturally, national holidays vary from country to country as the events of one country may not be significant to another. But in general, holidays that are commonly celebrated in more than one country are not national holidays. Examples of these would be certain religious holidays and holidays like Valentine's Day and Mother's Day. National holidays tend to be those that are unique to one country. Some of the U.S. national holidays are Labor Day on the first Monday of September, Independence Day on July 4th, Memorial Day which is actually May 30th, but for the convenience of making three day weekends for workers, is now observed on the last Monday in May. Memorial Day was once called Decoration Day and it's was inspired by the idea to remember those who died in the nation's service. Washington's birthday is another national holiday that is observed, not on the actual day, February 22, but on a Monday that falls between Lincoln's birthday, February 12th and Washington's birthday. Lincoln's birthday used to be a national holiday and then the two birthdays were celebrated together and called President's Day. Now it simply called Washington's birthday. this may be as a result of Martin Luther King Day being added to the list of national holidays and having to eliminate an existing national holidays so there weren't too many days each year when federal buildings were closed and workers were given the day off. And incidentally, MLK's birthday is January 15th, but in 2007, for instance it was celebrated on Monday, January 20th to make another three day holiday weekend. Columbus Day, which is celebrated by many of the countries of the Americas was originally on the anniversary of Christopher Columbus's landing on October 12, 1492, but this national holiday has also been changed to a Monday in October to make another three day holiday weekend possible. In addition to Independence Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's Day are all celebrated on their correct day or date as well as Veteran's day which is always November 11th.
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