American holiday

Official

Date

Name

January 1

Remarks

Third

Birthday of Martin ‘

New Year's Day

Celebrates beginning of the Gregorian calendar year. Festivities include counting down to midnight (12:00 AM) on the preceding night, New Year's Eve. Traditional end of holiday season.

Luther King, Jr., or

January 20,

Observed only by federal government employees in Washington D.C., and the border counties of Maryland and Virginia, in order to relieve congestion that occurs with this major event. Swearing-in of President of the United States and Vice President of the United States. Celebrated every fourth year. Note: Takes place on January 21 if the 20th is a Sunday (although the President is still privately inaugurated on the 20th). If Inauguration Day falls on a Saturday or a Sunday, the preceding Friday or following Monday is not a Federal Holiday

Honors Martin Luther King, Jr., Civil Rights leader, who was actually born on January 15, 1929; combined with other holidays in several states.

Martin Luther King,

Monday in

Jr. Day

the first

Inauguration

January

January 20th

following a

Day

Presidential

electio n

Last Monday in May

Third

July 4

First Monday in September

Honors the nation's war dead from the Civil War onwards; marks the unofficial beginning of the summer season. (traditionally May 30, shifted by the Uniform Holidays Act 1968)

Washington's Birthday was first declared a federal holiday by an 1879 act of Congress. The Uniform Holidays Act, 1968, shifted the date of the commemoration of Washington's Birthday from February 22 to the third Monday in February. Many people now refer to this holiday as "Presidents' Day" and consider it a day honoring all American presidents. However, neither the Uniform Holidays Act nor any subsequent law changed the name of the holiday from Washington's Birthday to Presidents' Day.

Washington's

Memorial Day

Independence

Celebrates Declaration of Independence, also called the Fourth of July.

Celebrates the achievements of workers and the labor movement; marks the unofficial end of the summer season.

Monday

Labor Day

Day

Birthday

in February

Second Monday in October

Honors Christopher Columbus, traditional discoverer of the Americas. In some areas it is also a celebration of Italian culture and heritage. (traditionally October 12); celebrated as American Indian Heritage Day and Fraternal Day in Alabama; celebrated as Native American Day in South Dakota. In Hawaii, it is celebrated as Discoverer's Day, though is not an official state holiday.

November 11

Fourth Thursday in November

Honors all veterans of the United States armed forces. A traditional observation is a moment of silence at 11:00 a.m. remembering those killed in war. (Commemorates the 1918 armistice, which began at "the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.")

Columbus

Traditionally celebrates the giving of thanks for the autumn harvest. Traditionally includes the consumption of a turkey dinner Traditional start of the holiday season. (Note: Thanksgiving is not celebrated on the same day in Canada).

December 25

Day

Celebrates the Nativity of Jesus. Some people consider aspects of this religious holiday, such as giving gifts and decorating a Christmas tree, to be secular rather than explicitly Christian.

Veterans Day

Thanksgiving

Christmas Day

Day

New Year's Day

Observed by

Almost all users of the Gregorian calendar and others

Type

International

Significance

The first day of the Gregorian year

Date

January 1

Observances

Making New Year's resolutions, parades, additional sporting events, fireworks

Related to

New Year's Eve, the previous day

Precursors to the American Mother's Day Precedents for the currently observed "Mother's bay" include: •"Mothering Sunday" in the UK and Ireland is on the fourth Sunday of Lent. It was originally a time when Catholics were supposed to travel to attend Mass in their "Mother Church" (the regional cathedral) rather than in their local parish. By the Reformation, it had changed into an occasion for children to visit parents. An 1854 source mentions a couplet: "On 'Mothering Sunday,' above all other/Every child should dine with its mother." •"Moaner's Day Work Clubs" organized by Anna Jarvis's mother, Ann Maria Reeves Jarvis (1832-1905), to improve sanitation and health in the area. These clubs also assisted both Union and Confederate encampments controlling a typhoid outbreak, and conducted a "Mothers' Friendship Day" to reconcile families divided by the Civil War. The "Mother's Day“anti-war observances founded by Julia Ward Howe in 1872

• Parents' Day in the United States
• In the United States, Parents' Day is held on the fourth Sunday of every July. This was established in 1994 when President Bill Clinton signed a Congressional Resolution into law (36
• U.S.C. § 135) for "recognizing, uplifting, and supporting the role of parents in the rearing of children."
• Parents Day, proclaimed by a joint Congressional Resolution, is an opportunity to uplift parenthood and to highlight the important roles parents have in helping their children grow up to be all that they can be. It's an opportunity for parents to re-examine their priorities, and re-dedicate their commitment to not let life's problems and concerns take precedence over our responsibilities as parents to help nurture our children. Parents' Day is a time for communities to celebrate our dedicated parents who strive to raise their children with unconditional love, often putting self-gratification aside to nurture their children in a loving envi ronment.