The word holiday comes from the Old English word hāligdæg, originally referred only to special religious days. It is a shortened form of Holy Days. The first four congressionally designated Federal Holidays were created in 1870: New Year’s Day (January 1st), Independence Day (July 4th), Thanksgiving Day (3rd Thursday in November), and Christmas Day (December 25th).
There are currently (in 2022) eleven (11) federal holidays.
- Started 1870 — New Year’s Day – January 1st
- Started 1986 — Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. – Third Monday of January
- Started 1885 — Washington’s Birthday – Third Monday of February
- Started 1971 — Memorial Day – Last Monday of May
- Started 2021 — Juneteenth – June 19th
- Started 1870 — Independence Day – July 4th
- Started 1894 — Labor day – First Monday of September
- Started 1971 — Columbus Day – Second Monday of October
- Started 1968 — Veterans Day – November 11th
- Started 1870 — Thanksgiving Day – Fourth Thursday of November
- Started 1870 — Christmas Day – December 25th
Lent is a 40-day season of prayer, fasting, and almsgiving that begins on Ash Wednesday and ends at sundown on Holy Thursday (But don’t count Sundays). It’s a period of preparation to celebrate the Lord’s Resurrection at Easter. One can safely conclude that by the end of the fourth century, the 40-day period of Easter preparation known as Lent existed, and that prayer and fasting constituted its primary spiritual exercises.
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. The date of the first observance of Palm Sunday is uncertain. Palm Sunday was frequently marked by the burning of Jack-‘o’-Lent figures. This was a straw effigy that would be stoned and abused on Ash Wednesday and kept in the parish for burning on Palm Sunday.
Good Friday was kept beginning in the Middle Ages as it was associated to easter by the Roman Catholic church. Good Friday the supposed day the Lord Jesus died on the cross. (SEE Three Days)
Easter celebrates Christ’s resurrection from the tomb. Celebrated in March or April. The First Council of Nicaea (325 AD) established the date of Easter as the first Sunday after the full moon (the Paschal Full Moon) following the March equinox.
Started 1914 — Mother’s Day is observed the second Sunday in May.
Started 1972 — Father’s Day is observed on the third Sunday of June.
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