Holiday vs Vacation

[Andrew Patterson]

"Happy holidays" seems to be replacing "Merry Christmas" (and perhaps "Happy Honnika" too), but something that just occurred to me is that Americans used to refer to holidays as vacations. This was certainly the main word ten years ago. I get the feeling that Americans are beginning to use "holiday" for time off work and "vacation" if they actually go somewhere. I'm British myself, where people still use "holiday" no matter what, so I wouldn't really know, but is this the case?

[Lorikeet]

Well, hard to generalize, but I'm currently on vacation, and I'm staying home. Go figure For me, a holiday is a holiday. The extended period between semesters is my vacation (in which I spend an inordinate amount of time preparing for the next semester, I might add ).

[LarryLatham]

In thinking this over, it seems to me that, for Americans, holidays are days when we don't work because there is some kind of widespread agreement, or even legislation, in the community that most of us (police, fire-fighters, and certain others are excluded here) should have the days off from work. Thus we have Christmas holidays, or Thanksgiving holidays, or even "Labor Day" (which we regard as a holiday) because we all observe those days off together. Vacations, on the other hand, are days off that we individually or as a particular group, smaller than the public at large, negotiate with our employers regarding the timing. School students have "summer vacation", perhaps, because, with certain exceptions, the entire nation observes time off during the summer. Individually, we may go somewhere or stay at home either on holiday or on vacation.

Someone else may be able to correct me here, or clarify what I've said clumsily.

Larry Latham