Holidays and celebrations of various kinds are held throughout the world. Holidays are considered a religious feast or day.http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Holiday A celebration can be a religious ceremony but more often is not. Celebrations can be an observation of respect, festivity or rejoicing. A person, event or time period can be celebrated.http://www.thefreedictionary.com/celebration

Holidays or celebrations can include recreation, games, merrymaking and festivities. They can be a quiet, solemn event or a loud, jubilant one.

The United States has ten legal public holidays. During these holidays, all federal workers are excused from work. Many other major businesses also observed some or all of these holidays for their workers. They are New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Washington’s Birthday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Dayhttp://www.america.gov/st/peopleplace-english/2009/September/20080113151228abretnuh0.5784265.html

There are many holidays celebrated in the United States that are not public holidays, such as Easter, Groundhog Day, Valentine’s Day, Earth Day and Mother’s Day. There are holidays for every month of the year.http://www.madmanmike.com/us_holidays_dates.html

The oldest holiday tradition, according to Forbes.com, was practiced thousands of years ago. This holiday, celebrated by the Bushmen in southern Africa, consisted of worshiping a very large python head. Even today, the Bushman believe that men descended from the python.http://www.forbes.com/2006/12/08/oldest-human-ritual-tech_cx_ee_1208papers.html

Ancient Rome celebrated many holidays including Saturnalia.http://histmyst.org/festivals.html#saturnalia This was a midwinter celebration that lasted between one and seven days. Extra food, wine and loud merrymaking was in evidence. Halls were decked out with boughs of laurel and green trees, candles and lamps. An exchange of gifts was done. While this celebration was shunned by early Christians, many of its elements were later mixed with the Christian celebration of Jesus’ birth in an attempt to convert so-called pagans to Christianity.http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm#_ftnref2