Are Holidays Holy Days?

Introduction

Before studying these holidays individually, let’s look at these specific dates as a whole. They are all simply classified as holidays so we will dig right in by looking at this word “holiday.” What is a holiday? It is simply defined as a holy day. Also, this phrase is used by British as a vacation or a day off work. So I will be looking into the holidays of specific dates set aside each year that are the most popularly known. At the same time I will look to see if they are indeed “holy” according to biblical standards. In etymology, the word originates around the 1500’s coming from the Old English word haligdæg which as stated before means “holy day” or “Sabbath;” Halig being holy and dæg being day. The 14th century meaning also shows that it both meant a “religious festival” or a “day of recreation”.

The only holy day the bible mentions is the Sabbath, the seventh day of the week or the last day of the week. This was declared, in the Old Testament, as a commandment that God told Moses to spread to his people for where no one should work on this day and rest just as the Lord did after creating the world.

  1. New Year’s (Eve)
  2. Valentine’s Day
  3. St. Patrick’s Day
  4. Easter
  5. Independence Day
  6. Halloween
  7. Thanksgiving
  8. Christmas