Holidays

In many parts of the world, a holiday is a day off work and banks and businesses are closed.  UK actually has a bank holiday.  In the US of A it took me a while to understand that there are many types of holidays and for many of them, people still work....there are federal, religious, traditional, and informal holidays....

So we just had the Halloween holiday which some people would say is perpetuated by candy (ie chocolate) manufactures, and most of course are "Hallmark" holidays, where that company benefits from people buying cards for every occasion.

I found this list of "holidays":

April Fool's Day - April 1
Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month - May
Chinese New Year - winter, date varies
Cinco de Mayo - May 5
Columbus Day
Easter - Spring Sunday, date varies
Father's Day - June, third Sunday
Flag Day - June 14
Groundhog Day - February 2
Halloween - October 31
Kwanzaa - December 26 - January 1
Leif Erikson Day - October 9
Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday - late winter, date varies
Mother's Day - May; second Sunday
Oktoberfest - late September to early October
Rosh Hashanah - depends on Hebrew calendar
Sadie Hawkins Day - Saturday that follows November 9
St. Patrick's Day - March 17
Valentine's Day - February 14
Yom Kippur - depends on Hebrew calendar

and then I was even more delighted to find food "holidays" I didn't know I should be celebrating in November!  You can see the full list here: http://www.statesymbolsusa.org/National_Symbols/American_Hollidays.html

So November is:

National Fun with Fondue Month
National Georgia Pecan Month
National Peanut Butter Lover's Month
National Pepper Month
National Raisin Bread Month

Awesome!