What is the difference between Holiday and Vacation?

Holiday and Vacation are words with similar meanings and are most times substituted by users. However, they have different meanings.

Holiday means a day set aside for special religious purposes such as Christmas, New Year, and many others.

A combination of “Holy and Day” created the word holiday. However, people use it to refer to other secular breaks such as Independence Day or International Women’s day as a holiday.

Vacation is a free time taken from an occupation or activity for a period of time. Most people refer to vacation as a leisure time in which they move from one country to explore and have fun.
During summer or a certain part of the year and a period in which students and pupils do not go to school.

People that work in places where the nature of their jobs is to resume in early and they close in the evening always look forward for the holiday period so that they will have time to spend with their family and friends and also have some fun. Another option which such people can have is to go on a vacation, either long or short, whereby they take a leave from their works to attend to some other things. Vacation is like one or more days set apart to rest or for the purpose of recreation.

In most nations of the world, including the United States, they usually refer to holiday as a day when religious and national events are being observed, commemorate, and celebrated. Schools, businesses and other major organizations are closed on these days. There are various kinds of holidays, which varies from national holidays, to religious holidays and secular holidays.

In other countries, the terms “holiday” and “vacation” are used interchangeably. However, in the United States, these two terms have two different meanings. Holidays are considered to be designated days to celebrate specific events, usually from history. They fall on a particular day of the year. Vacations are times when someone plans a trip to go somewhere to relax and get away from work for about a week or two.

Holidays and vacations may be spent away from home. However, vacations are not designated days each year. The family can decide when they want to go on vacation. Holidays are designated, and people celebrate them on a particular day. For instance, Christmas is celebrated on December 25th every year.