Portal:Holidays

edit

The Holidays Portal

In the English-speaking world, a holiday is a day set aside by a nation or culture (in some cases, multiple nations and cultures) typically for celebration but sometimes for some other kind of special culture-wide observance or activity. A holiday can also be a special day on which schools and/or offices are closed, such as Labor Day. In most of the English-speaking world a holiday is also a period spent away from home or business in travel or recreation; the North American equivalent is "vacation". However, some Canadians will use both the terms vacation and holiday interchangeably when referring to a trip away from home or time off work.

The word holiday has related but different meanings in English-speaking countries. Based on the words holy and day, holidays originally represented special religious days. The word has evolved in general usage to mean any special day of rest (as opposed to regular days of rest such as the weekend). When translated from/to other languages, the meanings of the word "holiday" may be conflated with these of "observance" and "celebration". Most holidays can be placed into one of several groupings depending upon origin, calendar placements, and national observance. Almost all involve traditions of music, dance, art, and/or food facilitating social engagement and relaxation.

More about holidays...

Show new selections edit

Selected article

Burning Man is an eight-day-long festival organized by Black Rock City, LLC, under the guidance of founder Larry Harvey. The festival is held annually and ends on the American Labor Day holiday in September. The festival takes place on the playa of the Black Rock Desert in Nevada, 90 miles (150 km) north-northeast of Reno. Though the specific location on the playa changes from year to year, the location has been quite constant in recent years. The temporary city is an experiment in community, radical self-expression, and radical self-reliance. The event takes its name from the ritual of burning a large wooden sculpture of a man on the sixth day.

The annual event now known as Burning Man began on the summer solstice in 1986 when Larry Harvey, Jerry James, and a few friends met on Baker Beach in San Francisco and burned an eight foot (2.4 m) tall wooden man as well as a smaller wooden dog. The inspiration for burning these effigy figures has been shrouded in mystery by Harvey, who described it as "a spontaneous act of radical self-expression."

edit

Selected biography

In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of erotic love. He is equated with the Greek god Eros, and another one of his Latin names Amor. In popular culture Cupid is frequently shown shooting his bow to inspire romantic love, often as an icon of Valentine's Day. The most common representations of cupid include a chubby baby with wings and a bow and arrow. Sometimes the arrow has a heart for its tip. Cupid is most often seen nude or diapered. Cupid is sometimes blindfolded, symbolising the figure of speech, "love is blind."

edit

Things you can do

General To-dos

Get this WikiProject Up and Running
- Get more members
- Figure out all the stuff we need
Find some holiday page to re-do so we can show what we're doing.
Re-do all holiday pages.