Quote:
Originally Posted by Anglika ...
#2 No difference in themselves. The UK takes holidays; the US takes/has vacations. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ouisch In AmE, a holiday is a special day of remembrance or celebration, such as Christmas or Memorial Day. A vacation is time taken off from work or school and relaxing or perhaps traveling, for example: "We spent our summer vacation at Disney World." "My kids did all the cooking and house cleaning on my birthday - I felt like I was on vacation!" |
When I worked for a multi-national firm, we used
both - with a conflation of these two meanings. Christmas Day was a 'holiday', because everyone was out of the office - as was the "Early Spring Bank Holiday" (for example). 'Vacation' was those days that an individual chose to take off.
(I don't know if this is a widely-recognized distinction, but it seems to me a useful one.)
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