American holidays

The purpose of this work is to study main types of holidays in the USA and their history to understand their role and importance in modern American society. It was attempted to fulfill the following tasks:
to describe the most great and famous holidays in America;
to deal with the questions concerning the background of these holidays;
to explore the traditions of celebrating different holidays;
to generalize all the given facts.

Introductory…… ………………………………………………………… 3

Federal holidays: history and peculiarities……………………….. 7
New Year’s Day……………………………………………….. 9
Martin Luther King Day………………………………………. 11
President’s Day………………………………………………... 12
Memorial Day………………………………………………….. 15
Independence Day……………………………………………… 17
Labor Day………………………………………………………. 19
Columbus Day…………………………………………………. 21
Veterans Day …………………………………………………... 23
Thanksgiving Day……………………………………………… 25
Christmas Day………………………………………………… 27

Other holidays observed nationwide ....... ………………………… 31
Groundhog Day………………………………………………… 32
Valentine’s Day………………………………………………… 33
April Fools’ Day……………………………………………….. 35
Mother’s Day…………………………………………………… 37
Father’s Day…………………………………………………… 38
Halloween………………………………………………………. 39

Religious and Ethnic Holidays …………………………………… 41
Easter …………………………………………………………… 42
Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday ………………………………. 44
St. Patrick’s Day ………………………………………………. 46
Kwanzaa ……………………………………………………….. 48
Ramadan ………………………………………………………. 49
Hanukkah ……………………………………………………… 50
Cinco de Mayo ………………………………………………… 52

Food, Health and Environmental Holidays ………………………. 53