a holiday or holidays?

Holiday covers the whole period you are 'on holiday' regardless of the length of the holiday. It doesn't just refer to a single day.

Holidays is plural of holiday. I take a week-long holiday in the summer. I take a 10-day holiday in the winter. I take two holidays a year.

In the States, a holiday is a particular day that is celebrated for a specific purpose (4th of July, Memorial Day, Labor Day, etc.). "Holidays" is often used to refer to the time from Thanksgiving (4th Thursday in November) through New Years Day. We don't use the word for a trip: that's a "vacation".

Thanks nona and philip...!!!

Philip, do you often here a sentence like in #1 in the US? Does "a holiday" in the sentence always mean a national holiday?

I'm not Philip, but if I may:

In the U.S., you'd say something like "August is a popular time for people to go on vacation." or "Barb, do you know when you'll be taking your vacation this summer?"

Pretty much a "holiday" means a day off from work, either because it's a national holiday or because your company gives it to you as a day off. My company, for example, gives us the Fri

Thanks, GG, again!

I understand you and Philip's point that "holidays" [plural] refers to the time around Christmas, but is it also the case in American English that "a holiday" [singular] refers to not only one day, but also more than one day?

A holiday is just about always only one day. I suppose if the company gave you two days in a row (Thanksgiving and the day after, for example) you'd call it the Thanksgiving holiday. But every national holiday I can think of comes on its own, a single day off - in fact, usually a Monday.

GG, #1 is written about Japanese New Year, between 1/2 to 1/4 to be exact. It apparently refers to more than one day. Is the sentence not US English, but British English, then?

It has to be a British sentence as it says 'most people spend a holiday at this time'

It can't mean holiday in the American sense (as in bank holidays in British English) because you have no choice when they are going to happen, they are set for you. That sentence implies a choice to me. If it were a set national holiday it would be everyone not just 'most people'.

Although we d

Thanks, your explanation is very detailed and with practical pointers. I like that a lot!