> > Here in America, we have something like eight federal holidays that we can take off of work to celebrate:
>
> And here's the corresponding holidays in Canada!

And in Finland...

> > New Year's Day is either celebrated on December 31st or January 1st, depending on if it falls on a weekend. This day is celebrated much the same way around the world -- if stuck at home with the parents, we watch a rerun of a "Very Special Donnie and Marie New Year's Celebration" from 1976 on Nick at Nite.
>
> New Year's /Eve/ is celebrated on December 31st. The day before that is "Spacebar's Birthday", so usually we're up that day late having a party. Generally, on New Year's Eve, we wake up sometime in the afternoon (since we stayed up late for Spacebar's Birthday). We almost immediately kick off /another/ party to bring in the new year, generally consuming whatever food is left over from "Spacebar's Birthday". They set of fireworks and stuff and it is cool.

New Year's Eve, December 31st, is not an official holiday here, but some do take a holiday then. New Year's day, January 1st, is an official holiday (and better be, who is able to work after celebrating New Year for many hours, during the night, in perhaps -10 or -20 degrees Celsius).

> Not everybody gets off of work on Spacebar's Birthday, but /almost/ everybody does, and just about everybody who doesn't uses their vacation days to take time off. Yay!
>
> New Year's Day is celebrated by getting up /late/ in the afternoon, realizing you're still groggy after two consecutive days of partying (and what's more, out of party food), and going right back to bed. At least, that's what most people do. Kaz! and I usually end up spending that day playing computer games.
>
> > President's Day, which used to be two different holidays -- Washington's Birthday and (two weeks and a few days later) Lincoln's Birthday. President's Day is a day we celebrate by watching television ads for 20% off washers and dryers.
>
> Victoria Day is in recognition of the birthday of Her Majesty Queen Victoria of Some Other Country. We celebrate it because it lets us get off of work. Generally, no parties -- we just celebrate this one by sleeping or playing computer games, the same way as we celebrate New Year's Day.

I think we have an equivalent to this day, too, but I can't remember what it could be.

> Unlike Spacebar's Birthday, which actually occurs on Spacebar's birthday, Victoria Day doesn't actually fall on Queen Victoria's Birthday. Instead, it's the first monday /before/ May 25th.
>
> > Memorial Day is one of the many "Remember the Americans who were in wars" days we have. Memorial Day in particular is for the war dead. This is when the big budget, little plot movies are released from Hollywood on an unsuspecting public.
>
> Canadians have a "Remember the Canadians who were in wars" day, but it's called, more appropriately, "Rememberance Day". It falls on November 11th, the same day as the American Veterans' Day. They give us a day off of school for it. If you want to look cool, you wear a plastic poppy as Rememberance Day approaches to show (somehow) that your remember the Canadians who were in wars...when it's actually Rememberance day, though, you're at home asleep or playing computer games, so nobody cares whether you wear a poppy or not!
>
> No movies, of course.

Well... I think... I really should memorize our holidays.

> > Independence Day is the little-known name for The Fourth of July, a day where everyone goes out to the park and has a picnic to celebrate us breaking free from the British. To get back at us, wiley Brit burglars take this opportunity to break into our houses and steal our stuff, as we're all out watching firework explosions.
>
> Actually, quite a few Americans have heard of the term "Independence Day" because of the movie by that name. On the other hand, hardly any Canadians have heard of this one -- "Dominion Day" is the "official" name of the thing we call "Canada Day". Everyone goes out to the park at night and watches a bunch of fireworks and eats junk food to celebrate the day the British got sick of administering Canada and told us to shove off and do it ourselves. The celebration seems quite similar to the celebration of New Years' Eve, except that the weather's nicer and the sun takes a lot longer to set (so the fireworks have to start later). We're pretty close to the Land of the Midnight Sun, after all!

We do celebrate The Fourth of July. It's my birthday.

But our Independence Day is December 6th. That's the day Finland declared itself independent from Russia (the year was 1917).

> It's July 1, so we can ship our leftover junk food or firecrackers to the United States in time for Independence Day.
>
> > Labor Day is a day to celebrate those who work by not working or something like that. My mother insinuated that one could be shot for wearing white pants after this day.
>
> That one is exactly the same in Canada.

May Day, the first of May, is celebrated here as the day of the workers. And university students, too.

> However's it's more commonly thought of as the "Day before the University term starts day". Of course, this year was wierd because the University term started /on/, not after, Labor day -- but we weren't actually "required" to attend that day...
>
> > Thanksgiving is commonly known as Eating Day. Eating Day celebrates the Indians (aka "Native Americans") giving the starving Pilgrims food, just before the now-feed Pilgrims decided that they should have all the land and killed the Indians. This day's celebrations consists of a full day of eating turkey, watching football, and fighting amoungst family members. To get back at us, wiley Indian burglars wait until we fall asleep from tryptophan in the turkey and steal all the stuff the Brits missed.
>
> This one is exactly the same in Canada too, except that by the fourth Thursday in November (American Thanksgiving Day), Canada is blanketed by snow and all of the Indians or Pilgrims that used to live here would have been huddled in their igloos or tipis or huts or snow forts or whatever and generally not interacting much. So we celebrate Thanksgiving Day during the harvest instead. It's the second Monday in October.

I don't think we have an equivalent to this day.

> > The day after Thanksgiving isn't actually a federal holiday, but most people get that day off so they can crowd into shopping malls at 8am to replace everything that was stolen from them. This day also begins the "Eating the Thanksgiving Leftovers" season, which ends sometime around next President's Day.
>
> Nobody gets the day after Thanksgiving off in Canada. It's just a lousy Tuesday, and back to work or school. However, it does begin the "Eating the Thanksgiving Leftovers Season"...fortunately, in Canada, this season ends well /before/ Christmas, so we get about a month in between turkeys.
>
> > Then there's Christmas which in the United States isn't a religious holiday, but is rather a capitalist holiday. Families gather around the television to watch such wonderful programs as "A Very Brady Christmas", "Santa Claus Conquers the Martians", and that version of "Miracle on 34th Street" where they decided to be cute and change the ending like in the remake of "King Kong" where they had King Kong climb the World Trade Center towers instead of the Empire State Building. Anyway, the next day, where everyone returns the god-awful gifts they got on Christmas Day, is not a holiday.
>
> Crazy Commercial Christmas has been imported to Canada because we get pretty much all of the American television stations.

Christmas has become very commercial in here, too. We don't get any American TV stations, except some via a satellite, but Finland is said to be the most American country in Europe. Or sometimes in the whole wolrd. But you did know, didn't you, that Santa Claus lives in Finland?

We get our Christmas gifts in the evening of Christmas Eve, December 24th. December 25th, Christmas Day, is a much more "holy" day. Not commercial at all, one could say. December 26th is the day when we remember a saint, namely Stefanus (I don't know what's his name in English, in Finnish the day is called 'Tapaninpäivä', where 'Tapani' is the name in Finnish, also a common given name).

> However, we get the day after Christmas (the get rid of all the junk day) off as well. It's called, appropriately, "boxing day". Our stores also try to get rid of all of their leftover junk by having "boxing day sales" -- I guess it's our way of making up for missing the "day after Thanksgiving" day!

We start crazy shopping in January, a few years ago it wasn't until February. That's when all the shops "lower" their prices after Christmas. Some shops do not lower theirs, they raise them instead.

> Oh, and incidentally, we have a few other holidays as well. Most noticably, there's a "Family Day" that we get off of school or work, I guess because we felt we didn't have enough holidays. It's another of those sleep or play computer games holidays. And of course there's Easter -- I typically spend that holiday thinking up some new AGL game or something, which I never get around to fully developing (much less coding).

We do, too, but I don't remember them....

Juho