Difference between vacation and holiday
Holiday and vacation, two words of different meanings but at times can be used interchangeably depending on their usage.
A holiday denotes an absence or break in the routine of work. The break or absence may be due to rest or simply for recreation. Meanwhile, a vacation may mean an excursion or special trip to one particular place commonly a resort for the main reason of rest and recreation.
In some other country, a holiday may mean merrymaking that is usually associated with customs, belief and at times a political event. A vacation otherwise is a distinct holiday celebration.
Sometimes; the meaning of these two words may be taken in the context of length of time and who are observing these activities. If members of the family will have a shorter breaks in the guise of trips or excursions to resorts or other places, vacation is more apt to this activity while if they have to go on a longer break and lead to a holiday resort the term vacation is more applicable.
Holiday basing on its etymological origin can be split as holy day. Therefore, it is rooted from a religious festivity thus; we tend to give religious importance to the day. It is commonly taken as weekend.
A vacation on the hand can be viewed as a consecutive series of holidays with no working days in between. Meanwhile; holiday can be of different kinds whether religious holiday, national holiday, secular holiday and unofficial holiday.
In the United Kingdom for instance, the term vacation is meant to be a long summer leave that is taken along with the members of the family.
As what stated earlier, these two words can be used interchangeably. Expressions like summer vacation and summer holidays if viewed in these contexts will have the same connotative meaning. The usage of these two words however, will depend solely on the linguistic pattern that is prevalent in a given country.