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Festival vs Holiday - What's the difference?

festival | holiday |

As nouns the difference between festival and holiday

is that festival is an event or community gathering, usually staged by a local community, which centers on some theme, sometimes on some unique aspect of the community while holiday is a day on which a festival, religious event, or national celebration is traditionally observed.

As an adjective festival

is pertaining to a feast or feast-day. (Now only as the noun used attributively..

As a verb holiday is

to take a period of time away from work or study.

As a proper noun Holiday is

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festival

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Pertaining to a feast or feast-day. (Now only as the noun used attributively.)
  • * 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , II.iii:
  • the temple of the Gods [...] / Whom all the people decke with girlands greene, / And honour in their festiuall resort [...].

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An event or community gathering, usually staged by a local community, which centers on some theme, sometimes on some unique aspect of the community.
  • In mythology, a set of celebrations in the honour of a god.
  • holiday

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A day on which a festival, religious event, or national celebration is traditionally observed.
  • Today is a Wiccan holiday !
  • A day declared free from work by the state or government.
  • A period of one or more days taken off work by an employee for leisure.
  • A period during which pupils and students do not attend their school or university.
  • A period taken off work or study for travel or leisure.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or
  • An unintentional gap left on a plated, coated, or painted surface.Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1). Random House, Inc. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/holiday (accessed: June 26, 2007).
  • Synonyms

    * (day on which a festival, etc, is traditionally observed''): feast day (''celebratory religious event ) * (day declared free from work by the government ): Bank Holiday (UK), national holiday * (period of one or more days taken off work by an employee for leisure ): leave, time off * (period taken off work or study for travel ): vacation (US)

    Derived terms

    * bank holiday * busman's holiday * go on holiday * high days and holidays * holiday season * holiday-maker, holidaymaker * holidayer * public holiday * summer holiday

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To take a period of time away from work or study.
  • (British) To spend a period of time for travel.
  • References