America prizes its holidays and other days of distinction. Whether for federal, state, civic, or religious observance, we have a slew of causes for commemoration.<\/p>\n
In the grammatical world, designated days have stature and so receive proper-noun treatment. At the same time, confusion can still seep in over style. For example, do we write Thanksgiving Day<\/em> or Thanksgiving day?<\/em><\/p>\n We’re here to help clarify that for precision in writing.<\/p>\n The Associated Press Stylebook<\/em> advises to capitalize holidays and holy days. The Chicago Manual of Style<\/em> directs to capitalize religious holidays as well as most secular holidays and other specially marked days, such as April Fools’ Day<\/em>.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n With that in mind, here are examples of proper treatments for different holidays by category. The federal list is complete; the others are partial.<\/p>\n AP<\/em> and CMOS<\/em> differ concerning the reference to the June 6, 1944, Allied invasion of Normandy, France. AP<\/em> treats it as D-Day<\/em> and CMOS<\/em> would print it as D day<\/em>.<\/p>\n They also diverge in their treatment of election day<\/em> and inauguration day.<\/em> CMOS<\/em> instructs to lowercase both phrases as descriptive designations. AP<\/em> agrees with the exception of references to the formal ceremonies including inauguration of a U.S. president (e.g., The inauguration day for the company’s new policies is yet to be decided,<\/em> but The U.S. Inauguration Day is January 20.).<\/em><\/p>\n Following proper grammatical style for days of distinction helps maintain their meaning to us. Who would want a calendar full of just this day<\/em> or that day<\/em>? By identifying their stature in writing, we hold high our reasons to observe and celebrate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" America prizes its holidays and other days of distinction. Whether for federal, state, civic, or religious observance, we have a slew of causes for commemoration. In the grammatical world, designated days have stature and so receive proper-noun treatment. At the same time, confusion can still seep in over style. For example, do we write Thanksgiving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,34],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capitalization","category-possessives"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2784"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2784"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2784\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6722,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2784\/revisions\/6722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n\n
\n Federal Holidays<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n New Year’s Day [Jan. 1]<\/td>\n Labor Day [first Mon. in Sept.]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Martin Luther King Jr. Day [third Mon. of Jan.]<\/td>\n Columbus Day [second Mon. of Oct.]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Presidents’ (or Presidents) Day or Washington’s Birthday [third Mon. of Feb.]<\/td>\n Veterans Day [Nov. 11]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Memorial Day [last Mon. in May]<\/td>\n Thanksgiving (Day) [fourth Thurs. of Nov.]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Juneteenth National Independence Day [June 19]<\/td>\n Christmas (Day) [Dec. 25]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Independence Day (Fourth of July)<\/td>\n <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n \n\n
\n State Holidays<\/strong> [not all are observed nationwide; some are state specific]<\/em><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Lincoln’s Birthday [Feb. 12]<\/td>\n Arbor Day [varies by state]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Casmir Pulaski Day [first Mon. in March]<\/td>\n Bunker Hill Day [June 17]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Cesar Chavez Day [March 31]<\/td>\n Rosh Hashanah [goes by Jewish calendar, usually Sept.]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Good Friday [Fri. before Easter Sun.]<\/td>\n Family Day [day after Thanksgiving]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Patriot’s Day [third Mon. in April]<\/td>\n New Year’s Eve [Dec. 31]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n \n\n
\n Secular and Specially Designated Days<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Groundhog Day [Feb. 2]<\/td>\n Mother’s Day [second Sun. of May]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Valentine’s Day [Feb. 14]<\/td>\n Flag Day [June 14]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n St. Patrick’s Day [March 17]<\/td>\n Father’s Day [third Sun. in June]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Tax Day [April 15 unless on a weekend or holiday]<\/td>\n Halloween (day) [Oct. 31]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Cinco de Mayo [May 5]<\/td>\n Kwanzaa [Dec. 26\u2013Jan. 1]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n \n\n
\n Religious Observances<\/strong><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Easter Sunday [varies March 22\u2013April 25]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Ramadan [ninth month of the Islamic calendar]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Diwali [varies according to Hindu calendar]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Hanukkah\/Chanukah [varies late Nov. to late Dec.]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Christmas Eve [Dec. 24]<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n