United States of America (Virginia) : public and bank holidays, closure of banks, stock exchanges, school vacations

cards/flowers : Mother’s day has evolved in many countries in different ways. This is because mother’s day has different origins in different countries and therefore occurs on different days in the year. One school of thought claims that this day emerged from the custom of mother worship in ancient Greece. Mother worship which kept a festival to Cybele, a great mother of gods, and Rhea, the wife of Cronus, was held on March 15 to March 18 around Asia Minor. They insist that this custom spread around the world. Mothering Sunday is the celebration of motherhood in the United Kingdom. It is also known as Mid-lent Sunday, Rose Sunday and Laetare Sunday. It originally comes from the Victorian practice of allowing servants to return home to visit their mothers on this day. In the United States, Julia Ward Howe (May 27, 1819 - October 17, 1910) was a prominent American abolitionist, social activist, and poet. Howe’s Battle Hymn of the Republic was first published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1862 and quickly became one of the most popular songs for the Union during the American Civil War. After the war she focused her activities on the causes of Pacifism and women’s suffrage. In 1870 she was the first to proclaim Mother’s Day, with her Mother’s Day Proclamation. U.S. President Woodrow Wilson approved Mother’s Day in 1914

Secular holiday : Observed on the last Monday in May in most of the United States, in honour of the nation’s armed services personnel killed in wartime and the deceased in general. Created after the Civil War, it is traditionally marked by parades, memorial speeches

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Banks only : To remember and honor the freeing, in Galveston, Texas, in 1865, of the last slaves in the United States from 2019 on

Secular holiday : West Virginia Day - celebrates the anniversary of the creation of the state as a result of the secession of several northwestern counties of Virginia during the height of the United States Civil War [Wikipedia]

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Secular holiday : Commemorates the formal adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. The Fourth is traditionally celebrated publicly with parades and pageants, patriotic speeches, and organized firing of guns and cannons and displays of fireworks.

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Secular holiday : Celebrated on the first Monday in September with parades. For most Americans, it marks the end of summer holidays, and for many students the beginning of the classes.

Secular holiday : Indigenous Peoples’ Day

Secular holiday : Commemorates the day explorer Christopher Columbus first landed in the West Indies on October 12, 1492. It is celebrated on October 12 in many American countries, but the United States and Colombia celebrate it on the 2nd Monday of October
or, in many cities, celebrates and honors the Indigenous peoples of America and commemorates their shared history and culture paid holiday in Samoa, United States of America, Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Utah, Virginia, Wisconsin

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Banks only : Formerly Armistice Day, is a holiday observed in honour of all those, living and dead, who served with U.S. armed forces in wartime. Armistice Day, the forerunner of Veterans Day, was proclaimed to commemorate the termination of World War I Some banks, post office and governement close, but businesses, more and more, remain open, as well as universities.

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Secular holiday : Many Americans take the following day off and enjoy a four-day holiday. The first formal celebration was held by an English explorer, Martin Frobisher, who attempted to establish a settlement on Baffin Island, after failing to discover a northern passage to the Orient in 1576. The Pilgrims of Plymouth Rock held their Thanksgiving in 1621 as a three-day thank you celebration to the leaders of the Wampanoag Indian tribe and their families for teaching them the survival skills they needed to make it in the New World. The turkey tradition was introduced by Benjamin Franklin who made it a national symbol: quick runner, wary, sharp eyesight... The one-time holiday was declared by George Washington, whereas Abraham Lincoln elected the 4th Thursday in November.

Banks only : Native American Heritage Day

Special Events : Day of sales and bargains

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