It’s the holidays! My friends have been wishing me
¡Felices fiestas!
but they’re not just talking about parties. They’re talking about the whole holiday season.
So, let’s talk about the ways to talk about free time in English.
A holiday can be ONE day.
Monday is a holiday.
This use of the word holiday is tied to a nationally-recognized day, like Labor Day, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, or Presidents’ Day. Each holiday is a remembrance or acknowledgment of a significant group, event, or person.
Along those lines, you can say,
This will be a holiday weekend.
For example, the US holiday Labor Day is always on a Monday. Many people start celebrating early and take Friday off, too. So the whole expanse of time is the holiday weekend, or the four-day weekend. It’s the weekend leading up to the actual, one-day holiday. There are usually lots of sales as businesses take advantage of this mindset.
There’s also the holiday season or just the holidays. In the US, this usually means the time between Thanksgiving and New Years.
Let’s revisit the company budget after the holidays.
I think this was originally tied to this time as a series of holy days. Unfortunately, holidays are more about shopping, spending, eating too much, and partying now.
You can also take a holiday, which can be as long as you can afford it to be (ha).
This summer, I’m going to take a holiday in Spain. [I’m going to spend some time in Spain not working.]
The British will say, “I’m ON holiday” but you won’t hear that in the US. We would say
I’m on vacation.
I think this is closest to saying, Estoy de vacaciones.
You can also talk about needing a break, being on break, or taking time off.
I’m tired. I need a break. I’m going to take Monday off.
This is your own decision, on your own schedule (not something everyone else is doing). This has more the feeling of a personal descanso.
Along those lines, you might also hear someone say
I’m taking a day of vacation [using one of the allotted days of leave your employer offers] before the busy season starts.
or even
I’m taking a mental health day. This is humorous way of saying you are stressed, and a day away from work is actually an effort to preserve your sanity!
Students also have breaks when school is not in session. For example, summer is a time when kids are on summer break. During a week in the spring, usually around Easter, students have spring break. And, around this time of year, students will have winter break or Christmas break . Using the term winter break acknowledges that there are other religious celebrations around this time of year, not just the Christian celebration of Christmas.
Entonces–¡Felices fiestas a todos!