The word ‘holiday’ comes, of course, from ‘holy’ day, and holy days are celebrated in every religion. If you are lucky and they fall on a weekday, it means a day off school! The more unusual days don’t give you a free day but can be very interesting and perhaps help you to make new friends. For example, let’s take the Left Handers Day, which is celebrated on 13th August. How many of you are left-handed? Well, you can join the Left Handers International and have a picnic with fellow left-handers in your area during your summer holiday! Friendship Day, the first Sunday in August, is another excuse to relax, have a picnic and see your friends more often.
After a long (and sometimes boring?) school year, you might want to do something really exciting, and tour operators will give you what you need. How about going to a remote part of central India to help catch poisonous snakes? That’s certainly different! The snake venom is extracted for medicinal purposes, so you are helping people. Furthermore, the snake is released so you are helping the environment too.
If that kind of excitement is too much for you, why not spend a few weeks in a Buddhist monastery in Laos, in southeast Asia, where you will learn a lot about a different culture and also learn to meditate and keep calm, both of which will help you to study and relax better next school year. The possibilities for holidays out the ordinary are endless!
Get a telescope and look for flying saucers, cook some special (and hopefully edible!) holiday food for your family and friends, learn to paint, practise that sport you couldn’t find time to do during the school year because your teachers gave you too much homework! Find a charity and help the old, the sick, the homeless, refugees and so on. A holiday does not always mean just sitting on a beach, and when September arrives you will have a feeling of satisfaction that you really did something with your summer holiday!