In the United States there are, strict speaking, no national __1__holiday, for each state must, through legislative enactment or __2__executive proclamation, appoint the day which each holiday is __3__celebrated. Congress and the president may establish legal holidays for the District of Columbia and for federal employees throughout the states and territories; and by long custom, days that receive nationwide observation, such as Christmas, Thanksgiving, Labor __4__
Day, Independent Day, and New Year’s Day, are uniformly set __5__apart by all states as legal, or public holidays. In 1968, federal __6__legislation established Columbia Day as a legal holiday for the District of Columbia and for the federal government beginning at __7__1971. The law also provided begun in 1971 federal employees __8__would be granted three-days weekends by observing Washington’s __9__Birthday on the third Monday in February, Memorial Day on the last Monday in May, Columbus Day on the second Monday inOctober, and Veteran Day on the forth Monday on October. By 1971, most of the states also adopted the new dates. __10__