Talk:School holiday

Why?!
You know, I'm having the damnedest time trying to figure out why these exist. As a college student, I'm not complaining exactly, but they have to have started for some kind of historical reason, right? I get the one for summer—people needed to harvest crops and stuff. But what about the month-long one I'm starting this, the week of 12/18? Christmas, right, but a month? It's a semester thing—is it for people who live far from their families or something? Anyone know? -Dan 04:46, 19 December 2006 (UTC)


 * Only two weeks for most places I know (schools that is, not universities). It's to break for celebrations and family.  As for the full history of the academic year, I wouldn't really know.  violet/riga (t) 19:52, 19 December 2006 (UTC)


 * I agree, the article could really do with a historical section - how these traditions developed.Lord Spring Onion (talk) 18:33, 15 July 2009 (UTC)
 * A decade late, but ... perhaps religious observance of advent (from fourth Sunday before Christmas) then through the Twelve Days of Christmas (which starts on Christmas day). Klbrain (talk) 06:34, 16 August 2019 (UTC)

A few more
I've added Japan and Norway to make it less UK-centric. Any other addition suggestions? Cariel 01:30, 2 November 2007 (UTC)

A few more (eh?)
Lovely, except Japan's holidays are widely variable. The specificity of the winter holiday in particular is just completely misleading. Furthermore private schools tend to have shorter holidays than public ones. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 180.47.203.240 (talk) 07:26, 10 March 2012 (UTC)
 * In most countries, private schools tend to have different holidays, though in many countries they are longer than in state schools. Can you find a good reference for holiday dates in Japanese schools?    D b f i r s   12:32, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

This needs a more global point of view
"The terms "summer break" and "summer holiday" are often used to refer to the large break from school and university taken during summer (usually August and some time before and after)." stuff like that makes this a very american/northern hemisphere article and i think that this article needs a revamp maybe some tables or graphs to show when school holidays occur in certain parts of the world?58.106.230.48 (talk) 12:36, 19 June 2008 (UTC)


 * There is a fair range of countries mentioned so far, but these could be organised in some way e.g. by continent; also I agree a table would be helpful.Lord Spring Onion (talk) 18:33, 15 July 2009 (UTC)

Adding references to third party holiday date providers
I have tried to add refs to the most legitimate and verbose websites for providing school holiday dates but each edit has been reverted by OPs. OPs please look through the history of this pages parent and consider applying my diffs. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Johnyma22 (talk • contribs) 06:35, 19 January 2012 (UTC)
 * You actually removed a reference (though I agree that is wasn't the best). Government websites are preferable, but at least the website that you removed stated, on the linked page, the facts it was referencing.  Yours was just a list of links to dates.    D b f i r s   12:30, 10 March 2012 (UTC)

Proposed merge of School holiday into Academic year
I am of the view that this article should be merged into the article Academic year. School holidays are part of the academic year; and much of the content in the two articles is on the same subject matter but is contradictory between the two. Thank you! XP-93 (talk) 12:28, 28 July 2018 (UTC)
 * ✅ Klbrain (talk) 20:52, 20 October 2019 (UTC)

Also Academic Term needs to be considered
I've found information about school terms and holidays split amongst three articles. The two being considered for merger and also Academic term. All three could be merged into one article or we could have a separate article for schools. Karl (talk) 09:06, 12 October 2018 (UTC)