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

Banks only :

School holidays :

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

School holidays :

cards/flowers :

Culture : The US Congress enacted the Organic Act setting the government of the Virgin Islands on July 22, 1954

Secular holiday : End of slavery in the Danish West Indies granted in 1848.

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.

Culture : Officially, hurricane season is June 1 through November 30th, however this is the day the Virgin Islands set aside for prayer.

School holidays :

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.

Culture :

Secular holiday : This holiday has been celebrated since the 1960s, in celebration of the unique relationship between Virgin Islanders and Puerto Ricans. Puerto Rico-Virgin Islands Friendship Day is celebrated in place of Columbus Day, due to the controversy surrounding the atrocities committed against the indigenous inhabitants of the Caribbean during Spanish colonization of the region.

Culture : Goes back to 1726 when the first service was conducted in one of the oldest standing structures on St. Thomas which is over 300 years old Fort Christian cancelled in case a hurricane occurred

Culture :

Secular holiday : Dr Hamilton Jackson Day

Culture : David Hamilton Jackson (1884-1946) was resident of the United States Virgin Islands which was under the rule of Danish West Indies who was an important figure in the struggle for increased civil liberties and workers' rights on the islands. He petitioned for freedom of the press, was involved in the territory's labor movement, and, when the Danish West Indies became the U.S. Virgin Islands in 1917, he lobbied for citizenship for the islanders. [Wikipedia]

Special Events :

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.

School holidays :

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.

Special Events : Day of sales and bargains

Secular holiday :