Holiday

I entered a search for the definition of "holiday" on Dictionary.com

1. A day free from work that one may spend at leisure, especially a day on which custom or the law dictates a halting of general business activity to commemorate or celebrate a particular event.

2. A religious feast day; a holy day.

3. Chiefly British. A vacation. Often used in the phrase on holiday

Well, you can argue in both ways. A day free FROM WORK indicates that technically speaking, we need not return to school for all those crap lessons/project work/CCA trainings, and that this period of time should be dedicated to "leisure".

However, upon dissecting the definition further, a "holiday" is a day "on which.. the law dictates a HALTING of GENERAL BUSINESS ACTIVITY..."

Technically speaking again, schooling is not a business activity.

Presented above are two arguements to what a "holiday" should be. Hence, I therefore presume that in Singapore, we only accept the latter definition and choose to close our eye to the first half of the definition, especially to the taboo word -- "leisure".