In parochial schools and jurisdictions that follow a Christian religious tradition, the vacation may be described as an Easter holiday, which starts on Good Friday and continues through the subsequent week.
[7] In Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, and Russia, summer holidays typically last three months, compared to six to eight weeks in Britain, the Netherlands, and Germany.
[10] In Nigeria, the longest holiday is from July ending to first or second week of September for secondary schools and a longer duration within same period for tertiary institutions.
The academic lesson for the school year ends in mid-October with final examination taking place from late-October to late-November.
The fourth and last term usually start at the beginning of October and closes in mid-December when the academic year officially comes to an end.
An academic year typically includes a fall and spring semester, with a shorter optional summer session.
It is often believed that when the United States was a primarily agrarian society, children were needed during the Northern Hemisphere summer months for farm labor.
However, there is little evidence supporting this, with 19th-century rural schools more typically favoring a summer academic term and more vacation time during spring and autumn.
The year is divided into two semesters, three trimesters or four quarters, typically with a report card issued to students' parents at the end of each.
Continuing education classes (often available at community colleges and private "boot camp" style schools) are often shorter and start throughout the year with no particular seasonality.
In North India, the typical summer vacation runs from mid-May to the end of June, with school usually starting on July 1.
Schools in Uttar Pradesh give a holiday on Charan Singh's birth anniversary, and that is when the winter break starts for some.
There are some exceptions in northern Japan, where schools set a longer winter break, while cutting the summer one shorter.
Until 2015, schools followed a three-term system, similar to Japan: From 2015 onwards, the calendar was changed to a more quasi-Western styled one, having the year to end on January rather than February.
For festivities such as Hari Raya Puasa, Chinese New Year and Deepavali, schools usually apply for additional holidays to allow longer breaks for students to visit relatives in their hometowns.
During the implementation of COVID-19 community quarantines in 2020 to 2022, the school year ran from September or October to May or June, in 2021, it fell in August.
Some schools have opted to shorten the winter holidays in exchange for an Autumn break, which typically lasts for one week around All Saints' Day (November 1).
[30] In 2017, the Estonian Ministry of Education and Research began scheduling a new "winter-spring" break, to balance the learning weeks between the winter and spring holidays.
In an attempt to alleviate this issue, France's school holiday schedules are staggered by dividing the country's breaks into three different "zones" or periods.
However, this division still does not lighten the flow of human traffic completely, as many families head to popular holiday spots all at once or on the same day, resulting in localised inflation and price increases, as well as potential availability or vacancy issues.
Some states allow for municipalities or individual schools to move a handful of days from a state-wide holiday to locally favoured dates, e.g. Shrove Monday, the Fridays after Ascension and Corpus Christi or some other Friday or Monday that would provide for a long weekend and is called a Brückentag 'bridging day'.
The dates for the start and the end of the school year at both primary and post-primary level are not fixed, but mid-year breaks are standardised.
Spring breaks are usually one to two weeks long, between late March and early May depending on the dates of both Orthodox and Catholic Easter.
Students from the last year of primary and secondary schools usually start summer holidays one week earlier due to the final exams.
Primary (4–11) and secondary (11–16) schools usually follow a 39-week academic year, while further (16+) and higher (18+) educational establishments often have 33 or even 36-week terms, generally with no half-term break.
After a two-week holiday, encompassing Christmas and New Year, the second term runs from early January to Easter and is of variable length to allow for the movable feast.
The summer holidays last for approximately six weeks, which was for a long time thought to be in order to allow children to help with the harvest.
[citation needed] In Scotland, the summer break is earlier because of the different day lengths and agricultural practices there.
Summer holidays in State schools are usually between five and seven weeks long, starting in mid-late July and ending in early September.
Years 4, 5, and 6 have a period of exam leave at the end of April until early June, but may return for the last few weeks before the summer holiday starts.