[2] Congress only has authority to create holidays for federal institutions (including federally-owned properties), employees, and the District of Columbia.

As a general rule of courtesy, custom, and sometimes regulation, other institutions, such as banks, businesses, schools, and the financial markets, may be closed on federal holidays.

[5][6][7][8] President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, which declared "that all persons held as slaves" within the rebellious states "are, and henceforward shall be free".

A National Park Service fact sheet explains that "the word 'Juneteenth' is a Black English contraction, or portmanteau, of the month 'June' and the date 'Nineteenth'.

Juneteenth celebrates the date of June 19, 1865, when enslaved people of African descent located in Galveston, Texas, finally learned of their freedom from the system of slavery in the United States.

[11][12] Thanksgiving has been proclaimed in the U.S. for various months and days of the week, including March, August, September, November, December, and on Sundays.

In the United States, Christmas Day as a federal or public holiday is sometimes objected to by various non-Christians,[15][16][17] usually due to its ties with Christianity.

1938 (federal holiday) 1941 (received permanent observation date)[28] Inauguration Day, held on January 20 every four years following a quadrennial presidential election, if not falling on the Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., is considered a paid holiday for federal employees in the Washington, D.C., area by the Office of Personnel Management.

Some private employers, often by a union contract, pay a differential such as time-and-a-half or double-time to employees who work on some federal holidays.

Employees not specifically covered by a union contract, might only receive their standard pay for working on a federal holiday, depending on the company policy.

[47][48] Alaska, Colorado,[49] Florida, Hawaii, Iowa,[50] Louisiana,[51] Maine, Michigan,[52] Minnesota,[53] New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina,[54] Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont,[55] Washington, and Wisconsin do not recognize Columbus Day.