US National Holidays 2012

Everyone enjoys holidays, especially national holidays. This is because those are the ones that are mandatory, and no business organization can ask its employees to work on these days. It doesn't matter what age you are, what you do, what you like, everyone plans their year based on the holiday list. Hence, it is quite awaited, especially at the end of a year and at the beginning of a new one. In this article, you will get a complete list of the US national holidays (2012), declared by the United States Office of Personnel Management. You can go through these dates, and begin your year-round planning.

US National Holidays for 2012

The complete list of US national holidays for the year 2012 is given below. Do note that US public holidays and national holidays may not always be the same, in the sense that, all the national holidays are definitely public holidays, but all public holidays are not necessarily national holidays. Three of these holidays fall on a Sunday. Five holidays fall on a Monday, so those can be planned as long weekends. So let us have a look at the national holidays that await us this year, after which, we will look at some other important days of the year, which might be declared as holidays by certain states or organizations.

2012 US National Holidays List
Date	Day	Holiday	Description
January 1	Sunday	New Year's Day	Observed on the first of January, New Year's Day marks the start of the year according to both the ancient Julian calendar and the modern Gregorian calendar.
January 16	Monday	Martin Luther King Day	The third Monday every year is observed as a national holiday, celebrating Martin Luther King Day. This day honors Martin Luther King Jr.
February 20	Monday	President's Day	Every third Monday of February is celebrated as Washington Day in honor of George Washington. It is also called President's Day in quite a few states of the country.
April 8	Sunday	Easter	An important religious holiday worldwide, Easter Sunday marks the end of Lent and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
May 28	Monday	Memorial Day	Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, is an important national holiday that is observed in the United States as a symbol of respect and honor for those who lost their lives in the American Civil War.
July 4	Wednesday	American Independence Day	As the name American Independence Day suggests, this day represents the day the United States of America was born.
September 3	Monday	Labor Day	This day is celebrated to pay respects to the working class of the country as can be concurred from its history.
October 8	Monday	Columbus Day	Columbus Day is celebrated on the second Monday in October every year to signify the day that the great explorer, Christopher Columbus made his foray into America.
November 11	Sunday	Veteran's Day	Veteran's Day falls on the same day every year. On this day, we pay our respects to the veterans of all wars. Though initially it was just for World War I veterans, today it honors the soldiers of all wars.
November 22	Thursday	Thanksgiving Day	Thanksgiving Day is a national holiday that falls on the fourth Thursday of November, every year. On this day, people offer their thanks and gratitude to God for everything that they have.
December 25	Tuesday	Christmas Day	Christmas Day is celebrated on the same day every year to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, and also marks the end of the Advent season.

Though the list above has all the holidays that are binding on every citizen of America, there are some more holidays that are declared according to the decisions taken by the state governments too. They are as follows:

February 1	National Freedom Day
February 2	Groundhog Day
February 22	Ash Wednesday
March 17	St. Patrick's Day
April 6	Good Friday
April 7	Passover
April 9	Easter Monday
May 1	May Day
September 11	Patriot Day
September 28	Native American Day
October 31	Halloween
November 1	All Saints' Day
November 2	All Souls' Day
December 7	National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day
December 26	Boxing Day
December 31	New Year's Eve

These holidays may differ from state to state, hence, they do not appear in the list of holidays mentioned in the table above. So do refer to the holidays that your state has declared too, before making any important plans for vacations, business meetings, weddings, etc. Hope you and your loved ones have an awesome 2012.