WHAT ARE HOLIDAYS FOR DOGS IN 2020?

Holidays are not just for humans anymore. Do you know what dog-friendly holidays are celebrated each month? Come join in the fun and stay updated with all the holidays celebrated just for dogs.

What are the holidays just for dogs? We have holidays for humans why not have Dog Holidays? Most of the Dog Holidays are developed to help us become aware of the health, happiness, and well-being of your dog, and even to mark some historical events with a few days thrown in just to just have some fun.

Let’s explore what holidays are and how they come about, I will apologize in advance for the brief history lesson, I just felt it was needed to get a clear understanding on how holidays are established.

Many times we might be aware of holidays that come up for our furry friends, or find out at the last minute, but do we know the reason behind them or why we decided to celebrate a specific holiday with our dogs?

Just for fun, I wanted to find out what holidays we can celebrate with our dogs and why they were created. I was completely blown away with the vast number of holidays that are now catering to our dogs each and every month.

As humans, we find reasons to celebrate all the time and for those of us sharing our lives with dogs in our family, we want to be able to celebrate those special days just for our furry friends too.

What Are Holidays?

 
The word holiday comes from “holy day” meaning a day established and intended as a religious observance or a day to celebrate a significant day in religious history.

As we have modernized the word holiday, mostly created by law, customs and organizations, holidays have been established to celebrate significant days in history, awareness, events and are not only for just centered around religion anymore.

This explains a bit more of how we now have specific holidays associated to observe with our four-legged friends, among many others.

How is a Holiday Declared a Holiday?

 
With so many holidays out there, you may be wondering how holidays come about? I know I was.

Throughout the years, holidays have been established by federal, state, organizations and even businesses. How does this happen?

From what I understand through my extensive research is that anyone can establish a holiday, what truly makes it a holiday is when a majority of people feel they want to observe this day. Hence why we now have doggie days.

These holidays, such as Valentine’s Day or St. Patrick’s Day does not entitle you to a paid holiday such as at the federal or state level as these are governed by Congress and Legislature and has nothing to do with any type of law.

Now that we have established the meaning of a “holiday” and understand how holidays come to exist, it is easier to determine why so many holidays exist and it is up to you if you want to observe the holiday.

What are Federal Holidays?

In the US only eleven federal holidays exist, and many people are under the influence that these are national holidays. This is not true. In doing my research I found in the US, there are really no national holidays that exist in the US as Congress allows states and even local to govern their holidays.

The eleven federal holidays declared by Congress, started back in 1870 with New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas and additions made along the way with only four of the eleven established within the last 100 years.

Federal holiday declared only by the President or an Act of Congress are days recognized for significant dates in American history and therefore federal offices are closed and federal workers are relieved of their duties for that specific day with pay. Other companies have also adopted these guidelines set by the Federal Government here in the US and now offer some of these days as paid holidays to their employees. Here is a list of Federal Holidays that many people have time off to spend with family, friends and our furry friends.

Federal Holidays Established

The following four federal holidays established in 1870 for District of Columbia then 1888 for all federal employees

New Year’s Day 1870 celebrated on January 1st
Independence Day 1870 celebrated on July 4th
Thanksgiving Day 1870 celebrated 4th Thursday in November
Christmas Day 1870 celebrated 25th of December

George Washington’s Birthday 1880
Decoration Day/Memorial Day in 1888
Labor Day in 1894
Armistice Day/Veterans Day 1938 and changed in 1954
Inauguration Day in 1957 (quadrennially after each presidential election and only celebrated in the District of Columbia).
Columbus Day in 1968
Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday 1983

Ok, I know enough of the history lesson already! Let’s find out more on why we should celebrate holidays for our furry pals…

Why Celebrate Holidays with Our Dogs?

As our lives as dog parents lean more to accepting our dogs as family members and not just dogs, we have many things to celebrate and observe with our furry pals.

So why should we celebrate with our dogs? Again, many humans like to celebrate by attending gatherings with friends and family so what better way to have a chance to celebrate than spending time with our best friends and loyal companions.

Celebrating holidays with our dogs also helps to create a great human-dog bond and bring us even closer with our four-legged friends.

Most holidays for dogs are centered around some type of history, awareness, birthdates and even those just for fun. Let’s take a look at what holidays to celebrate with our dogs in 2020.

There are many holidays for dogs on the calendar for awareness, special days and just for fun. Now just deciding which one that you want to celebrate…

As we discovered a holiday in the US is only declared a National Holiday by the President or Act of Congress. This is not likely it will ever happen due to allowing the Federal, State and Local to decide which holidays they wish to celebrate.

Dog Holidays, they are determined by people, we have learned that many of our dog holidays have been established by organizations and dog lovers. The Dog Holidays that are celebrated are determined by how important people feel the subject is or how popular it has become and if you as an individual want to celebrate.

I hope that you will stick with me this year and help support my efforts in finding all the great holidays out there for our furry friends. Again, I will be posting them monthly so we all know what holidays to celebrate with our dogs this year.

Do you know what holidays you plan to celebrate with your dog? Let me know in the comments below.

If I have missed a holiday that you think we need here you can enter that in the comments and I will research it and get it added.

I look forward to continuing this project this year to help keep you informed of the coming holidays for dogs.

Thanks for helping to keep our dogs healthy, happy and well-adjusted!