HOLDEN 



2808 



HOLLAND 



Holbein's appointment as painter to the king. 

 In this capacity he executed many fine por- 

 traits of royal personages, both in England and 

 on the Continent. 



HOL'DEN, EDWARD SINGLETON (1846-1914), 

 an American astronomer, who as director of 

 Lick Observatory has rendered important serv- 

 ice to astronomical science. He was born at 

 Saint Louis, Mo., was graduated from Wash- 

 ington University in that city in 1866 and 

 from the United States Military Academy in 

 1870. Holden was professor of mathematics 

 at the Naval Academy from 1873 to 1881, and 

 director of the Washburn Observatory at 

 Madison, Wis., from 1881 to 1885. From the 

 latter year to 1887 he was president of the 

 University of California, and from 1888 to 1898 

 director of the Lick Observatory at San Jose, 

 Cal. From 1901 to the end of his life he was 

 librarian of the United States Military Acad- 

 emy at West Point. His publications include 

 Index Catalogue of Nebulae, Essays in Astron- 

 omy and Mountain Observatories. 



HOL'IDAY. The word holiday, which comes 

 from the Anglo-Saxon halig daeg, meaning holy 

 day, was applied originally to any festal day 

 which was set apart for religious observance. 

 It was intended to commemorate some sacred 

 event or to honor the memory of some sacred 

 person. The term is now applied to any day 

 on which people lay aside ordinary duties and 

 cares. The religious holidays will be found 

 treated in the article FESTIVALS. 



In the United States, Sunday is the only 

 day which is recognized in common law as a 

 day set apart for cessation from labor. Con- 

 gress has at various times designated special 

 holidays, as the Day of Rejoicing after the close 

 of the War of Secession, but the American peo- 

 ple have no national holiday which is definitely 

 set apart by a law of Congress. Even July 4 

 is not a holiday by authority of the United 

 States. The various states, however, appoint 

 certain legal holidays. In nearly all of them 

 New Year's Day (January 1), Washington's 

 Birthday (February 22), Independence Day 

 (July 4), Labor Day (first Monday in Sep- 

 tember), Thanksgiving Day (usually the last 

 Thursday in November), and Christmas Day 

 (December 25) are designated as legal holidays. 



In the North the thirtieth of May is ob- 

 served as Memorial Day. Most of the South- 

 ern states celebrate Confederate Memorial Day 

 on April 26, but May 10 is the date observed 

 by North and South Carolina, and in Louisi- 

 ana, June 3, Jefferson Davis' birthday, is hon- 



ored. The birthday of Robert E. Lee, January 

 19, and that of Davis are legal holidays in 

 several of the states of the South, and February 

 12 is a holiday in many states, in honor of 

 Lincoln's birthday. Arbor Day, Bird Day and 

 Flag Day are celebrated more particularly as 

 school holidays. 



The public holidays set apart by statute in 

 the Dominion of Canada are as follows: Sun- 

 day, New Year's Day, Christmas Day, Empire 

 Day (May 24), Dominion Day (July 1) and 

 Labor Day (the first Monday in September). 

 In the province of Quebec certain feast days 

 of the Church are likewise legal holidays. 



For other days' observed at least as semi- 

 holidays, see special departments under the 

 various months of the year. See also ARBOR 

 DAY; BIRD, subhead Bird Day, also special 

 programs, pages 316 and 743. 



HOLINSHED, hoi' inz hed, RAPHAEL, or 

 RALPH ( ? -1580), an English writer, born at 

 Sulton Downes, Cheshire, and believed to have 

 been educated at Cambridge. He is known 

 only by his Chronicles of Englande, Scotlande 

 and Irelande, but these rank high in impor- 

 tance. The first edition of this famous work 

 was published in London in 1577. It is known 

 as the "Shakespeare edition," because it is the 

 one the poet is believed to have used in col- 

 lecting material for his historical plays. In 

 the preparation of the work Holinshed is said 

 to have been assisted by some of the ablest 

 scholars of the day. 



HOLLAND, hoi' and, the popular name ap- 

 plied to the NETHERLANDS (which see). 



HOLLAND, JOHN PHILIP (1842-1914), an 

 Irish-American inventor who first proved that 

 submarine navigation was practicable. Hol- 

 land was not an engineer or an inventor by 

 profession; he perfected the submarine for a 

 definite purpose, namely, the destruction of 

 England's sea power. Born in Ireland, he spent 

 his boyhood in a riot of absentee landlordism, 

 evictions and disturbances of every kind, and 

 learned to view England with an abiding 

 hatred. He wanted to free Ireland from Eng- 

 lish rule, and to do this he realized England's 

 power on the seas would first have to be de- 

 stroyed. 



It was in 1862, while he was teaching in a 

 Christian Brothers' school in Cork, Ireland, 

 that the battle between the Monitor and the 

 Mcrrimac gave Holland his call to what he 

 conceived to be his duty. The victory of the 

 ironclad ship, he saw, foretold England's do- 

 minion on the sea, unless some new weapon 



