"Holiday" / "Holy Day"

       This evening Rosh Hashanah began, and once again I think, in the corner of my mind, about the contrast between holidays and holy days.  The former have their source in the latter.  But the usage is quite different most times.

       To "go on holiday" quite simply means a respite from work, a break, a getaway, a vacation.  One doesn't hear the "holiness" in it any more.  Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur are the "High Holidays" but you don't usually hear "High Holy Days" even though Yom Kippur is the holiest day in the Jewish year.

       Since apparently the root meaning of holy is whole, complete, "holiday" might not be so far away since, from a stressed and scattered state, it often puts one back together, makes one whole.