Simonb Which holiday was exactly my point in the original thread. Any holiday type opens it up to all sorts of interpretations, which on reflection I think is a good idea.
In my field as a translator I'm sensitive to the fine lines of communication and potential misunderstanding. We have "localization" where a thing may get this or that nuance in a country, culture, or group. In my work I weigh words carefully both for what I'm reading, and how I translate it. I believe this is going on here.
As I understand it, in the United States there has been a problem with the word "Christmas' which gradually got replaced by Xmas and 'holidays". We had that to some degree here in Canada but maybe not that much. The word "holiday" immediately relates to this "Christmas vs. holidays" debate for many (North?) Americans, I think. You'll notice that RS1 wrote:
rsl12 I hate that this a politically-charged topic.
That means the thinking immediately went to the existing problem around a particular issue.
I tried to get past that mindset, and outside of any single country, by referring to the Indian festival of Holi, which is in March. Nobody in India would be thinking about "do we say Christmas or holiday in December" because it's a different country and culture. The same for other countries.
We do come from any different countries. The Internet is not an American place that people from other countries also visit. So the association of "holiday" as a political issue due to what has happened in recent years around the word "Christmas" will not spring to mind, and some people may even be totally aware of it.
That, I think, is the miscommunication.
@rsl12 , when I see the word "holiday" I do not think of something in lieu of Christmas, or 'political correctness' and such. I simply wonder "which holiday"? I understand that the Christmas/holiday controversy is a sensitive issue, but many of us wouldn't even be thinking of that.