What is a vacation? This word is familiar even to a first grader who has barely crossed the threshold of the school. Why are non-study periods called so? With vacations for employees and employees, everything is very clear and simple. They let him go to rest, which means they gave him a long weekend. What about holidays? Although this sounds beautiful, it is not at all clear how the word was formed and where it came from in Russian.
Echoes of Greek and Roman mythology
Those who love to look at the night sky, probably know the name of the brightest star - this is Sirius, located in the constellation Canis Major. Scientists believe that the name of the star comes from the ancient Greek word sirios, which means "hot, scorching." In the period from mid-July to the last days of September, when the distance between Sirius and the Sun becomes minimal, unbearable heat sets in in Greece. The ancient Greeks believed that it was the brightest star in the sky that sent summer heat to the earth. Therefore, the entire such period was called by the name of the scorching star.
No less hot was the summer in Ancient Rome. But since the Romans affectionately called Sirius "dog" (in Latin canus), the hot months were called "dog days" (dies caniculares). At that timecity dwellers strove to get closer to nature, the Roman parliament stopped working, school students were sent home, that is, vacations came. This word has been borrowed into some other European languages to refer to particularly hot summer days. True, it was used in the singular - "vacation".
The best time of the year for students and schoolchildren
In Russia, public educational institutions practically did not exist until the 17th century. Noble children were taught by specially hired teachers and tutors, for the rest the path to education was closed.
Only with the advent of the first European-style schools did it become necessary to choose a word for free time from school. And it wasn't a vacation at all. This concept entered the Russian language only at the end of the 19th century, and earlier the annual “vacations” of schoolchildren were called vacancies, that is, the word vacances borrowed from French.
In the old days, as now, students of various educational institutions received a break from classes several times a year. But since summer vacancies were longer, it was necessary to find a separate word for them. It was then that they remembered the Roman "vacation", for convenience, giving the term the plural, as in the already familiar at that time "vacancies".
As you can see, the interpretation of the word "vacation" is quite complicated, but very interesting. In such a familiar name for us, ancient myths, the names of stars and the first ideas of people about the influence of heavenly bodies on the earth's climate were intertwined.
