Name two national U.S. holidays.

Why this is the answer

Any two holidays from the official list will do: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas. What makes them national is their legal status, not how widely they are celebrated. USCIS's lesson booklet for this test describes them as days that often honor people or events in American heritage, and adds a point that surprises many newcomers: they are national in a legal sense only for federal institutions and the District of Columbia. Federal offices typically close. Each state decides whether to observe a given day, and businesses, schools and stores choose whether to shut their doors. An employer that stays open on Columbus Day tells you nothing about whether the day belongs on this list. Knowing the story behind a holiday makes its name easier to recall under pressure. Presidents' Day falls on the third Monday in February because that Monday sits between George Washington's birthday, February 22, and Abraham Lincoln's, February 12. Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, honors men and women who died in service to the United States; it was first called Decoration Day, after the flowers, wreaths and flags placed on graves. Veterans Day honors everyone who served, living or dead. It began as Armistice Day, marking the end of World War I on November 11, 1918, and in 1954 Congress passed the law that made it Veterans Day. Memorial Day and Veterans Day are easy to mix up, so if you choose one, know which group it honors. Thanksgiving recalls the 1621 harvest feast that English colonists in Massachusetts shared with the Wampanoag. The question asks for two, and stopping after one leaves the answer short. Valentine's Day, Easter and Election Day come to mind quickly, yet none of them is on the list. Then there is Juneteenth. The USCIS lesson booklet for this version of the test includes it, but the official question list does not, and USCIS encourages applicants to answer with the answers printed on that list even though it knows other correct answers may exist. The safe move is to pick from the printed names. If you want one that needs no thought, Independence Day is the subject of the question right before this one.