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Holiday has many meanings

It might mean "a period of time when you are not at work or school"

With that meaning, we say "on holiday" or "on a holiday" but "during the holidays" or "in the holidays"

For example, we say

  • I went on a road trip on holiday

  • I went on a road trip on a holiday

  • I went on a road trip during the holidays

  • I went on a road trip in the holidays

However, a holiday or a public holiday is countable and also means "a day when most people do not go to work or school, especially because of a religious or national celebration".

My question is that

Is it correct to say?

  • Children don't go to school on a public holiday

  • Children don't go to school on public holidays

  • Children don't go to school in/during public holidays

I guess we say "Children don't go to school in/during public holidays" because we use "on" for just 1 day like "on Monday" or "on Sunday" or "on a cold day".

But a week or "a month" or "a year" makes of many days and we say "in/during the week" or "in/during the month" or "in/during the year"

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  • "on a public holiday" suggests a rare or one-off situation (often accompanied by further information), "on public holidays" gives the general rule.
    – Stuart F
    Commented Aug 30, 2022 at 10:39
  • The rule isn't that we use "in" for multiple days. We still use "on" if it's a question of days ("on Thursdays", "on weekdays"). If the days are consecutive and are no longer seen as individual units, we may say "over" or "during" ("during the first five days of the month") or "for" ("I was sick for five days"), but not "in".
    – rjpond
    Commented Aug 31, 2022 at 5:42

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In Britain, most public holidays are only one day, usually a Monday to make a long weekend (except Christmas, when we get two days whatever the day of the week). We say on public holidays.

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