The american concept of holiday versus its spanish counterpart: two perspectives

Abstract

This paper presents the hypothesis that the word fiesta has a greater semantic weight than its American counterpart holiday. That lack of cognitive equivalence will be analysed from an anthropologic, literary, lexicographic and semantic point of view. That different conception may interfere in intercultural communication since a literal translation cannot possibly reflect the diverse connotations of the noun fiesta. Both the Spanish student of English and the North American student of Spanish could benefit from understanding the cultural notions associated with these key words to avoid stereotypes and linguistic oversimplifications.