"Contrive" means to invent.  All holidays are human inventions.  Even in its original meaning as sacred time, a holiday is the product of human invention, not divine.

I fail to see the point you are making.  The "holidays" below--if indeed they are sacred days at all, which I find doubtful--are all invented.

>Not all holidays are "contrived".  Consider the following:
 [snip]
Kevin R. Hardwick, Ph.D.
Department of History
James Madison University