What a day actually closes — the field that separates a name from an effect.
Operational status records what a day does rather than what it is called. The values are closed_general, public_sector, banks and half_day, plus optional and open for days observed without closing anything.
It exists because names do not travel. What one country calls a public holiday closes everything; what another calls the same thing binds only the state. Sorting by the local label produces a calendar that is right about vocabulary and wrong about consequence.
It is also the field that makes the corpus answer questions a holiday list cannot: which days close the customs desk and not the office, which empty a team without closing anything, and which stop money moving while everything else runs.
The observance is the occasion. Operational status is what it does — and a single observance can carry a different status in different jurisdictions.
See also observance · public holiday · half day · observed but open · banking day
We hold this as operational_status on every observance, and the closes boolean derived from it. See what we hold.