Several parts combine into one character.

休 is the warmest compound ideograph in the script: a person (亻, the personside radical) leaning against a tree (木) = to rest. Picture an ancient traveler walking down a road, growing tired, finding shade beneath a large tree, and pausing. That moment frozen into a character. Identical across 繁體 / 新字体 / 简体.

This is one of the all-time best characters to teach the principle of compound ideographs to a beginner: the meaning is obvious once you see the parts. 亻 (person) on the left, 木 (tree) on the right — a person at rest beside a tree. The picture is the verb.

Mandarin: xiū, level 1st tone. 休息 (xiūxi, to rest), 退休 (tuìxiū, to retire — "withdraw and rest"), 休假 (xiūjià, vacation), 不休 (bùxiū, ceaselessly — "without rest"). The character carries an unhurried, restorative quality even in modern HR vocabulary like 退休 and 休假.

Japanese: on-reading キュウ (kyū) in 休日 (kyūjitsu, holiday / day off), 連休 (renkyū, consecutive holidays — Japanese workers track these closely), 休憩 (kyūkei, break), 休業 (kyūgyō, business closure). Kun-reading やす.む (yasu.mu, to rest / take time off): 仕事を休む (shigoto o yasumu, to take a day off work), 学校を休む (gakkō o yasumu, to skip school). Note also やす.まる, やす.める — the active and stative variants.

The Golden Week 黄金週間 (Ōgon Shūkan) and Silver Week シルバーウィーク are Japanese national holidays where 連休 (renkyū) anchors the entire travel and consumption calendar — knowing 休 is essential cultural literacy.

Memory aid: a person (亻) propped against a tree (木) — taking a break in the shade.