List of multinational festivals and holidays

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A very wide variety of multinational festivals and holidays are celebrated around the world, whether within particular religions, cultures, or otherwise. Celebrations listed here are celebrated in at least two or more countries; for a list holidays, see List of holidays by country.

January

Christianity
Judaism
Secular
Punjabi
Telugu , Karnataka and Maharashtra

February

Christianity
  • Candlemas: 2 February – Feast of the Presentation of the Lord; 40 days after Christmas; end of Christmas/Epiphany Season
  • Valentine's Day: 14 February'
Historical
  • Lupercalia: 15 February – the Roman end-of-winter festival

Shrove Tuesday (UK) 28 February

Paganism
  • Imbolc: 1 February – first day of spring in the Celtic calendar
Secular

March

Christianity
  • Saint David's Day: 1 March - the fixed date to honour Saint David, patron saint of Wales, celebrated by Welshmen and women everywhere throughout the world
  • Saint Patrick's Day: 17 March – the fixed date to honor Saint Patrick has sometimes been moved by Church if it coincides with Holy Week, but the secular world usually always celebrates it on 17 March
Judaism
Secular
Secular and multiple religions
Hindusm

April

Judaism
  • Passover: late March or in April See "movable"
Secular
Christianity
  • Easter: typically in April, but sometimes in March or May, see "movable"
  • Good Friday: the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, see "movable"
Hinduism

May

Judaism
Paganism
  • May Day: 1 May – a traditional spring holiday in many cultures.
Secular

June

Judaism
Hinduism

Secular

July

Hinduism

August

Christianity
Judaism
Hinduism
Islam
  • Eid-Al-Adha: 21st August
Secular

September

Judaism
Hinduism
Secular

October

Christianity
  • All Hallows' Eve (Halloween): 31 October – a Christian-titled holiday that is often celebrated with traditions originating from a mixture of secular and Celtic pagan influences.
  • Dia de los muertos (Day of the Dead): 31 October–2 November Celebrated in mostly catholic Mexico but with origins that predate European contact.
Judaism
Hinduism
Paganism
  • Samhain: 31 October–1 November – first day of winter in the Celtic calendar (and Celtic New Year's Day)
Secular
  • Columbus Day: October 12 or the second Monday in October
  • Nigeria Independence day: 1 October

November

Christianity
Secular
Hinduism
  • Diwali: mid-October–mid-November – see "movable"

December

Buddhism
  • Bodhi Day: 8 December – Day of Enlightenment, celebrating the day that the historical Buddha (Shakyamuni or Siddhartha Gautama) experienced enlightenment (also known as Bodhi). New Years
Christianity
  • Advent: four Sundays preceding Christmas Day
  • Krampusnacht: 5 December – The Feast of St. Nicholas is celebrated in parts of Europe on 6 December. In Alpine countries, Saint Nicholas has a devilish companion named Krampus who punishes the bad children the night before.
  • Saint Nicholas' Day: 6 December
  • Feast of the Immaculate Conception Day: 8 December – The day of Virgin Mary's Immaculate Conception is celebrated as a public holiday in many Catholic countries.
  • Saint Lucia's Day: 13 December – Church Feast Day. Saint Lucia comes as a young woman with lights and sweets.
  • Las Posadas: 16–24 December – procession to various family lodgings for celebration & prayer and to re-enact Mary & Joseph's journey to Bethlehem[5]
  • Longest Night: A modern Christian service to help those coping with loss, usually held on the eve of the Winter solstice.
  • Christmas Eve: 24 December – In many countries e.g. the German speaking countries, but also in Poland, Hungary and the Nordic countries, gift giving is on 24 December.
  • Christmas Day: 25 December and 7 January – celebrated by Christians and non-Christians alike.[6][7][8][9]
  • Anastasia of Sirmium feast day: 25 December
  • Twelve Days of Christmas: 25 December–6 January
  • Saint Stephen's Day: 26 December – In Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic a holiday celebrated as Second Day of Christmas.
  • Saint John the Evangelist's Day: 27 December
  • Holy Innocents' Day: 28 December
  • Saint Sylvester's Day: 31 December
Hinduism
  • Pancha Ganapati: a modern five-day Hindu festival celebrated from December 21 through 25 in honor of Ganesha.
Historical
  • Malkh: 25 December
  • Mōdraniht: or Mothers' Night, the Saxon winter solstice festival.
  • Saturnalia: 17–23 December - An ancient Roman winter solstice festival in honor of the deity Saturn, held on the 17 December of the Julian calendar and expanded with festivities through to 23 December. Celebrated with sacrifice, a public banquet, followed by private gift-giving, continual partying, and a carnival.
  • Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (Day of the birth of the Unconquered Sun): 25 December – late Roman Empire
Humanism
  • HumanLight: 23 December – Humanist holiday originated by the New Jersey Humanist Network in celebration of "a Humanist's vision of a good future."[10]
Judaism
  • Hanukkah: usually falls anywhere between late November and early January. See "movable"
Paganism
  • Yule: Pagan winter festival that was celebrated by the historical Germanic people from late December to early January.
  • Yalda: 21 December – The turning point, Winter Solstice. As the longest night of the year and the beginning of the lengthening of days, Shabe Yaldā or Shabe Chelle is an Iranian festival celebrating the victory of light and goodness over darkness and evil. Shabe yalda means 'birthday eve.' According to Persian mythology, Mithra was born at dawn on 22 December to a virgin mother. He symbolizes light, truth, goodness, strength, and friendship. Herodotus reports that this was the most important holiday of the year for contemporary Persians. In modern times Persians celebrate Yalda by staying up late or all night, a practice known as Shab Chera meaning 'night gazing'. Fruits and nuts are eaten, especially pomegranates and watermelons, whose red color invokes the crimson hues of dawn and symbolize Mithra.
  • Koliada: Slavic winter festival celebrated on late December with parades and singers who visit houses and receive gifts.
Secular
Unitarian Universalism
Fictional or parody
  • Erastide: In David Eddings' Belgariad and Malloreon series, Erastide is a celebration of the day on which the Seven Gods created the world. Greetings ("Joyous Erastide") and gifts are exchanged, and feasts are held.
  • Feast of Winter Veil: 15 December–2 January – A holiday in World of Warcraft. This holiday is based on Christmas. Cities are decorated with lights and a tree with presents. Special quests, items and snowballs are available to players during this time. The character of "Greatfather Winter", who is modeled after Santa Claus, appears.[12][13] Festival of the Winter Veil was and still is a legitimate holiday of European religions like Wicca. The Germanic tribes used to celebrate the Winter Solstice as a time to be thankful for the blessings given to them to survive harsh winters. The term "Weil", incorrectly translated to "veil", means abundance in German.
  • Feast of Alvis: in the TV series Sealab 2021.[14] "Believer, you have forgotten the true meaning of Alvis Day. Neither is it ham, nor pomp. Nay, the true meaning of Alvis day is drinking. Drinking and revenge."–Alvis[15]
  • Hogswatch: a holiday celebrated on the fictional world of Discworld. It is very similar to the Christian celebration of Christmas.
  • Festivus: 23 December – a parody holiday created by Daniel O'Keefe and made popular by Seinfeld as an alternative to Christmas.
  • Frostvale: the winter holidays in the Artix Entertainment universe
  • Decemberween: 25 December – a parody of Christmas that features gift-giving, carol-singing and decorated trees. The fact that it takes place on December 25, the same day as Christmas, has been presented as just a coincidence, and it has been stated that Decemberween traditionally takes place "55 days after Halloween". The holiday has been featured in the Homestar Runner series.
  • Wintersday, the end-of-the-year celebration in the fictional universe of the Guild Wars franchise, starts every year mid December and ends the next year on early January.
  • IES Competition Time, Don's Event questions on the number of trips he took all over the world and in return offering prizes for the person who can guess closest. Follows this up with everyone's favourite Andrew Award presentation.
  • Winter's Crest, the winter celebration held on the continent of Tal'Dorei in the world of Exandria, as featured in the RPG show Critical Role.

Movable date

The following festivals have no fixed date in the Gregorian calendar, and may be aligned with moon cycles or other calendars.[16]

Chinese/Vietnamese/Korean/Mongolian/Tibetan/Japanese
Persian
  • Sadeh: A mid-winter feast to honor fire and to "defeat the forces of darkness, frost and cold". Sadé or Sada is an ancient Iranian tradition celebrated 50 days before Nowruz. Sadeh in Persian means "hundred" and refers to one hundred days and nights left to the beginning of the new year celebrated at the first day of spring on March 21 each year. Sadeh is a midwinter festival that was celebrated with grandeur and magnificence in ancient Iran. It was a festivity to honor fire and to defeat the forces of darkness, frost, and cold.
  • Chahar Shanbeh Suri: Festival of Fire, Last Wednesday of the Iranian Calendar year. It marks the importance of the light over the darkness, and arrival of spring and revival of nature. Chahārshanbe–Sūri (Persian: چهارشنبه‌سوری), pronounced Chārshanbe–Sūri (Persian: چارشنبه‌سوری) is the ancient Iranian festival dating at least back to 1700 BCE of the early Zoroastrian era.[1] The festival of fire is a prelude to the ancient Norouz festival, which marks the arrival of spring and revival of nature. Chahrshanbeh Soori, is celebrated the last Tuesday night of the year.
Islam
  • Ramadan: During this holy time, the ninth month of the Islamic calendar year, Muslims do not eat, drink, or smoke from sunrise to sunset for an entire month. Instead, they spend their days in worship, praying in mosques. At the end of Ramadan, people celebrate with a festival known as Id-ul-Fitr.

Eid -Ul-Fitr Eid-Ul-Adha Hijri new Year Asyura Maulid Isra mi'raj Middle sya'ban (lay'at Al-Nisfu) Day of Arafa

Judaism
  • Hanukkah – Ḥănukkāh, usually spelled חנוכה, pronounced [χanuˈka] in Modern Hebrew; a transliteration also romanized as Chanukah or Chanukkah), also known as the Festival of Lights, Feast of Dedication, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the re-dedication of the Holy Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt against the Seleucid Empire of the 2nd century BC. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar.
  • Passover: late March or in April Festival celebrating the Hebrews captivity in Egypt at the time when God commanded Moses to ask for the Hebrew people to be released. As a result of being denied 10 plagues came open Egypt. One being the Angel of death coming and the first born son of each home dying. But God commanded the Hebrews to apply lambs blood to the door posts as a sign for the Angel to pass that house.
  • Rosh Hashanah: usually September, sometimes early October
  • Yom Kippur: late September, early October
  • Sukkot: sometimes late September, usually October
Hinduism
Slavic
Christian
  • Easter: the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon/the first full moon after the vernal equinox—shortly after Passover; typically in April, but sometimes in March or May
  • Good Friday: Good Friday is a Christian religious holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus Christ and his death at Calvary. The holiday is observed during Holy Week as part of the Paschal Triduum on the Friday preceding Easter Sunday, and may coincide with the Jewish observance of Passover. It is also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Black Friday, or Easter Friday, though the last term properly refers to the Friday in Easter week.
Pastafarian
  • Holiday: Around the time of Christmas, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa (generally known as the Christmas and holiday season), Pastafarians celebrate a vaguely defined holiday named "Holiday". Holiday does not take place on a specific date so much as it is the Holiday season itself. There are no specific requirements for Holiday, and Pastafarians celebrate Holiday however they please. They also celebrate Pastover and Ramendan.[17]
Religion

Many religions whose holidays were formulated before the worldwide spread of the Gregorian calendar have been assigned to dates according to either their own internal religious calendar, moon cycles, or otherwise. Even within Christianity, Easter is a movable feast and Christmas is celebrated according to the older Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian by some sects of the religion.

See also

References

  1. ↑ Common Eracite
  2. ↑ Gregorian calendar
  3. ↑ Wikipedia
  4. ↑ Thanksgiving (United States)
  5. ↑ "Las Posadas". Mexconnect.com. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  6. ↑ Christmas as a Multi-faith Festival–BBC News. Retrieved 2008-09-30.
  7. ↑ "In the U.S., Christmas Not Just for Christians". Gallup, Inc. 2008-12-24. Retrieved 2012-12-16.
  8. ↑ Why I celebrate Christmas, by the world's most famous atheist – DailyMail. December 23, 2008. Retrieved 2014-12-13.
  9. ↑ Non-Christians focus on secular side of Christmas – Sioux City Journal. Retrieved 2009-11-18.
  10. ↑ "Home". Humanlight.njhn.org. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  11. ↑ Skinner, Donald E. "Chalica, new weeklong UU holiday, slowly gains adherents". Retrieved 2012-12-12.
  12. ↑ "World of Warcraft". Eu.battle.net. 5 December 2014. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  13. ↑ "Feast of Winter Veil". WoWWiki. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  14. ↑ Archived 21 March 2012 at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ↑ ""Sealab 2021" Feast of Alvis (TV Episode 2002)". IMDb. Retrieved 8 December 2014.
  16. ↑ "Holidays: A Sampler From Around the World | Scholastic". www.scholastic.com. Retrieved 2017-12-22.
  17. ↑ "Holy days". Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Australia. 2013-12-08. Retrieved 2017-12-25.
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