(ot)Yom Kippur, Samhain, Celtic new year, Christmas

[MeepoTheMighty]

Hmm, I guess us Canucks just don't like Mondays.

If anyone hates Mondays, it's us Americans:

Martin Luther King Day: 3rd Monday in January

President's Day: 3rd Monday in February

Memorial Day: Last Monday in May

Labor (notice the lack of "u" ) Day: First Monday in September

Columbus Day: Second Monday in October

For a while, Veterans Day was on the 4th Monday in October, until it got moved back to its traditional November 11th date.


Basically, we'll do anything to get a three-day weekend.

 

[Darkness]

Theuderic, if you have a point (which I doubt), post it. Otherwise, please keep your antics to yourself. Thanks.

- Darkness

 

[Theuderic]

Nice try Darkness but you will not catch me in that ego trap you so cunningly devise.

 

[fba827]

Well, Islamic holidays are based on a lunar calendar so it isn't the same Gregorian calendar date every year (I believe it shifts by about 11 days each year if I remember correctly) -- so, the dates listed below are what it will happen to be this upcoming time..

(also note I'm far from an expert here - so someone is free to correct me if they know better).

Ramadan - the 9th month of the Islamic/lunar calendar. It will start on about the 6th of November 2002 this year (that's later this week!). This is the month spent in fasting - obstain from food, drink, sex, and other pleasures from sunrise to sunset of each day. This is a holy month because it is the time during which Prophet Mohamed was revealed the text for the Q'uran. (Note, while it is holy, it is not a particularly festival or celebration).

Night of Power (has a specific name that I forget) falls on the 25th (I think) night of Ramadan (see above).

Eid al Fitre - the 1st day of the 10th Islamic month. it is the celebration to follow Ramadan. This year it will probably fall on the 4th of December.

Eid al Adha - 10th day of the 12th Islamic month. celebrates the anniversary of the mircale of when Prophet Abraham was going sacrifice his son, etc (story as is in the Bible). This tends to be the month that most Muslims try and go for their holy pilgramige to Mecca.

Birthday of Prophet Mohamed - has a particular name. I don't know when this usually falls as our family does celebrate it (some muslims do, though).

Death of Prophet Mohamed - has a particular name. I don't know when this usually falls as out family does not honor it thoughs ome muslims do (it's one of the shia vs. suni things - i believe). not a celebration but rather day of morning

i think that's about it though... not a religion very big on religious holidays so that really brings much more focus and celebration to the two Eids.

 

[mythago]

Oh sure, make me go look at my calendar.

Hanukkah starts after sundown on the 29th of November this year. (Lunar calendar with intercalation, so it moves around; this is an "early" year.)

It's a minor holiday, not the Jewish version of Christmas. But it is one of the holidays where we eat.

 

[MeepoTheMighty]

Night of Power (has a specific name that I forget) falls on the 25th (I think) night of Ramadan (see above).

That is the best name for a holiday ever.

*scampers off and scribbles notes in his idea book*

 

[Hygric]

For the Neo-pagan holidays listed by MerakSpielman above, I would just like to add that quite a few of us southern hemisphere Pagans shift the festivals by six months.

Somehow, celebrating midwinter in 38 degree heat during a drought never seemed quite right.

Oh, that's degrees celsius, it's about 100 in that other scale...

 

[Hygric]

for the NSW, Australia public holidays follow this link:

http://www.dir.nsw.gov.au/holidays/

Unfortunately, this page doesn't list our unnoficial public holiday: Melbourne Cup Day.

 

[MerakSpielman]

If you look hard enough, there's some sort of holiday on virtually every day of the year, especially if you count all those Christian Saint's Days. As mentioned above, there are hundreds of them.

Anybody know about traditional Chinese holidays? I used to have a worksheet on this but I lost it. All I can remember is that the first day of the new year starts on the first full moon after the first new moon after the winter solstice. I also remember that most of the lay people in China celebrate religions from Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism indiscriminantly, as well as the old religion (Chinese "paganism," Shun-Tao, The Way of the Ancestors). They see little reason to restrict themselves to a single religion. Plently of exceptions in individuals of course.


And don't forget the unofficial American religious holiday....

SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!!!!!!

Practically everything shuts down. I've had restaurant jobs where they just send everybody home because there are no customers.