The United Nations voted in the Day of Tolerance in 1993 to demonstrate its commitment to strengthening tolerance through mutual understanding among cultures and peoples. Learn more about the International Day of Tolerance on the United Nations website.
Each December there are numerous inquiries about the festival Kwanzaa. This celebration is not a festival originating in any of the 55 African countries nor is it an "African" Christmas celebration. Kwanzaa is an African-Americans celebration of life from 26 December to 1 January. Dr. Maulana Karenga introduced the festival in 1966 to the United […]
Shōgatsu, public holiday observed in Japan on January 1–3 (though celebrations sometimes last for the entire week), marking the beginning of a new calendar year. On the eve of the new year, temple bells ring 108 times: 8 times to ring out the old year and 100 times to usher in the new year. Prior to the start of the holiday, […]
In many countries the New Year begins on January 1. However, this wasn’t always the case. In fact, for centuries, other dates marked the start of the calendar, including March 25 and December 25. So how did January 1 become New Year’s Day? We can partly thank the Roman king Numa Pompilius. According to tradition, during his reign […]
New Year festival, any of the social, cultural, and religious observances worldwide that celebrate the beginning of the new year. Such festivals are among the oldest and the most universally observed. The earliest known record of a New Year festival dates from about 2000 BCE in Mesopotamia, where in Babylonia the new year (Akitu) began with the new moon after the spring equinox (mid-March) and in Assyria […]
Saint Basil the Great, (born AD 329, Caesarea Mazaca, Cappadocia—died Jan. 1, 379, Caesarea; Western feast day January 2; Eastern feast day January 1), Early church father. Born into a Christian family in Cappadocia, he studied at Caesarea, Constantinople, and Athens and later established a monastic settlement on the family estate at Annesi. He opposed Arianism, which […]
All Souls’ Day, in Roman Catholicism, a day for commemoration of all the faithful departed, those baptized Christians who are believed to be in purgatory because they died with the guilt of lesser sins on […]
Each year, we work to get Braille into the hands of more blind people. January 4 marks World Braille Day in celebration of its creator, Louis Braille. Every day, thousands of blind people use Braille for everything from shopping lists to labels for canned goods, from reading novels to solving math and scientific equations, from learning […]
Epiphany, (from Greek epiphaneia, “manifestation”), Christian holiday commemorating the first manifestation of Jesus Christ to the Gentiles, represented by the Magi, and the manifestation of his divinity, as it occurred at his baptism in the Jordan River and at his first miracle, at Cana in Galilee. Epiphany is one of the three principal and oldest festival days of the Christian church (the other two are Easter and Christmas). Roman Catholics, Lutherans, Anglicans, and other Western churches observe the feast on January 6, […]
Chinese New Year, annual 15-day festival in China and Chinese communities around the world that begins with the new moon that occurs sometime between January 21 and February 20 according to Western calendars. Festivities last until the following full moon. The holiday is sometimes called the Lunar New Year because the dates of celebration follow the phases of the moon. Since the mid-1990s people in China have been given seven consecutive […]
In January, Hindus celebrate Makara Sankranti - a 4-day festival celebrating Surya, the Sun god. This festival occurs at the same time every year, somewhat unusual for Hindu festivals which typically follow a lunar-based calendar. In this part of the US, Sankranti occurs from January 13-16, with the main day on the 14th. The date […]
On November 2, 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the King Holiday Bill into law, designating the third Monday in January a federal holiday in observance of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The legislation to recognize Martin Luther King Jr. Day was first introduced just four days after his assassination on April 4, […]
Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th guru of Sikhs, was born on December 22, 1666 in Patna, Bihar, according to the Julian calendar. As this calendar is obsolete in the present day, his 356th birth anniversary will be celebrated on December 29 this year. Every year on this day, gurudwaras are decorated and people visit to […]
Education is a human right, a public good and a public responsibility. The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 24 January as International Day of Education, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development. Without inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong opportunities for all, countries will not succeed in achieving gender equality and […]
Mahayana Buddhists celebrate the new year by honoring and praying for Buddha and other deities. Every Buddhist is expected to visit a nearby temple to light candles which are believed to bring happiness and good luck for the commencing year. Songs are sung as an offering to deities while statues of Buddha are washed as […]
The United Nations General Assembly designated January 27—the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau—as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. On this annual day of commemoration, the UN urges every member state to honor the six million Jewish victims of the Holocaust and millions of other victims of Nazism and to develop educational programs to help prevent […]
The "Holocaust Remembrance" resolution also designates 27 January as an annual International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust – observed with ceremonies and activities at United Nations Headquarters in New York and at UN offices around the world. The 2006 ceremony in the General Assembly Hall drew over 2200 people, […]
February 1st is National Freedom Day in the United States. National Freedom Day is celebrated because on February 1st, 1865 Abraham Lincoln signed the joint resolution from the House and the Senate that eventually became the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution—the amendment that officially ended slavery in the United States. This year and every year, make it a […]
The story of Black History Month begins in Chicago during the summer of 1915. An alumnus of the University of Chicago with many friends in the city, Carter G. Woodson traveled from Washington, D.C. to participate in a national celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of emancipation sponsored by the state of Illinois. Thousands of African […]
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