18 replies to this topic

[Iva]

Since we're a friendly international board and not all of us celebrate the same holidays, let's list who celebrates what, what you are and how it's celebrated...when someone celebrates the same things you do, just say I also celebrate [x] as [y] does. Let's make this a place that's enjoyable for everyone! Also, this way we'll get to learn something.

Right now, focus on the holidays that are in December and January, if any...

The events will be added to the board calendar

[unhinged-sock]

oh oh I'll go!! such a great idea!!

ok we have Christmas on the 25th of Dec... then we have St Stephans' Day on the 26th... then we have New Years eve/day, thats on 31st Dec/1st Jan...

THEN the best of them all... 2nd of January. That's the day I break all of my New Year resolutions and live the day in unadulterated sin... ha ha ha ha ha! I defo think the last one should make it on the calender!!

xxx

[ataxia]

6th of December > St Nicholas (Iva - Sv. Nikola) , I hope that I've written that one the right way.
December 24th > Christmas eve, day before Christmas (is that considered a holiday )
December 25th > Christmas
December 26th > St Stephans' Day
31st Dec/1st Jan > New Years eve/day
January 6th > 3 Kings day (I don't know how is that one called, Iva help)
And sometime in March or April > Easter

That's it for now...

[Amyb]

Very same as Christina!!

ESPECIALLY the one on January 2nd

I love Christmas. It's the only time of year my whole family get together. We all stay at the parents house on Christmas Eve and go to midnight mass. Christmas morning is the only day of the year i'll happily get up at 7 o clock I'm the only Veggie in the family so every year its the same... "Want some turkey with your plate of sprouts Amy"... grrrr

[Iva]

(Why can't a thread exist without people hinting to alcohol? OK then, since you obviously think it's a part of one's life style, all of you non straight-edge people would LOVE IT here, we have so many strong alcoholic drinks....)

Ivana, I'm not sure about that day's name, as I'm not even 100% sure what that day is.

I'm basically an atheist (as in: I do not want to get christened and such), but I live in a country that's mostly Eastern Orthodox; therefore I celebrate holidays according to Serbian Orthodox Church, following the slightly different Julian calendar, according to which everything is 13 weeks later....from 2010 it will be 12 days later. I also dare to say that we're more likely to be a half-pagan nation according to our beliefs in patron saints and Badnjak, which is similar to the yule log.

19th December is Sv. Nikola [St Nicholas], - celebrated as some families' patron saint and protector of the sailors. Nothing else. It's my aunt's patron saint so I'm usually there that day.

31st December/01st January are New Year's Eve/New Year's Day - the big thing here, lots of presents, parties...as our church holidays are strictly traditional, this is the one we use for the spending money frenzy, partying hard etc. And this is the one we "borrowed" the western Christmas tree and Santa Claus (Deda Mraz) for.

06th January is Christmas Eve - Basically, one should not eat meat, milk and dairy products for six weeks before Christmas, but many people can't keep up with it so they restrict it to the Christmas Eve and Good Friday, which means everything I can eat that day is fish and things like fries and popcorn (sunflower oil is LUCKILY allowed!). The youngest person in the family should bring Badnjak in the living room and put it under the dinner table, but some people choose to rather display it in a vase, for everyone to see it.

07th January is Christmas - the day when we eat a big fat dinner, cakes and the badnjak should, well, burn. Presents are OK, but limited to things such as books, sweets and fruit. And who brings them? "Božić-Bata"

13th January/14th January are Orthodox New Year's Eve/Orthodox New Year - another excuse to make parties...

14th February is Sv. Trifun - Wow, one that does NOT differ...the protector of the lovers!

15th February - I think this one is called constitution day, a public holiday...but also a church/pagan/weird holiday when one should go to a zoo or anywhere where bears are to see if the female bear will leave her cave. If she does and stays out, the winter will end within four weeks. If she does and goes back to her cave, the winter might continue until Easter or so.

Also, I, in particular, have this one...

31st January is Sv. Atanasije - my family's Slava, as our patron saint is a Greek one, Saint Athanasos, translated to Sveti Atanasije in Serbian.

[ataxia]

Now I know it, I hope... Iva's holidays (and the rest of Orthodox Church) are 13 days after ours.


6th December is St Nicholas - Iva explained which saint he is, here we clean our boots and put them in our windows the night before and in the morning we find them full with presents (small gifts, chocolates and stuff like that) and usually with a small branch that's painted gold with a bell or small ''devil'' called Krampus on it, that's what you get when you were ''bad''

24th December - doing the same thing which Iva does on January the 6th

6th January - celebration of 3 holly kings that came to baby Jesus and brought him presents and I think that then you go to church to get sacred water or something like that which is later used when a priest comes to your home in new year to give it a blessing

[chuggypot]

December 24: Christmas Eve, we usually don't get to spend Christmas together.
January 1: New Years Day
January 9: Husbands Birthday!
January 15: Martin Luther King Day, we don't actually get to celebrate anything or get the day off, but we do get Holiday pay; so I suppose that counts.

[Abby]

Supersonic Squirrel, on Dec 5 2007, 08:09 PM, said:

(Why can't a thread exist without people hinting to alcohol? OK then, since you obviously think it's a part of one's life style, all of you non straight-edge people would LOVE IT here, we have so many strong alcoholic drinks....)

Ivana, I'm not sure about that day's name, as I'm not even 100% sure what that day is.

Iva you are forgetting one major thing regarding the alcohol thing - There are a fair few Irish people who post on this board! Even Irish people like me who hate alcohol will bring it up in conversations all the time, its bred into us at such young ages. It's like you come out of the womb and get 'hey i'm your ma and this is your da...no wait he's not here. He's in the pub across the road wetting your head'

As for that day Ivana we call it 'Little Christmas', its supposed to be the day that the 3 kings came to visit Jesus but its generally the day that most Irish people will take down the christmas tree.

We used to celebrate the 8th of December too. Cant remember what its called but its to commemorate the day when the Virgin Mary asscended to heaven. It is generally a day that the schools will give you off when I was younger but because there is more of a mixture of religions in schools these days it's been axed. (shame really cos i think when your a kid a day off is a day off)

[Flavia(HdB)]

Xmas, New year's eve in December/January.

Also here there's Carnaval(carnival), which is not on a especific date. It depends on the Easter date. Next year will be from 31/01 to 05/02/2008.
The actual date next year is only Feb 4th, but my country pratically stops during the whole week. My town(Salvador) and Rio de Janeiro are the most affected by it.

[GoodTimeBoys]

Right now its Hanukah for me.

[Abby]

Happy Hanukah so

[CAP0 CRIMINI]

Happy Hanukah

Well being somewhat of a muslim we have quite a few events. Also as we have so many damned sects that some have more then others. The two largest sects are Sunnis and Shias, there are very little diffrences other then they way each pray, and some beliefs are slightly diffrent. I usually put it like this, Shias are far more elaborate with their methods of worship. However essentially we all believe in Allah and that Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him) was his messenger. Back to the holidays magigy. Muslims have their own calender which is dependant on the moon but Ramadans the 9th month, Eid Ul Fitr the 10th, Eid Ul Adha the 12th, and guess what the Hijrah new year is yes thats right the 1st month woo.

Ramadan - When muslims have to abstain form all wrong doing and intimate relationships. Fasting is seen as the main thing, but actuallys its having pure religious thoughts and being a good person despite not having any food in you!

Layla tul Qadr - I think this is like the 20th night of Ramadan, its the date that the Quran was revealed. During this night you shoould pray as much as you can.

Eid Ul Fitr - This is right after Ramadan, each Muslim is obliged to pay a percentage of charity, which I forget exactly right now. Usually people pay as much as they can so the minimum figure is forgotten, but everyones reminded of it on the day! During the day your expected to visit the Mosque and see your family friends, and observe all the prayers. Ramadan and Eid Ul Fitr is very refreshing even for someone like me who has been neglecting his religion.


Eid Ul Adha - Coming up soon! This is to celebrate Prophet Ibrahims sacrifice of his son, celebrations last 3 days for us some, people do 4 others 1 day. Animals are sacrificed for like each family I think, as I witnessed in Bangladesh at the age of 12, when I saw two goats and a cow get sacrificed, it was a little overwhelming, but I swear the animals were just so submissive like they were submitting to Gods will, but I was still sad cos I had befriended the goats. I know this will shock and revolt some, but this festival really is a test for those that observe it properly more so then Ramadan for some people. Its about having such strong belief in God that you are willing to sacrifice the something that brings you money, joy, Love and friendship, you have to have a strong belief in the afterlife and God, as death you have to remember is part of your journey, so this event really does help Humans come to term with death and stuff but its a little sickening still with the slaughter of the animals. This also marks end of the Hajj, a pilgrimage that has to be made to the great mosque in Makkah by every muslim fit and able.

Hijrah New Year - This celebrates when the Prophet P.B.U made moved from Makkah to Medina, he was born in Makkah, after he started preaching he was pretty much forced out of Makkah for his beliefs.


Erm feel free to ask questions but to be fair I suck so they might be wrong but Ill do my best!

[Iva]

You didn't say the vital thing: when are those according to the standard calendar?

[kahveyle]

The feast of sacirfice starts on the 20th of this month. I don't know if 19th, the eve, has any special meaning. I don't know the dates of others, actually I don't celebrate these holidays as I'm an atheist but I like to have some days off. I wish we celebrated every holiday of every religion here, so that we could have more vacation.

[CAP0 CRIMINI]

Supersonic Squirrel, on Dec 12 2007, 12:48 PM, said:

You didn't say the vital thing: when are those according to the standard calendar?

Thing is cos of the moon the times are always changing, so this month Ramadan was in September/October, the Eid Ul Fitr was in October as well I think, Eid Al Udha is on the 20th of this month and Hijrah should be soemtime in Jan.

[kahveyle]

We should've mentioned May Day here, it's a holiday in many countries -Well, sadly not here but we celebrate it anyway.- So happy belated May Day to everyone!

[Tranquil]

Happy Solstice to all xxx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midsummer

[Nimi]

It's so quiet in here that I wanted to wish you all happy Midsummer before I leave to the countryside to celebrate it. To me Midsummer is the most beloved and in Finland also the second biggest festivity in a year after the Christmas. It's one of the rare celebrations that are still without any merchandise and commerciality and still pretty much purely "pagan". The festivities are about celebrating the sun (midsummer solstice) and nature blooming.

The way I celebrate Midsummer is pretty much the same way every Finn does. Our family goes to our summer cottage by the lake in the countryside. For the Midsummer the cottage is decorated with fresh birch branches. We'll swim in the lake, enjoy the company of other family members and spend as much time as possible outdoors and in the nature. Going to sauna is a very important part of the evening. Sauna is a fire heated room, where steam is produced by throwing water to the fire heated stones. In the sauna we "whip" ourselves with fresh birch branches while calming our inner thoughts. It feels really good and purifying though I know it sounds like some weird form of a self-abusive behavior.

In the evening, we lit the midsummer bonfire and watch the fire. There are also other bonfires all around the lake, which is really beautiful. People gather around the bonfires, sometimes also with rowing boats by the lake side, not speaking and just staring at the fire. It has something very spiritual in it. In some cases the spirituality might also refer to the excessive amount of spirits some members of the family have enjoyed by the time the bonfire is set on fire. But isn't there a greater moment to reach your Finnish line than around a huge bonfire...?

I stay up as long as I can and enjoy the long, white night. I might also practice some folk magic you're supposed to practice on Midsummer. Though the last time I gathered my seven different species of flowers and slept them under my pillow, I only woke up with bug bites on my face and not with a future husband's picture on the mind, like promised. So maybe this year I'll just try the one where you run around a dwell naked...…

You too, enjoy the sun and hence life blooming. There's huge magic glowing in the air...

[Onlyafewdays]

Nimi, on 22 June 2011 - 06:34 PM, said:

It's so quiet in here that I wanted to wish you all happy Midsummer before I leave to the countryside to celebrate it. To me Midsummer is the most beloved and in Finland also the second biggest festivity in a year after the Christmas. It's one of the rare celebrations that are still without any merchandise and commerciality and still pretty much purely "pagan". The festivities are about celebrating the sun (midsummer solstice) and nature blooming.

The way I celebrate Midsummer is pretty much the same way every Finn does. Our family goes to our summer cottage by the lake in the countryside. For the Midsummer the cottage is decorated with fresh birch branches. We'll swim in the lake, enjoy the company of other family members and spend as much time as possible outdoors and in the nature. Going to sauna is a very important part of the evening. Sauna is a fire heated room, where steam is produced by throwing water to the fire heated stones. In the sauna we "whip" ourselves with fresh birch branches while calming our inner thoughts. It feels really good and purifying though I know it sounds like some weird form of a self-abusive behavior.

In the evening, we lit the midsummer bonfire and watch the fire. There are also other bonfires all around the lake, which is really beautiful. People gather around the bonfires, sometimes also with rowing boats by the lake side, not speaking and just staring at the fire. It has something very spiritual in it. In some cases the spirituality might also refer to the excessive amount of spirits some members of the family have enjoyed by the time the bonfire is set on fire. But isn't there a greater moment to reach your Finnish line than around a huge bonfire...?

I stay up as long as I can and enjoy the long, white night. I might also practice some folk magic you're supposed to practice on Midsummer. Though the last time I gathered my seven different species of flowers and slept them under my pillow, I only woke up with bug bites on my face and not with a future husband's picture on the mind, like promised. So maybe this year I'll just try the one where you run around a dwell naked...…

You too, enjoy the sun and hence life blooming. There's huge magic glowing in the air...