VALENTINE’S DAY

On February 14, many people throughout the world celebrate Saint Valentine’s Day, commonly known as Valentine’s Day, which is an annual commemoration of celebrating love and affection between couples in love.
The day is named after one or more early Christian martyrs named Valentine and was established by Pope Gelasius I in 500 AD. It was deleted from the Roman calendar of saints in 1969 by Pope Paul VI, but its religious observance is still permitted.It is traditionally a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionery, and sending greeting cards (known as valentines). The day first became associated with romantic love in the circle of Geoffrey Chaucer in the High Middle Ages, when the tradition of courtly love flourished and Valentine became the patron saint of love.
Modern Valentine’s Day symbols include the heart-shaped outline, doves, and the figure of the winged Cupid. Since the 19th century, handwritten valentines have given way to mass-produced greeting cards.
While some believe that Valentine’s Day is celebrated in the middle of February to commemorate the anniversary of Valentine’s death or burial — which probably occurred around 270 A.D — others claim that the Christian church may have decided to celebrate Valentine’s feast day in the middle of February in an effort to “christianize” celebrations of the pagan Lupercalia festival.
Valentine’s Day today is a time for chocolate, flowers, dinner, dancing, and most of all of expressing love and appreciation among lovers as well as among close friends.

“A Day of Love and friendship” is celebrated in many cultures and countries around the world, either on Valentine’s Day or at other dates, originated from different traditional backgrounds.

“It Was a Lover and His Lass” from Shakespeares ’”As You Like It”
Matthew Harris and choir, composed by Thomas Morley

Thomas Morley (1557 or 1558 – October 1602) was an English composer, theorist, editor and organist of the Renaissance. His famous setting of “It was a Lover and His Lass” is often performed at Valentine’s concerts. Continue reading →

CHINESE LANTERN FESTIVAL – YUANXIAO Festival

The Chinese Lantern Festival or Yuanxiao Festival ends the period of the Chinese New Year (or Spring Festival) celebrations.
Yuan means “first” while xiao means “night”, referring to the first time the full moon is seen in a New Year, symbolizing the coming back of the spring. The festival is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the first month of the lunisolar year in the Chinese calendar, which is February 6 in 2012 in the Gregorian calendar.
It is not to be confused with the Mid-Autumn Festival, which is sometimes also known as the “Lantern Festival” in countries such as Singapore and Malaysia.
The Lantern Festival is a 2,000 year old Chinese tradition. It has roots in Hinduism and Buddhism and is celebrated in countries such as China, Taiwan, Thailand and in Chinese communities around the world. Continue reading →

CHINESE NEW YEAR – SPRING FESTIVAL

The Chinese Spring Festival, also known as the Chinese New Year, starts on January 23 in 2012 and millions of people in China and throughout the world will welcome the beginning of the Year of the Dragon (according to the Chinese zodiac).
The festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays and is celebrated not only in China but also in all Asian countries with large populations of ethnic Chinese such as Taiwan, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Korea, Mongolia, Nepal, Bhutan and Vietnam.
Altogether about a quarter of the world population is celebrating the Chinese New Year around the globe, including countries like the USA, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom and many other.
Continue reading →

C H R I S T M A S

On December 25, Christmas will be celebrated around the world. Although nominally a Christian holiday, Christmas is also widely celebrated by many non-Christians. Christmas, also referred to as Christmas Day or Christmastide, is an annual holiday that marks and honors the birth of Jesus of Nazareth, the central figure of Christianity, which is the basis for the anno Domini system of dating, thought to have occurred between 7 and 2 BC (before Christ). Eastern Orthodox national churches, including those of Russia, Georgia, Egypt, Ukraine, the Macedonia, Serbia and the Greek Patriarchate of Jerusalem mark feasts using the older Julian Calendar, and December 25 on that calendar currently corresponds to January 7 on the more widely used Gregorian calendar.
Christians believe that on Christmas God did sent his son into the world who took all the sins of mankind on his shoulders.
In the early years of Christianity, Easter was the main holiday; the birth of Jesus was not celebrated. In the fourth century, church officials decided to institute the birth of Jesus as a holiday. First called the Feast of the Nativity, the custom spread to Egypt by 432 and to England by the end of the sixth century. By the end of the eighth century, the celebration of Christmas had spread all the way to Scandinavia. Continue reading →

H A N U K K A H – The Festival of Lights

(photo © chabad.de)

From December 20 – 28, 2011, Hanukkah (Chanukah), also known as the Festival of Lights, will be celebrated by Jews around the world. It is an eight-day holiday that starts on the 25th of the month of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar, and continues till the 2nd of the month of Tevet.
In Hebrew, the word Hanukkah is written חנֻכה or חנוכה, meaning „dedication“ or „consecration“. and is most commonly transliterated to English as Chanukah or Hanukkah.
The holiday commemorates the miracle that happened after the Jew’s 164 B.C.E. victory over the Hellenist Syrians. Antiochus IV, the Greek King of Syria who outlawed Jews, had forbidden the observance of Judaism under penalty of death and had forced Jews to worship Greek gods. After the victory, a Temple lamp has been lighted and although the lamp had oil for only one day, it stayed miraculously lit for eight days until a new supply of oil could be prepared. To commemorate this miracle, Hannukah is observed by lighting one Hanukkah light of the Menorah (candelabrum) on each of the eight holiday nights, progressing to eight lights on the final night of Hanukkah. Continue reading →

SAINT NICHOLAS DAY

St. Nicholas (Lipnya Church of St. Nicholas in Novgorod)

December 6th (on the Gregorian Calendar), is St. Nicholas Day, the day designated by the Catholic Church in its Calendar of Saints to honor the man named Nicholas (Greek: Νικόλαος, Nikolaos, “victory of the people”) for his sainty life. On the Julian Calendar, the feast falls on December 19.
As a faithful bishop St. Nicholas was revered as a saint even before his death because of his great holiness and tender care of his flock. He is most honored in the East, especially in Russia. Throughout the world many churches are named for him, more than for any other saint.
Nicholas lived in the fourth century and was Bishop of Myra in Lycia, which is now a part of Turkey. His birth date is unknown, but December 6th (345 or 352 A.D.) is the generally agreed upon date of his death and it is this date that is celebrated as a religious as well as a secular holiday in many countries. Following the death of his parent’s it is said that Nicholas used his inheritance to help those in need. His acts of kindness and mercy were legendary and he became known throughout Christendom as a saintly man. Continue reading →

ISLAMIC NEW YEAR

Malaysian Muslims recite prayers during a ceremony on the first day of Moharram, which marks the start the Muslim new year, in Putrajaya January 10, 2008. (REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad, Malaysia)

The Islamic New Year 1433 (Arabic: رأس السنة الهجرية‎ Ras as-Sana al-Hijreya) begins on or around November 26, 2011 in the Gregorian Calendar (the exact date depends on visibility of the hilal (waxing crescent moon following a new moon) and may vary according to location).
The day marks the beginning of the new year in the Islamic Calendar, called Hijra (هِجْرَة). The arabic word Hijra means migration of the Islamic prophet Muhammad and his followers from Mecca to Medina in 622. Alternate spellings of this word are Hijrah, Hijrat or Hegira in Latin. The Hijra has twelve lunar months, the beginnings and endings of each month are determined by the sighting of the crescent moon. The Islamic calendar is the official calendar in many Muslim countries, especially Saudi Arabia. Other Muslim countries use the Gregorian calendar for civil purposes and only turn to the Islamic calendar for religious purposes. Continue reading →