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.
Chinese New Year is a 15 day celebration beginning on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar, and ends with the Lantern Festival on the 15th day (February 6, 2012). It is observed as a public holiday in a number of countries and territories with a significant ethnic Chinese population. The public holiday period varies from 2 – 3 days in different countries and regions, in mainland China it lasts for seven days. Like in many other countries in the world, a statutory holiday is added on the following work day when the New Year falls on a weekend.
The Chinese New Year is based on the lunar and solar calendar, the date varies from late January to mid February on the Gregorian calendar. With adoption of the Western calendar in 1912, China joined in celebrating January 1 as New Year’s Day.
Origins of the Chinese New Year Festival can be traced back thousands of years through a continually evolving series of colorful legends and traditions. Originally it was a time to honor household and heavenly deities as well as ancestors, and up to the present day it is the most important holiday for family gathering, especially at the reunion dinner on New Year’s Eve, which is known as “Eve of the Passing Year”.

The SPRING FESTIVAL OVERTURE
is a Chinese orchestral work composed by Li Huanzhi between 1955 and 1956,
depicting the scene when folks in Shanbei region were celebrating the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival). The tune is widely heard primarily in Mainland China, where it appears frequently in school music textbooks, as well as being played on various festive occasions:

The Spring Festival is also called Guo Nian in Chinese. Guo means “pass over” and Nian means “Year”. Its celebrations include traditional ceremonies and days of rest. 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 →

T H A N K S G I V I N G (DAY)

On November 24, 2011, Thanksgiving will be celebrated around the United States. Informally known as Turkey Day, it is a national holiday and a form of harvest festival, celebrated primarily in the United States and Puerto Rico. Historically it was a religious holiday. Traditionally, Thanksgiving Day was a holiday to express thankfulness, gratitude, and appreciation to God, family and friends, and has been a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. This holiday has since moved away from its religious roots and has become a time of family gatherings and holiday meals. A time of turkeys, apples, peaches and pumpkin pies, and a time of holiday parades and giant balloons.
In the United States, Thanksgiving Day falls on the fourth Thursday of November.
In Canada it is celebrated on the second Monday in October. The precise historical origin of the holiday is disputed. Although Americans commonly believe that the first Thanksgiving was the well-known 1621 harvest celebration of the Pilgrims in New England, happened at Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts, there are other claims to the first American Thanksgiving celebration. Continue reading →