HOLIDAYS

The Ethiopian calendar is a solar calendar based on the Egyptian and Julian calendars and was brought to Ethiopia by missionaries. The year consists of 12 months of 30 days and a thirteenth month of five or six timekeeping days.

Pagume, the 13th month in the Ethiopian calendar, comes from the Greek word epagomene, which means ‘days forgotten when a year is calculated’. This month has five days or six days in a leap year. According to the Ethiopian calendar, a year has 365 days, six hours, two minutes and 24 seconds. Once every four years, the six hours add up to 24 hours and become the sixth day in a leap year. Once in 600 years, the two minutes and 24 seconds add up to a full day and form a seventh day.

Based on the Julian calendar basis, the Ethiopian calendar is currently seven years and eight months behind the Gregorian calendar used in most of the world.

Enkutatash means the ‘gift of jewels’. It is said to refer to the Queen of Sheba returning from her visit to King Solomon in Jerusalem in 980 BC. On the Queen’s arrival back in Ethiopia, her chiefs welcomed her by filling her treasury with jewels (‘enku’). It may also refer to the countryside, as this time of year coincides with the end of the rainy season meaning the landscape is covered with Adey Abeba, whose bright yellow flowers appear almost in celebration of the impending harvest.

Celebrations for the Ethiopian New Year usually last for a week and are focused on family events. The holiday starts on New Year’s Eve, when each household light wooden torches called “chibo” in Amharic language, that symbolise the coming of the new season of sunshine after the end of the rainy season that has prevailed since June.

Fasting days had been a tradition in Switzerland since the late medieval period. Despite not being seen as part of the reformed Protestant faith, they continued to be observed in parts of Switzerland.

In October 1567, there was a Geneva-wide fast to show support to the Protestants who were being persecuted in Lyon, France. This fast is recognised as the first Jeûne genevois.

In 1869 as a result of the Federal Fast across Switzerland, Jeûne genevois was no longer an official holiday, though it continued to be observed by many Genevans. In 1966, it was reinstated as a holiday.

While the religious fasting element is no longer widely observed, banks, most businesses and shops will be closed on Jeûne genevois.

In the sixteenth century, the only food that was allowed to be eaten on Jeûne genevois was plum pie. It remains a treat to be enjoyed on this holiday to this day.

The Tajiks emerged in Central Asia as a distinct ethnic group in the 8th century. Over the centuries the region had long periods under foreign control from the Persians, the Mongols, the Uzbeks, and the Afghans. In 1860,  Russian conquests in Central Asia brought most of modern-day Tajikistan under Tsarist control.

The capital of Tajikistan is Dushanbe; the name means Monday in the Tajik languages. It is believed that it got this name as grew from a village that originally had a popular market on Mondays.

In 1924, Tajikistan was consolidated into a newly formed Tajik Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, which was administratively part of the Uzbek SSR until the Tajik ASSR gained full-fledged republic status in 1929 when it acquired the territory of Khujand from Uzbek SSR.

During the Soviet period, and despite the efforts of the USSR to establish a Soviet collective culture, the Tajiks maintained a fierce sense of nationalism and pride in their own history and culture.

Mikhail Gorbachev’s policy of ‘glasnost’ in the late 1980s led to the formation of unofficial political groups and a renewed interest in Tajik culture with the Tajik Supreme Soviet (legislature) declaring Tajik to be official state language in 1989.

As the Soviet Union started to unravel in 1990, a state of emergency was declared, with 5,000 Soviet troops deployed to suppress pro-democracy protests. On September 9th 1991, the Supreme Soviet declared Tajikistan’s independence from the Soviet Union.

The date of birth of Mary is not recorded in the bible. The earliest writings about her life come from the ‘Protoevangelium of James’ which was written in the 2nd century AD. In this, her father is said to be Joachim, a member of one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel and his wife is Anne.

Though it’s not sure which date was decided first, the nativity of Mary is not surprisingly exactly nine months after the feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary (December 8th).

This feast day originated in Jerusalem in the 5th century as the feast of the Basilica of Saint Anne, which was said to have been built on the shepherd’s field that was said to have been the home of Mary’s parents.

By the seventh century, the feast was being celebrated by the Byzantines and it was brought to Rome during the 7th century by Eastern monks. It would be a few more centuries before it became a feast day across Western Europe.

Another important feast day for Mary is Assumption Day (August 15th) which marks the assumption of her body into Heaven. This is seen as the most important feast day for Mary and observed in many countries as a public holiday. Due to the closeness of the dates of Assumption and the Nativity of Mary, the latter is not as widely celebrated as it once was.

Christians normally celebrate the day on which saints died to mark the beginning of their eternal life. There are three exceptions – Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and Saint John the Baptist. Their births are also feast days as all three were born without Original Sin.

On September 7th 1822, a declaration of independence from Portugal was made by Pedro di Alcântara, the 23-year-old son of the Portuguese King. He famously declared, “Independência ou Morte!” (Independence or Death) by the banks of the Ipiranga River in São Paulo.

Brazil had been a colony of Portugal since the 16th century. In 1807 France had invaded Portugal and the Portuguese royal family had escaped to Brazil. in 1815, Brazil was given equal kingdom status with Portugal. By 1820, the French had withdrawn from Portugal and the royal family.

Alcântara, better known as Dom Pedro I, became the first emperor of Brazil and ruled from 1823 until 1831.

Bulgaria became part of the Ottoman Empire in 1396. In April 1876, there was a series of uprisings against Ottoman rule in Bulgaria.

The harsh suppression of the revolts by the Ottomans led to widespread international condemnation and in April 1877, Russia formally declared war on the Ottoman Empire. The war ended in March 1878 with the signing of the San Stefano peace treaty. The other leading nations at the time felt that the peace treaty created a Bulgaria, that was too large and would have too much influence on the region. As a result, under the Treaty of Berlin in 1878, Southern Bulgaria (Eastern Rumelia) was separated from the Principality of Bulgaria and returned to the Ottoman Empire, with partial autonomy.

Bulgarians felt that the decision of the Berlin Treaty was unfair. Over the following seven years, initially peaceful demonstrations gave way to rebellion and conflict. The Bulgarian Secret Central Revolutionary Committee was formed in February 1885, which organised events and revolts in towns in Eastern Rumelia, designed to assist in the unification process. On September 6th 1885, Bulgaria and Eastern Rumelia declared their unification in the city of Plovdiv.

Mother Teresa was born on August 26th 1910, in Skopje (now the capital of North Macedonia) in the Ottoman Empire. Born to a family of Albanian ancestry, she was named Anjezë (Agnes) Gonxhe Bojaxhiu. 

From an early Agnes had been inspired by tales of missionaries and when she was 18, she moved to Ireland to join a nunnery to learn English. 

Having arrived India in 1929, she became a nun in 1931, adopting the name Teresa, after Thérèse de Lisieux, the patron saint of missionaries. 

In 1950, Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity, a Roman Catholic religious congregation. 

Today, expanding beyond the original location of Calcutta, the 4000 sisters of the congregation run orphanages, AIDS hospices, soup kitchens and mobile clinics in 123 countries; caring for refugees, the blind, disabled, the poor and homeless, and victims of floods, epidemics, and famine. 

Members of the congregation must adhere to the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience as well as a fourth vow, to give ‘wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor’. 

Mother Teresa gained worldwide recognition for her charitable works and was the recipient of numerous honours including the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. She became famous as ‘Teresa of Calcutta’.

This traditional Hindu festival begins on the day of Krishna Janmastami (birth of Lord Krishna), and lasts for three days. Though the festival is celebrated mainly in the western parts of Nepal, the first day is celebrated as a public holiday across the country.

The festival is observed by worshipping Lord Shiva and especially the goddess Guari (Parvati), the second wife of Shiva.

During Gaura, married women make idols of Shiva and Guari from grass. The women put on new clothes and sing traditional songs. The women also fast and many rituals take place at the numerous temples dedicated to Gauri, who is worshipped with Biruda – a mixture of five kinds of grains. The fasting women then return home and bless their husbands with Biruda, to give them long life and health.

The deuda dance is a major part of the festivities in which participants hold hands and form a circle as they step to traditional music.

According to legend, the festival is also celebrated in memory of Shiva’s first consort, Sati Devi’s bodily sacrifice to the burning altar and her reincarnation as Gauri.

The Republic of San Marino is a landlocked nation surrounded by Italy. It is the smallest republic in the world and the oldest existing state in Europe.

In the centuries after the death of Jesus, Christianity had become a popular sect within the Roman Empire. For many years it was treated no worse or better than any other minority religion. During the reign of Emperor Diocletian (284 – 306 AD), the imperial view of Christianity became less benign and Christians were increasingly being persecuted and killed for their faith.

In this atmosphere, Marinus, a stonemason, fled from Dalmatia (in modern-day Croatia) to escape from religious persecution for his Christian beliefs. He arrived at Monte Titano, where he founded and built a chapel and a monastery.

Over the years, the monastery and the area around it grew until a sizable population had been established, safe high in the mountains from the persecution of Diocletian. When the mountain people were discovered, the landowner Felicissima bequeathed it to the community in perpetuity.

The monastery, which although no longer standing, existed until the late sixth century. The first mention of a church named after Saint Marinus dates to the year 530. Today the old church has been replaced on the site by the Basilica of San Marino, which was built in the 19th century.

San Marino is the only country in Europe with more vehicles than people.

In 1887 Vietnam became part of French Indochina. During World War II, Vietnam was occupied by the Japanese.

Following the end of the war, on September 2nd 1945, following the ‘August Revolution’, Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the establishment of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (North Vietnam).

Despite the differences that grew between Vietnam and the USA, the Vietnamese declaration of Independence itself drew heavily from the American version

In 1976, the two halves of Vietnam were finally united into one country, the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, but September 2nd remains as the key date in Vietnam’s road to independence.

Ceuta is an enclave located on the north coast of Africa surrounded by the Kingdom of Morocco. 

Since antiquity, this city has been an important strategic location on the Strait of Gibraltar, giving whoever ruled the city control on who was sailing between the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. This has meant a colourful past, with the city having passed through the hands of Carthaginians,  Romans, Vandals and even the Byzantine Empire. It fell under Muslim control in the 8th century.

In late August 1415, King John I of Portugal led an assault that would come to be known as the Conquest of Ceuta. The Portuguese captured the city with surprising ease. Maybe this is why nobody thought about what flag to use after the city was taken. Luckily someone had packed the flag of Lisbon, which they all decided would be a great design for Ceuta. The coat of arms of Portugal was added to the middle and that flag is still used for Ceuta today.

Over the following centuries, Spain and Portugal Ceuta squabbled like Iberian brothers with Ceuta passing between them. The city was finally ceded to King Carlos II of Spain on January 1st 1668 by the Treaty of Lisbon.

Although Ceuta was conquered by Portugal on August 22nd 1415, it is celebrated on September 2nd as Spain and Portugal adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1582, moving dates forward by ten days.

The Day of the Autonomous City of Ceuta has been celebrated since 1998.

This landlocked region in central Asia lies at the crossroads of the ancient Silk Road trade route between Europe and China. As such it has often fallen under the control of neighbouring empires. The region was settled by Kyrgyz tribes, a Muslim Turkic people, from southern Siberia in the 17th century.

Kyrgyz means ‘forty’ in Turkic, as this was the number of tribes who came together to settle in the area. This number is represented today in the flag of Kyrgyzstan in the 40 rays from the sun in the centre of the flag.

After the middle of the nineteenth century, the eastern part of modern-day Kyrgyzstan was ceded to the Russian Empire by the Chinese under the Treaty of Tarbagatai. The territory was formally incorporated into the Russian Empire in 1876.

After the Russian revolution, the country became part of the Soviet Union, going through different national statuses until 5 December 1936, when the Kirghiz Soviet Socialist Republic became a full republic of the Soviet Union.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union; on 31 August, 1991, an extraordinary session of the Supreme Soviet of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan adopted a resolution on the “Declaration on State Independence of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan”. This meant the Kyrgyz Republic was declared a sovereign state, with the country gaining independent statehood for the first time in history.

Saint Rose of Lima was born on April 20th 1586 in Lima, Peru. Her father was Spanish, her mother was of indian descent and Rose was one of 13 children. Her real name was Isabel, but she was such a beautiful baby with rosy cheeks, that she soon came to be called ‘Rose’.

From an early age, she showed great devotion to god. Her parents had hoped that her good looks would enable her to marry well and help the family escape poverty but Rose decided to follow a religious life dedicating herself to god. Rose was too poor to join a monastery, so she lived in a small cottage making money to support her family and her charity work by selling needlework and flowers. She looked after the sick and needy people in Lima, bringing them to her cottage to feed and care for them.

Her efforts were soon noticed by the Dominican Order who allowed her to join without any payment.

While continuing her service to the people of Lima, Rose practiced some extreme forms of devotion; eating only bread and water and wearing a spiked crown around her waist under her clothes. Rose died at the age of 31. When she died, her funeral had to be be delayed by two days due to the amount of people who wanted to pay their respects.

Rose was beatified in 1667, making her the first person born in the Americas to become a saint.

Her feast day was added to the Roman Catholic calendar in 1729 as August 30th. The date of her death, August 24th was already snaffled by Saint Bartholomew the Apostle and 30 August was the closest available date. In 1969, revisions to the calendar meant August 23rd could be allocated as her feast day; however Peru and some other Latin American countries use the old date.

In 1938, the Munich agreement established the independent Slovak state, led by Jozef Tiso. In June 1944 Tiso declared martial law allowing the German army to occupy the country on August 29th.

Up to that point, there had been limited and sporadic guerrilla resistance operations across Slovakia. To counteract the planned occupation, a formal military plan was put in action by the exiled Czechoslovak government, Slovak partisans and deserters from the Slovak army. Headquartered in central Slovakia, the forces of the uprising consisted of several armoured units as well as part of the Slovak Air Force. 

Despite some limited support from the allies, the uprising was crushed by the German forces before the end of October 1944. After the defeat, the remaining forces of the uprising continued with small guerrilla actions until the end of the war.

The legend is that King Mahabali, also known as Bali was an Asura ruler during Hindu antiquity who was so powerful and adored by his subjects, that the followers of Hindu god Vishnu feared that Bali was getting more popular than their deity.

Vishnu disguised himself as a dwarf called Vamana. Vamana tricked Bali by asking for a piece of land he could cover in only three strides. When Bali agreed to this modest request by a dwarf, Vamana turned into a giant and his first step covered the earth and the second took him to heaven. With nowhere else to go, Bali offered his head as the third step. Vamana stepped on Bali pushing him down into to the underworld. Bali asked if he could be allowed to return once a year on Thiruvonam (the second day of Onam) to visit his people to make sure they were well, and Vamana agreed.

To welcome Bali home for his annual visit, the people of Kerala clean their homes and make elaborate floral displays called Pookkalam on the ground as a carpet to welcome Bali. They perform Kathakali, one of the major forms of classical Indian dance.

Other events include boxing competitions, featuring Thallu, a martial art native to Kerala and snake-boat races which are held at Champakulam, Aranmula, and Kottayam. The boats have a high narrow stern that resembles the neck of a snake and some are up to 130 feet long and need over 100 rowers.

This small land-locked East European nation has always been influenced by the presence of its larger neighbours whose wars and imperial ambitions often had dramatic impacts on the fate of the country.

Moldavia became a principality in 1359 when Bogdan I crossed the Carpathians and took control from the Hungarians. In the middle of the sixteenth century, it came under the influence of the Ottoman Empire becoming a vassal state, though Moldova retained control of its own affairs.

Following the end of the Russo-Turkish War, the 1812 Treaty of Bucharest ceded the eastern half of Moldavia to the Russian Empire, which was named the region Bessarabia. 

In 1918, after the end of the First World War and the collapse of the Russian Empire, Bessarabia united with Romania.

The Mileștii Mici wine cellar in Moldova is the world’s largest with nearly two million bottles of wine stored in its vaults.

This unity lasted until 1940 when Romania was compelled to cede the country to the Soviet Union as a consequence of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact when Romania was carved up between Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s USSR.

Like other Soviet regions, the movement for independence gathered pace in the late 1980s with the change in the political situation created by glasnost and perestroika. The first democratic elections were held in early 1990.

Repentance Day is intended to be a day of Christian prayer when people come together in church to pray and ask for forgiveness.

The purpose of the day is to encourage citizens to remember Papua New Guinea’s Christian heritage and focus on the repentance of sins for the more than 14 million people living on hundreds of islands in the Pacific Ocean

The holiday was first established by Prime Minister Peter O’Neill shortly after he became Prime Minister in 2011.

It was made a public holiday at the request of a group of churches, who had lobbied O’Neill’s predecessor, Sam Abal.

The date has no obvious religious or historical significance, though at the time, Pastor Jack Edward from the Shema Evangelism Ministry, the Repentance Day co-ordinator, said that public holiday is observed on what was an annual, informal day of prayer.

Papua New Guinea undoubtedly considers itself a religious country with 95% of the population saying they were Christian in the 2011 census, with 70% of those following Protestant denominations.

In March 2025, Papua New Guinea passed a constitutional amendment declaring itself a Christian nation. As it seeks to live up to the way of Christ, it also has high rates of corruption, bribery, crime, and gender-based violence. Additionally, there are frequent cases of tribal and village-based violence, which affects locals, Christians, and missionaries, particularly in rural and highland areas.

Also known to Muslims in Malaysia as Maulud Nabi. This is purely a religious festival and is marked as a public holiday.

Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) was born in Mecca on 12 Rabiulawal in the year 570 CE. The prophet’s full name is Abū al-Qāsim Muḥammad ibn ʿAbd Allāh ibn ʿAbd al-Muṭṭalib ibn Hāshim.

Muhammad is believed to have been a descendant of Ishmael. According to Judaism, Christianity and Islam, Isaac and Ishmael were two sons of Abraham. Whereas Jews are believed to have descended from Isaac, Arabs are believed to have descended from Ishmael.

By his 6th birthday, Muhammad was an orphan and was raised by uncle Abu Talib and his grandfather Abdul-Muttalib. He learned about business from his uncle and earned a reputation as a trustworthy trader.

It was not until Muhammad was 40 years old that he was commanded by the angel Gabriel, who carried God’s message, to declare God’s oneness and to shun the idolatry of his tribesmen.

Over the following 20 years, his preaching of the Qur’an which was revealed to him would establish one of the world’s great religions, Islam.

The start of the 1990s saw the collapse of the Soviet Union. On July 16th 1990, the Ukrainian government had declared state sovereignty. July 16th was celebrated as Independence Day one year later.

In August 1991, there was a failed coup to restore the communist rule in the Soviet Union. As a result of the attempted coup and increasing fears about a return to Soviet rule, the people’s deputies brought the Ukrainian flag into the session hall of the Verkhovna Rada. 

On August 24th, the Act of Independence of Ukraine was adopted by the Ukrainian parliament, and a yellow and blue flag appeared on the building of the Verkhovna Rada.

The blue-yellow colour of the Ukrainian flag has a deep historical tradition. During the 20th century, it became the national flag of the Ukrainian People’s Republic between 1917 and 1920. It was banned under the Soviet regime it was banned becoming a symbol of the independence movement.

A condition of the declaration was that a national referendum should take place on December 1st 1991. Despite outside concerns that Ukraine could split into east and west, the turnout was over 80% and the result of the referendum was that over 92% voted in favour of their independence.

In June 1992, Parliament voted for an amendment to the legislative framework, according to which July 16th was officially replaced by August 24th as Ukraine’s Independence Day.

For some, the referendum of December 1st is seen as a more important date than the declaration of independence as it showed Ukraine’s unity in wanting independence.

History can be a little bit tricky. What we mean by that is that sometimes it’s difficult to find out what happened only a few years ago, but it can be easy to determine what happened hundreds of years ago. Take this holiday, for instance. We don’t know who created this holiday or when they created it, but we do know the history of sponge cake quite well. So, what we’re going to do for this holiday is talk about sponge cake’s storied history.

During the 15th century, Medieval bakers came up with food items known as biscuits. What do these have to do with sponge cake? Well, they were more like sponge cake in texture than they were in texture to modern biscuits. So many food historians consider them to be the forefathers of sponge cake. Between the 1420s and 1615, these “biscuits” would become refined until the first true sponge cake recipe was released in England in 1615. Even though the first recipe for a sponge cake was printed in England, many food historians believe that these cakes actually came from Spain during the Renaissance.

Hassan Agari was born in Medina on 8th of Rabi-ul-Akhar 232 AH His father was Ali Naqi, the 10th Shia Imam. Imam Ali Naqi lived under house arrest in a Samarra, a garrison town about 60 miles north of Baghdad. Hassan’s title became known as Asgari, meaning “the one who lived all his life in a garrison town.”

Even from an early age, Asgari was known for his divine knowledge and he became the 11th Shia Imam on the death of his father in 254 AH at the age of 22.

Becoming the 11th Imam was a big deal. In both the Sunni and Shia branches of Islam, it is believed that the 12th Imam would be the final Imam who would be the ‘Mahdi’ or ‘Guide’ for humanity until the Day of Judgement.

According to Shia tradition, Askari died aged 28 on 8th Rabi’ al-Awwal 260 AH (January 4th 874 AD) after being poisoned on the orders of the Abbasid caliph Al-Mu’tamid and was buried in Samarra, a town some 60 miles north of Baghdad.

In Shia tradition, Asgari did give birth to a son, Muhammad. who would be destined to be the final Imam, but Asgari kept Muhammad’s existence a secret in fear of Al-Mu’tamid finding out and wanting to kill his son.

Aged five, Muhammad al-Mahdi, disappeared on the same day that his father died.

Shias believe that Imam Mahdi will reappear alongside Jesus to be the saviours of the planet in the final judgement days. Sunni Muslims didn’t follow the Shia Imam lineage and most believe that the Mahdi has been born yet.

The full name of this holiday is the “Day of Memory of the Victims of the 1968 Invasion and subsequent occupation of Czechoslovakia by Warsaw Pact troops.”

According to the drafters of the legislation, the night of August 20th -21st 1968, was one of the most tragic dates of modern Czechoslovak history.

In 1968, Alexander Dubček was appointed to the key post of First Secretary of the Czechoslovak Communist Party. Dubček made changes that liberalised the nation, a period known as the Prague Spring. In response, after failing to persuade the Czechoslovak leaders to change course, five other members of the Warsaw Pact invaded, with Soviet tanks rolling into Czechoslovakia on the night of August 20th 1968.

The invasion put an end to the democratisation and the humanist efforts at reform of the Communist system in Czechoslovakia and it also caused the death of many innocent civilians, they added.

This holiday is to commemorate the memory of the victims of the invasion.

The Czech Senate approved the state holiday in December 2019.