Holidays And Celebrations Across The World


by Ronald Fisackerly - Date: 2010-08-05 - Word Count: 557 Share This!

It's a well-known fact that people around the globe celebrate in many different ways and for a wide variety of reasons. They use holidays (whether they be officially-sanctioned or not), festivities and miscellaneous events to celebrate a wide range of cultural or national events and religious ideals. Some of these celebrations are more prominent than others, e.g. Christmas or Hanukkah-but all of them share a general theme. That is, people generally celebrate important aspects of their heritage, culture, values and beliefs.

Celebrations can take-on many different forms. A newborn baby can be the cause for close family and friends to gather in circles and celebrate such a joyous moment. A newly-wed couple at their reception, that's definitely a celebration. Step-it up a few notches and include the inauguration of a new president-now that's a celebration on a pretty massive scale.

North American celebrations

Holidays are quite often reason-enough to celebrate. In the Western World, some of the major holidays include: Labor Day, the Fourth of July (Independence Day), St. Patrick's Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Halloween (note: Halloween isn't an official holiday, but nonetheless very popular). Famous Jewish holidays include: Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, Tu B'Shevat, Passover and Yom Kippur. Christians celebrate, of course, Christmas, Easter and Lent.

New Years Eve is another celebration that comes to mind. This night is probably the most-celebrated of any in the entire world. Mass crowds gather in renowned locations-like Washington D.C., Times Square in New York City, near the Sydney Opera House in Australia and hundreds of other global locales.

North America is quite famous for its celebration of Cinco de Mayo (May 5) in both Mexico and the United States. It's reminiscent of the Mexican Independence Day (September 15), but more of a modern holiday where people from all over gather to drink good beer and soak-up a little of the Mexican culture.

Muslim celebrations and holidays

Islam is the predominant religion off to the East, in the Middle East. The people of the Islamic faith celebrate Ramadan-which is a month of fasting; Isra Me'Raj, or the night of the journey and ascension; and Eid Al-Adha, or the "Feast of the Sacrifice". There are a number of other officially-recognized holidays and religious days that Muslims celebrate throughout the year.

The term "celebrations" can taken-on a very wide, generalized meaning. Webster's classifying the root word "celebrate" as "to observe or commemorate with festivities or ceremonies-or-"to make something known publicly". There are many other uses for the word, but those tend to be the predominant uses.

China

For the Chinese, New Years arrives at a different time than most other parts of the world. It typically falls between the 21st of January and the 19th of February. The celebrations that happen not only in China-but in places like Little China in New York-rival that of the Western New Year. Fireworks are set off, large dragons are paraded throughout the streets, and "ridding of evil spirits" are all common practices in the Chinese New Year. It's also, coincidently, the most important day of the Chinese year.

Celebrations do not have to be holidays-far from it. They can be simple family get-togethers, religious passages of rites, celebrations due to victories regarding just about anything and so forth. A celebration is a time for unification of peoples among a culture or across many cultures. They help people identify who they are and where they came from.


Ronald Fisackerly does a lot of article writing for Skylighter. Skylighter sells make smoke bomb and homemade smoke bombs as well as a variety of other items.n
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