15 POPULAR HOLIDAYS ACROSS THE WORLD AND THE STORIES BEHIND THEM!!

Holidays play an important part of our lives celebrating various events and festivals. While we always love to go with the trend of celebrations for popular holidays we never know the stories behind them. So let's have look at the most popular holidays across the world and why they are celebrated.

1. Christmas

Christmas is the most famous holiday that is celebrated by people from different communities all over the world on 25th December every year. The occasion marks the celebration of Jesus Christ Birth. Here the Christ world refers to Jesus while the Maas word refers to the communion where people from Christian religion together remember the life sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the well being of Christian community people and his rebirth after that. It is the only holy occasion to be celebrated after sunset and prior to next day sunrise. Hence the night of Christmas is a joyous one to be celebrated with family and friends. 

2. St.Nicholas Eve

St.Nicholas refers to Santa Claus who is massively popular in this world for giving gifts to children and caring for the poor families. This day is celebrated in the honor of St.Nicholas's Arrival and is mostly celebrated in the first week of December. Most of the countries across the world celebrate this important holiday by organizing parades, grand feasts along with gifts and greetings just like Christmas while in some areas children keep shoes near the fireplace waiting for the gifts from St.Nicholas.

3. St.Patricks Day

St.Patricks Day is another important religious day for Christians dating back to the 17th century that is known as the traditional death ceremony of St.Patrick who was the patron saint of Ireland. St.Patrick was bought to Ireland after being kidnapped as a slave from whom he escaped and finally returned at the age of 432 converting the Irish to Christians. Finally, he died at the age of 76 in 461 A.D. on March 17 and that is the historical day which is celebrated every year for his contribution to Ireland’s improvements in various fields like schools, monasteries, churches and even driving the snakes completely out of Ireland.

4. Mardi Grass

It is another holy Christian event and a remarkable holiday in which people of Christian religion eat their last sumptuous meal before the fasting period of Lent starts. They generally consume all fat foods like meats, eggs, fishes during this day being fully stuffed as these are not allowed during the Lent period. It is also called ‘Fat Tuesday’ before Ash Wednesday. The occasion dates back to ancient Roman tradition where Roman people used to feast by thanking the god of agriculture Satum for their harvest till December before sowing the winter crops.

5. Easter

Easter holds major religious importance in the Christian religion as the day is celebrated as the Resurrection day of Jesus Christ in the months of March to April based on the lunar cycle. The event celebrates the rebirth of Jesus Christ that is believed to have occurred on the third day of Jesus Christ’s burial after his crucifixion. The festival is celebrated on Sunday after the 40 days fasting period of Lent. The Easter celebration is represented by the Easter bunny who is believed to lay decorative eggs that represent the arsing of Jesus Christ from the Tomb.

6. Halloween Day

The celebration on October 31st every year mainly originates from the Celtic festival of Samhain, where the Celts used to lit bonfires and wore various costumes to prevent the ghosts from entering their area or harming the people.  The occasion mainly belongs to the Christian people from the western region.  They celebrate it wearing scary costumes like a ghost asking for candies from each house as a Trick or Treat ritual and also carve a scary face in a pumpkin.  They light candles inside which is afterward buried with proper rituals.

7. Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving Day is celebrated every year in November month in the fourth Thursday as a tribute to the successful harvest of crops throughout the year and for the preceding year as well. The occasion was celebrated for the first time in 1621 due to the result of having a good harvest. It was during that time the English Pilgrims from other parts of the world at Plymouth in Massachusetts joined their American neighbors to share the meal that has been organized for the outcome of the good harvest throughout the year.

8. Three Kings Day

This is a remarkable holiday dating back to the 4th century that is celebrated in Mexico every year on 6th of January when the occasion of Christmas actually gets celebrated. It celebrates the 12 long days of Christmas, where three men including Santa Claus are believed to come from far across the world to bring gifts to the infant Jesus. That is why this day is dedicated to all children in Mexico and many other Latin American countries where these three men leave gifts for them in their shoes. The occasion is celebrated grandly feasting together to celebrate Jesus baptism and to thank these three men for putting smiles in the face of children.

9. Hanukkah

Popularly known as the Festival of lights, Hanukkah is a Jewish festival that is celebrated to commemorate the rededication of Jerusalem’s Second Temple. The festival is conducted in the month of November to late December as per the Hebrew calendar and continues for eight days and nights from the 25th day of Kislev. Hanukkah represents the struggle of the Jews for restoring Jerusalem’s Temple. In this festival, the Jews celebrate each day by lighting candles one by one from Day 1 to the 8th Day ultimately lighting 8 candles. There is also an extra light lighted every night in the honor of guards known as Shamash so as to abide by the rules of protecting the Hanukkah lights from being used for purposes other than meditation and publicizing.

10. Chinese New Year

This is an important holiday for the Chinese culture as it marks the beginning of their new year and is celebrated with the new moon between 21st January to 20th February. The celebration dates back to ancient times to ward off the dangerous creature named Nian. He would wake up in the first day of every year destroying the harvest and even used to take away the children. The villagers in fear of the demon kept themselves locked until one day God showed them the way of warding it off with red color, loud music, drums and masks which were his weakness. The villages followed and finally got relieved from the monster. That celebration today is known as Chinese New Year.

11. New Year

New year celebrated on 1st of January is a major holiday event and also the beginning of a fresh new year with new promises and resolutions. The event is celebrated gloriously with firecrackers all over the world when the midnight clock ticks in 31st of December and changes to 1st January. In Ancient times people used to recognize the beginning of this new year with new harvest or death of winter season and the birth of Spring to the beginning of a fresh new season and year. They used to purify themselves with rituals washing away their sins and start a new beginning with a clean heart.

12. Kwanzaa

This is an African American event that is hosted every year from 26th January to 1st December in order to celebrate the African harvest and also bringing peace and unity to Family life. During this time the Africans wear new clothes, bring abundant fruits and vegetables at home to decorate their living abode and feast together with family. They also bring home a candle holder called Kinara during this time and light it.

13. Earth Day

Earth Day is another global holiday event celebrated every year on 22nd April. to raise awareness among the people about environmental issues and encourage them to protect the environment. The event laid its footstep when in 1970, the brainchild of JohnMcConwell being a community activist presented the idea of announcing the day of April 22 as the Erath Day in UNESCO conference to declare it as a global holiday for letting people know about their responsibilities towards maintaining a clean and green environment.

14. Good Friday

It is a global holiday that marks the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at the Calvary. The day is referred to as the dark day in Christian religion or Black Friday and many Christian denominations fast on this day. The day is remembered as the sacrifice of life by Jesus suffering to painful crucifixion and is also considered good at the same time due to the rebirth of Jesus in the third day of burial which is considered to be the turning point of Christianity as Jesus is believed to take away all the sins along with his death.

15. May Day

This is a public holiday that is celebrated annually worldwide on the 1st of May. It also refers to the Spring festival in some areas of the world and famous as International Labours Day. The story dates back to 19th century when labors had to work severely for 10 to 16 hours in life-threatening conditions and all of them decided to make their working hours limited only 8 hours a day without the permission of any employer. The day is celebrated as the wonderful Spring festival with music, cakes, dancing and feasting together.