Welcome to another unusual and frankly random post. In the lead up to Christmas celebrations this year, Unity is going global. We’re going around the world in 40 days! No, not in the literal Jackie Chan sense…but better!
Every week we’re celebrating celebrations – in other words, we’re going to post about a particular festivity that is celebrated in a particular part of the world. Where going to talk about WHY it is celebrated, HOW it is celebrated and, of course, WHERE and WHEN. All the fundamental and interesting questions will be answered! Hoorah!
In this post, we’re going to give you a brief overview of which celebrations we’re going to cover. Just take a look below:
Eid al-Fitr
Eid is an Islamic tradition celebrated by Muslims worldwide to mark the end of Ramadan fasting. This holiday celebrates the end of 29 or 30 days of fasting during the month of Ramadan. There are actually two different Eid celebrations each year. Read more about Eid here.
Chinese New Year
Chinese New Year, also known as ‘Spring Festival’, is an important Chinese festival celebrated at the turn of the traditional Chinese calendar. The New Year Festival is extremely historic and several myths and traditions are connected to it.
Loi Karthong
Loi Karthong is an annual festival celebrated mainly in Thailand and Laos. The name of the festival can be translated in English to mean ‘to float a basket’, which refers to a tradition in which beautifully decorated baskets are placed on a river.
Christmas
Christmas Day occurs on the birth of Jesus Christ. It is celebrated worldwide, with many different traditions, and is celebrated by both Christians and non-Christians alike. ‘Christmas’ is a shortened word for ‘Christ’s Mass’ which is derived from Old and Middle English.
La Tomatina
This festival takes place in Spain, and involves people throwing tomatoes at each other (not a typo, it really does involve tomatoes). It began in 1945 and no one really knows how it started but people enjoyed it so much that they repeated every year since.
Holi Festival
Holi, also known as the festival of colours or the festival of sharing love, is a Hindu festival that takes place in the spring. It lasts for two days and predominantly takes place in India and Nepal but now happens all over the globe.
Thanks for reading and stay tuned!