What’s nowruz
Persian New Year celebrated since 2500 years. Probably one of the oldest festivals still being celebrated.
It is interesting that Nowruz comes from Old Persian and has roots in two Proto-Indo-European words, *newos and *lewk, from which the English words "new" and "light" also originate. That is, Newlight and Nowruz are cognate words.
Etymology is awesome
Word
In Greece, Easter is by far the most celebrated holiday. I am surprised that it is the only christian-majority country that places such importance on Easter.
Other Eastern Orthodox countries got sovietised so now their most celebrated holiday is New Year.
North Korea declared the birthdays of Kim Il Sung (King #1) and Kim Jung Il (King #2) as the greatest holidays of the Korean people a while ago, and they are observed as such.
But do you really think Korean people enjoy celebrating those holidays?
Well, definitely not in the Southern half but I'd say most likely in NK. You'll be surprised how deeply people are indoctrinated in NK, it's just a religion in the more extreme form. I watched many defectors saying they still feel scared and guilty to even calling their name without honorific after over a decade in SK. I don't think they "enjoy" as we do, rather it's just instinctive, anything related to the Kims is "unquestionable".
Were you the one asking about this earlier in r/AskLatinAmerica? If so, nice job, even more interesting now that I know the sources.
Yes thank you for your inputs.
You’re welcome, thanks for putting it all together.
This is probably a dumb question, but could Thanksgiving even be in the conversation for USA? From an outside perspective it seems like a way bigger deal for travel/family than Christmas sometimes.
Thanksgiving is a big holiday, but not celebrated at the same level as Christmas. Here, you start seeing Christmas decorations & advertisements starting in early fall, whereas you see Thanksgiving stuff pretty much only during the month of November
I'd argue Thanksgiving decorations are less custom than Christmas decorations
Are you using consumerist behaviour to determine the significance of a holiday? I mean sure, more money is made from Christmas (and more spent) but perhaps more family time is enjoyed at Thanksgiving. I'm not an American, but family time seems to be as good a metric as any.
No, just as a proxy. I would say more family time is spent at Christmas than Thanksgiving possibly. And “celebration” involves more than just family time.
As an american, family time seems to lean more toward christmas, as it's usually in the middle of a big winter holiday (2 to 4 weeks off for school) rather than thanksgiving (3 days to full week off) so more people are able to take vacations and travel to see their loved ones.Â
Thanskgiving is pretty much just the first day of Christmas. It’s the start of the holiday season. It’s nice but no ones getting excited for it the way they are for Christmas.
It's probably a close contender, but the US has a very large immigrant population that probably mostly doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving but might celebrate Christmas.
Christmas in the US is also kind of weird because many non Christians and non practicing Christians still celebrate it. It's more an opportunity to get together and give gifts during a time that most people dont have work. Also, parents dont want to short change their kids on gifts just because they aren't Christians.
The Christmas thing is also true in Italy, Switzerland, and Germany (and probably other places but these are the ones I lived in).
I guess in most of Europe. Nobody I know in Spain cares about the Christian part, just the tradition of the holidays
If they practice Christmas, are they nonpracticing?
I think there's a regional component.
Id say July 4th
Tbh not sure about Christmas being the most popular for Sweden. I'd say that midsummer is bigger. It's absolutely huge, and immigrants can also celebrate it as its not a Christian tradition.
Agreed. Map needs to be adjusted!
By Eid, do they mean the one after Ramadan or both? There are two Eids 2 months apart from one another. Though I am guessing they mean both since both Eids are equal in importance?
Isn't the second eid that was just in June, i.e. the later one rather than the earlier one (which is after Ramadan), actually the more important one religiously? It's the only time you can perform Hajj I believe (although Umrah can be performed year round)
Actually there is no distinction between the two by their religious importance. They are just looked at as Eid.
Eid after Ramadan. But I have no proper source for which Eid is bigger in each country so I just wrote Eid.
Understood. Thanks.
Do you have a source for any of this?
Sinterklaas! In the Netherlands Sinterklaas is a big deal on 5th of December
Finland: Midsummer
I want to be a Finn!
That one’s a bit weird though.
Midsummer is indeed very broadly celebrated in Finland (and the nordics in general), but so is Christmas. I have yet to meet a Finn that doesn’t celebrate it.
Also Santa Claus literally lives there :)
You can join in! The cities empty and everyone goes to the summer cottage. There, you drink some Koskenkorva or Jaloviina, go to the sauna, grill some sausages and/ or smoke some fish. Then you decide to take the boat out after drinking more, then you drown. Peak Finnishness achieved.
And then you do it all over again next year!
Latvians have the best midsummer festivities. You need to eat a lot, drink a lot of beer, sing songs, dance, have a bonfire and jump over it and you could go and try to find the fern blooming. 🤠You also have to stay up all night. Basically - in pagan traditions everything that is not allowed otherwise is not frowned upon on the shortest night of the year. My grandmother was a "fern bloom". She was farm hand and she found the bloom with the landlords son. He wanted to marry her afterwards but she rejected him which was very bold. She was a single mother even though the father tried to support her. So stubborn... But noone said anything as she conceived on the sacred night and the child therefore was considered sacred and it did not matter if she was married or not. Girls typically wore flower crowns(we still do, but it doesn't have the same meaning) representing their availability and if someone took her "flower" she then threw the crown in a river the next morning when the sun came up. Well I could go on about the traditions but I think I have said enough. Just one last thing- Latvian beer is amazing. If you have a chance- try it. 🍻
Why is Japan included in the Gregorian New Year? Don't they have other holidays?
Japan also initially celebrated the Lunar New Year based on the Chinese Lunisolar calendar but during the Meiji Restoration they moved the celebrations to be held in accordance with the Gregorian calendar.
Adding to the other answer: the new year is the time nearly every shop closes down for 3 days, you visit your family etc. maybe you could compare it to Christmas in the west?
Of course there is for example the golden week, several single holidays in the same week creating a whole week of holiday, but you can’t count this as one specific reason like with new years.
I would saw Dashain is more famous in Nepal than Tihar. Tihar would be close second tho.
We love Christmas!
Which one did you choose for Ethiopia? It felt like they had a religious/cultural holiday every few weeks throughout the year and the celebrations were pretty similar in terms of size.
Shouldn't Sinterklaas or King's day be the main holiday in the Netherlands?
I've been told Christmas beats them by a slight margin.
Who told you?
I might be off statistically, but I think for the Netherlands, Sinterklaas has got Christmas beat.
Why isn't Mashramani grouped with independence days? I thought that's what it was.
Admitting that this was possible in Spain, in Galicia the most popular holiday is Carnival Tuesday. It is followed by All Saints (November 1) and San Juan (June 24) and Santiago (July 25). Although most local festivals are celebrated on August 15/16.
CarnavalÂ
I don’t really know how you compare Christmas and May 17 in Norway, they’re both things that you expect everyone to take part in in some way. May 17 may have an edge in that immigrants from non-Christian countries may feel more comfortable celebrating that.
For Serbia it is definitely Easter and not "Gregorian New Year".
What you got for Singapore ?
Pretty sure Bulgaria is Easter
I would argue the 4th of July is celebrated more than Christmas in the US.
As a Chilean I agree
Christmas bigger than Carnaval/Diwahli in Trinidad?
C'est ou le St. Jean?
Songkran and the Sinhala/Tamil New Year, both are new year festivals in April.
For the orthodox countries (turquoise) it's suppose to be Gregorian Christmas not New years
In Ex Soviet countries New Year is the more popular one apparently.
Christmas? You mean Saturnalia!
Yes, since the Council of Nicea the Nativity of Jesus Christ has been made to coincide with the Saturnalia. But it is easy to calculate that if Jesus Christ was executed at 33 years and one month, it is impossible for him to be born in December, the most likely being between February and March depending on the date of Easter 33 years later. And that considering that his historical figure was real.
An allegory...at best.
In South America New Year is much bigger than Christmas.
For my in laws it's Tres Reyes/Epiphany.
Nevruz is important and celebrated in Central Asia but the religious holidays are definitely more important. I don't agree with that part of the map.
Japan ain’t celebrating any Gregorian New Year. Guaranteed.
I'm not sure about Passover in Israel, Rosh HaShana feels more "celebrated" per se. Both are family holidays anyway.
Yom kippur is far more significant than either of them
But it's not celebrated. It's being observed.
I've read that it's religiously significant like Easter is for Christians but not celebrated festively.
How differently do you celebrate them both?
Religiously or secularly? I'm not proficient in the more orthodox practices, but a regular Jewish family would meet for a big meal, each holiday has it's dishes and different readings. Each congregation will have a slightly different version of the Seder (Passover readings) while Rosh HaShana are more homogeneous. Also, Rosh HaShana is more of an OG holiday is it is a beginning of the Jewish year, and Passover made into holiday after the Exodus from Egypt. Both also have different customs.
And as my Jewish friends tell me the general theme is "They tried to kill us... they didn't... let's eat!" :-)
Very common theme, but not on Rosh Hashana :)
Most of them that’s accurate, (Passover, Purim, Hanukkah) but not Rosh Hashana, that’s just essentially “Jewish New Year”
Passover is much more significant than Rosh Hashanah, as it is one of the three times you should have pilgrimage to the temple originally.