Major Religious Holidays
- January 7 – Christmas in Eastern Christianity
- January 10 – Islamic New Year by Lunar calendar
- February 5 – Carnival (Shrove Tuesday)
- February 6 – Ash Wednesday, observance of Lent begins
- February 7 – Lunar New Year
- March 1 – Saint David's Day, celebrated in Wales and the United States.
- March 15 – Saint Patrick's Day, celebrated in Ireland, the United States, and most of the English-speaking world. (Held on March 15 instead of the usual 17th to avoid the second day in Holy Week). This March 17 will be the last one to fall within Holy Week until 2160.
- March 20
- March Equinox, also known as Ostara
- Purim
- March 21
- Nowruz (Iranian New Year holiday)
- Good Friday
- March 22 – Holi
- March 23 – Easter Sunday, the earliest Easter has fallen since 1913
- April 13 – Vaisakhi
- April 20 – Passover, Palm Sunday in Eastern Christianity
- April 27 – Pascha (or Easter) in Eastern Christianity
- May 1
- Ascension of Jesus in Western Christianity
- Beltane, a Cross-quarter day
- May 19 or May 20 – Vesak (the birthday of the Buddha) in Buddhism
- June 5 – Ascension of Jesus in Eastern Christianity
- June 9 – Shavuot
- June 15 – Pentecost in Eastern Christianity
- June 20 – June Solstice, also known as Midsummer or Litha
- June 22 – All Saints' Day in Eastern Christianity
- July 5 – Saints Cyril and Methodius day in Eastern Christianity
- August 1 – Lammas, a Cross-quarter day
- August 15 – Assumption of Mary
- August 16 – Raksha Bandhan
- September 1 – New Liturgical Year in Eastern Christianity
- September 2 – Start of Ramadan
- September 4 – Janmastami -Birth of Lord Krishna
- September 22 – September Equinox, also known as Mabon
- September 30 – Rosh Hashanah
- October 1 – Eid ul-Fitr
- October 9 – Yom Kippur
- October 13 – Sukkot
- October 28 – Diwali
- November 1 – Samhain, a Cross-quarter day and Neopagan new year
- December 8
- Immaculate Conception
- Eid al-Adha
- December 21
- Hanukkah begins at sundown
- December Solstice, also known as Yule
- December 25 – Christmas in Western Christianity
Read more about this topic: 2008
Famous quotes containing the words major and/or religious:
“A major misunderstanding of child rearing has been the idea that meeting a child’s needs is an end in itself, for the purpose of the child’s mental health. Mothers have not understood that this is but one step in social development, the goal of which is to help a child begin to consider others. As a result, they often have not considered their children but have instead allowed their children’s reality to take precedence, out of a fear of damaging them emotionally.”
—Elaine Heffner (20th century)
“When we say “science” we can either mean any manipulation of the inventive and organizing power of the human intellect: or we can mean such an extremely different thing as the religion of science the vulgarized derivative from this pure activity manipulated by a sort of priestcraft into a great religious and political weapon.”
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)