Religious festivals.
The three most
celebrated and recognized Christian festivals:
Lent: Lent
is a 40-day period (6 weeks not including Sundays) that leads up to Easter. During
lent Christians are reminded of the 40 days and 40 nights of Jesus’ temptation
in the desert, before he began his work for god. As lent is a reminder of
fasting and suffering, to make yourself a stronger person, many Christians give
up a certain food or thing, e.g. some might give up chocolate, some might give
up biting their nails. This is important to Christians because it reminds them
of how Jesus was able to resist temptation, and he had faith in god.
Usually, the day before lent starts is called shrove Tuesday
(pancake day, this used to be a chance to use up all of your ingredients
before the fast starts, but now the tradition is kept even though people have
moved from giving up flour and sugar to giving up alcohol and chocolate.
Ash Wednesday is the day after Shrove
Tuesday, and church services are held in most western Christian churches. In
these services Christians are given the mark of a cross on their foreheads
out of ash. This is a way of apologizing to god for any penitence
(wrong doing, sins or mistakes). Traditionally, the ashes come from the burnt
palm crosses from the previous year's Palm Sunday.
Easter: Easter Sunday
marks the resurrection of Jesus, three days after his crucifixion. After Jesus
was crucified on Good Friday, his body was taken down from the cross and put
into the tomb, and three days later Mary Magdalene, who found that, visited his
body his body was gone from the tomb. On that day his mother and disciples, and
many more for forty days after also saw him.
The week that leads up to Easter is called the holy week.
Palm Sunday is the Sunday before Easter Sunday. It
is the first day of the holy week and it marks the arrival of Jesus on a donkey
to Jerusalem. Crowds of people came to see him in the streets, and they threw
down palm branches on the road before him.
This has sparked the tradition for Anglican and Roman Catholic
churches to give out small palm crosses on their Palm Sunday, as a reminder of
the arrival of Jesus. Some Christians keep the crosses in their homes all year,
as a symbol and reminder of their faith.
Maundy Thursday is the Thursday
before Easter Sunday. On this day Christians remember Jesus’ last
supper. The word Maundy comes from the command (mandate)
given by Jesus at the last supper, that we should love one another.
Good Friday is the date of the execution of Jesus
by crucifixion. Good Friday is a day of morning in church, and in some
countries churches have re enactments of the crucifixion of Jesus.
Christmas: Christmas celebrates
the birth of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe to be the Son of God, and it
is celebrated on the 25th of December, and on the 7th of January for orthodox
Christians.
Advent is the period that leads up to Christmas,
from the Sunday nearest to the 30th of November. Some churches have an advent
wreath, with five candles, one candle for every four Sundays leading up to
Christmas, and one candle for Christmas day.
The simplified story of Jesus is:
-Before Jesus was born,
angel Gabriel visited Mary and told her that she would give
birth to the Son of God, and she would name him Jesus.
-Jesus was born to Mary, who was engaged
to Joseph the carpenter. This caused a lot of conflict
because Mary was not married, and that was highly frowned upon at the time.
-According to the bible, the inn at Bethlehem was full,
so Joseph put Mary on his donkey and took her to a manger,
where she gave birth to Jesus.
-According to the gospel of Luke, the wise men followed a
star to find Jesus, and they brought him gifts of frankincense and
myrrh.
-According to the gospel
of Matthew, Joseph was warned a dream to escape
to Egypt with Jesus and Mary, as king Herod wanted to
kill Jesus.
The three most
celebrated and recognized Buddhist festivals:
Nirvana day: nirvana
day, also known as parinirvana day, is an annual festival to remember the death
of Buddha, when he reached age 80. Some Buddhists celebrate it on the 8th of February,
and by other Buddhists on the 15th of February.
Buddhists believe that nirvana is the end of the cycle of death
and rebirth (reincarnation), and nirvana is eternal bliss with the Buddha, when
all suffering is made irrelevant.
Buddhists celebrate nirvana day by meditation, visiting temples
and visiting monasteries, and it is celebrated in varying ways across the
globe.
Nirvana day is a very special occasion in monasteries, food is
prepared, and some people bring gifts such as food, clothes and money.
On nirvana day, Buddhists reflect on their lives, and think
about how they too can achieve nirvana. They remember late friends of
relations, and they think about how death is a crucial part of life.
The idea that nothing is always the same is a large part of Buddhism,
Buddhists believe that death should be accepted, not something that makes
people upset.
Wesak: wesak is celebrated on
the first full moon in May, and it is the most important Buddhist festival. It
celebrates the Buddha's birthday and a very important part of Wesak
is chants and singing. Wesak is a very cheerful, colorful festival. In many
countries, Buddhists visit their temples for services and teachings
and they offer the monks food, candles and prayers.
Bathing the Buddha is a very
important part of the Wesak celebrations; water is poured over the shoulders on
a statue of Buddha, as a reminder to purify Buddhists from greed, hatred and
ignorance. Gifts are also placed on an altar for the Buddha statues; this shows
that Buddhists have thankfulness and respect for the Buddha’s teachings.
Ways of celebrating Wesak vary from one country to another. In
China, a lot of Chinese culture is incorporated, such as dancing dragons,
special Wesak paper lanterns and often there are large ceremonial releases of
caged birds.
Loy Krathong
(or Loi Krathong): On the full moon night of the twelfth
lunar month, early in the evening so that it is still light out, but the sky is
beginning to darken, people bring bowls made out of woven leaves and fill them
with flowers, candles and incense sticks, people float them out into a lake or
the sea and this the bad luck and sin is said to disappear with the leaf bowls.
