Merry Ho-Ho

We’re about to head up to Tucson to hang out with Cindie’s parents for xmas. Hope you all are having a good time. May you all get many good things.
Thanks to wikipedia:

[edit] Celtic

• Samhain: November 1 - first day of winter in the Celtic calendar (and Celtic New Year’s Day)
• Winter Solstice: December 21~December 22 - midwinter
• Imbolc: February 1 - first day of spring in the Celtic calendar

[edit] Chinese

• Dong zhi: Winter solstice
• Signature of the Constitution of the Republic of China (Taiwan) : December 25 - a secular national holiday, which due to its date is celebrated in some respects like Christmas
• Chinese New Year (late January - early February) - considered the end of winter in the traditional Chinese calendar

[edit] Christian

• Advent: four weeks prior to Christmas - preparing for the birth of Christ.
• Saint Nicholas‘ Day: December 6
• Christmas Eve: December 24
• Christmas: December 25 - the birth of Christ.
• 12 Days of Christmas: December 25 through January 6
• Saint Stephen’s Day: December 26
• Saint John the Evangelist’s Day: December 27
• Holy Innocents‘ Day: December 28
• Saint Sylvester’s Day: December 31
• Watch Night: December 31
• Feast of the Circumcision: January 1
• Feast of Fools: January 1
• Twelfth Night: Epiphany Eve January 5
• Epiphany - January 6: the arrival of the Three Magi.
• Eastern Orthodox Christmas according to the Julian Calendar: January 7
• Candlemas: February 2
• St. Valentine’s Day: February 14

[edit] Germanic

• Modranect: or Mothers’ Night, the Saxon winter solstice festival.
• Yule: the Germanic winter solstice festival

[edit] Jewish

• Hanukkah: Starting on 25 Kislev (Hebrew) or various dates in December (Gregorian) - eight day festival commemorating the miracle of the oil after the desecration of the Temple by Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his defeat in 165 BCE.

[edit] Pagan and neopagan

• Yule: (Winter Solstice) - Germanic Pagan festival of the rebirth of the Sun
• Imbolc : (February 1 or 2) - festival of candles
• Winter Solstice: (December 21) - New Age festival

[edit] Persian

• Yalda: (Winter Solstice) - Birth of Sun God Mehr
• Sadeh: waiting for arriving of the summer from 50 days before in the winter.

[edit] Polynesian

• Matariki: (Maori New Year, usually early June) - Rising of the Pleiades star cluster before dawn.

[edit] Roman

• Saturnalia: the Roman winter soltice festival
• Festival of the birth of the Unconquered Sun: late Roman Empire - December 25
• Hedgehog Day, the archaic European version of Groundhog Day, dating back to Roman times - February 2
• Lupercalia, the Roman end-of-winter festival - February 15

[edit] Secular

• Quebec City Winter Carnival - February - Annual celebration of winter.
• Yulefest - June - Australian “Christmas in Winter”
• Winterval - secular name for winter festivities coined by Birmingham City Council to encompass all holidays being recognized from October to January
• Winter Solstice Festival - December 21 or December 22 - Celebration of the Winter Solstice.
• Zamenhof Day - December 15 - Birthday of Ludwig Zamenhof, inventor of Esperanto; holiday reunion for Esperantists
• HumanLight - December 23 - Humanist holiday originated by the New Jersey Humanist Network
• Chrismukkah - slang term for the amalgam of Christmas and Hanukkah celebrated by religiously mixed families and couples
• Yuletide - December 25 - classic and modern, respectively, terms for the social and federal December 25th holiday
• Boxing Day - December 26 - gift-giving day after Christmas.
• Kwanzaa
• Hogmanay - December 31 - Scottish New Years Eve
• New Years Eve - last day of the Gregorian year
• New Year’s Day - January 1 - first day of the Gregorian year
• Burns Night - January 25 - birthday of Robert Burns
• Groundhog Day - February 2

[edit] Slavic

• Karachun - the pagan winter solstice festival

[edit] Zen Buddhist

• Rohatsu

[edit] Fictional

• Pule: December 25 - Fictional replacement for Christmas created on the show Jimmy Neutron
• Life Day: November 17 - the most important day of the Wookiee year in the Star Wars saga
• Festivus: December 23 - quirky holiday famously invented on the show Seinfeld
• Festival of the Bells: Midwinter celebration in Fraggle Rock
• Decemberween: December 25 - A holiday in the Homestar Runner universe, occurring 55 days after Halloween.
• Hogswatchnight: December 32 - New Year’s Eve/Christmas in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels (plays on Hogmanay, Watch Night, and “hogwash”)
• Winter-een-mas: January 25 - January 31 - from Ctrl+Alt+Del
• Winterfair: from the Vorkosigan novels written by Lois McMcaters Bujold; a Barrayarran cultural holiday
• Chrismukkah: the modern-day merging of the holidays of Christianity’s Christmas and Judaism’s Hanukkah.
• Chrismuhanukwanzica: the modern-day merging of the holidays of Christianity’s Christmas, Judaism’s Hanukkah, and the African-American holiday of Kwanzaa.

[edit] See also

• Winter Solstice Celebrations