January Diversity Holidays

 

JANUARY 1

• New Year’s Day, the first day of the year according to the modern Gregorian calendar, celebrated in most Western countries.
• Feast Day of St. Basil, a holiday observed by the Eastern Orthodox Church, commemorating the death of Saint Basil the Great.

JANUARY 3

• Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus, which is celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church, commemorates the naming of the child Jesus.

JANUARY 4

• World Braille Day, observed to raise awareness of the importance of Braille as a means of communication for blind and partially sighted people; celebrated on the birthday of Louis Braille, the inventor of Braille.

JANUARY 5

• Twelfth Night, a festival celebrated by some branches of Christianity that marks the coming of the Epiphany.

JANUARY 6

• Epiphany or Dia de los Reyes (Three Kings Day), a holiday observed by Eastern and Western Christians that recognizes the visit of the three wise men to the baby Jesus twelve days after his birth.

JANUARY 7

• Christmas, recognized on this day by Eastern Orthodox Christians, who celebrate Christmas thirteen days later than other Christian churches because they follow the Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian version of the Western calendar.

JANUARY 13

•  Lori-Maghi, an annual festival celebrated by Sikhs commemorating the memory of forty Sikh martyrs.

JANUARY 14

• Orthodox New Year, celebrated every year on January 14th by Orthodox Christians all over the world. It marks the start of the new year according to the Julian calendar.

JANUARY 15

• Makar Sankranti, a major harvest festival celebrated in various parts of India.
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day commemorates the birth of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the recipient of the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize and an activist for nonviolent social change until his assassination in 1968. 

JANUARY 18

• Bodhi Day, a Buddhist holiday that commemorates the day the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama (Shakyamuni), experienced enlightenment; also known as Bodhi in Sanskrit and Pali.

JANUARY 18 - 25

• The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, during which Christians pray for unity between all churches of the Christian faith.

JANUARY 20

• Birthday of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, the Tenth Guru of the Sikhs who initiated the Sikhs as the Khalsa (the pure ones) and who is known as the Father of the Khalsa.
• Timkat, a holiday observed by Ethiopian Orthodox Christians who celebrate the baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River on Epiphany.

JANUARY 21

• World Religion Day, observed by those of the Bahá’í faith to promote interfaith harmony and understanding.

JANUARY 24 - 25 (sundown to sundown)

• Tu B’shevat, a Jewish holiday recognizing “The New Year of the Trees.” It is celebrated on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Shevat. In Israel, the flowering of the almond tree usually coincides with this holiday, which is celebrated by planting trees and eating dried fruits and nuts.

JANUARY 25

• Mahayana New Year, a holiday celebrated by the Mahayana Buddhist branch on the first full-moon day in January.

JANUARY 26

• Republic Day of India recognizes the date when the Constitution of India came into law in 1950, replacing the Government of India Act of 1935. This day also coincides with India’s 1930 declaration of independence.

JANUARY 27

• The International Day of Commemoration to remember the victims of the Holocaust; the anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz death camp in 1945 and UN Holocaust Memorial Day.
• Holocaust Remembrance Day (sundown to sundown), a time to “mourn the loss of lives, celebrate those who saved them, honor those who survived, and contemplate the obligations of the living.” — Former President Barack Obama