I just saw a discussion among corporate event planners where one person was upset that event organizers don’t give proper consideration to scheduling over top of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur.
I can appreciate the annoyance, when I was still a practicing Christian I would never think to schedule a work thing over Easter or Christmas. We should treat others with consideration, and should be mindful of what others view as important days. But I also don’t know what each religion considers to be major, non negotiable holidays. Do you?
Another question, does it matter where the event is? (for example, in the US should less consideration be given to holidays of religions that have fewer adherents?)
I don’t know if there is an all inclusive list for all major religions, but hebcal.com has a detailed calendar for Judaism. Not everything on the calendar requires Jews to take time off of work, so further research may be required to get the exact list that you’re looking for. It does give some explanation of each holiday on the site though.
Every single Jewish holiday is crucial to our faith and its the kind of disrespect I’ve become accustomed to that I have to be at work, today, on Mishuga Tuesday.
As a secular American, I can tell you my favorite holidays.
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Independence Day - Hot Dogs, Outdoors, Beer, Fireworks
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Thanksgiving - Food, Wine, Family
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Halloween - Costumes, Candy, Booze
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New Year’s Eve - Party, Champagne, usually a charcuterie board
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St. Paddy’s Day - Beer, Corned Beef
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Memorial Day/Labor Day - Backyard BBQs, Beer
Maybe my religion is alcohol.
I understand that the roots of these holidays are religious. Even Christmas. However, I argue that the meaning and traditions of these holidays have been heavily high jacked by American culture and mean more to American culture than they do religion at this point. St. Patrick’s Day? The most people can tell you about St. Patrick’s day is that St. Patrick drove the snakes out of Ireland. And by snakes, they meant Pagans. Who knows what the fuck Halloween means to religious people these days? Hell, without looking it up, what are its roots? I even argue that for a higher percentage of Americans, Christmas is more about presents and Santa than it is Jesus birthday.
I agree with you. St Patrick’s day is basically loved because it was a Holy Day during Lent - meaning people were able to break their fast. For me - a Protestant living in Northern Ireland - it always means a somewhat special Church service. I remember I was in Poland once on Halloween and a bunch of Churches were holding special masses. Halloween is the Eve of All Saint’s Day in Western Christianity. Ever since I chose to follow Christianity more, I have always viewed Christmas with the religious aspect, going to carol services, lighting candles at midnight, etc. But same cannot be said about society. St Valentine’s day is also Christian in origin, although I’ve never seen it that way. I guess it’s just the effect of a Christian society secularising. I believe a similar thing is actually happening on Eid in countries like Turkiye as well. Also with similar stuff in Japan.
I think the trick with a lot of religious holidays is that they’re based on different calendars and move around.
It’s not like Christmas or New Years which are reliably 12/25 and 1/1.
Look at Easter! It could be any Sunday between March 22 and April 25. I couldn’t tell you, without looking it up, when it will be next year. (Pro-tip - it’s 4/20/2025).
At work, we have a lot of folks who celebrate Indian holidays, but the dates for those can even vary regionally.
What’re you talking about? Hanukkah starts on the 25th of Kislev every year. It’s Christmas that shifts about all over the place! Luckily, this year it’s easy to remember as it also happens on the 25th of Kislev.
Though you wouldn’t know it’s one day from going to the stores! It feels like Christmas starts as early as the middle of Tishri these days!
Calendars are arbitrary. Rosh Hashanah is on the first of Tishrei every single year. Not my fault that Pope Gregory the 13th came up with some ridiculous contraption that doesn’t even follow the moon in the 1580s.
What a silly thing to cling to.
Tangentially, whose idea was it that the day starts and ends at some arbitrary point in the middle of the night, not when the sun goes down? Like hello, sun is gone, day is over
Sun goes down, are you crazy?
The sun rising in the morning is clearly the superior indicator for a new day starting. Otherwise we wouldn’t be able to talk about staying up until 2 a.m. on Friday night while hung over on Saturday morning. That would mean Saturday night comes before Saturday!
If anyone needs me I’ll be in the angry dome.
It’s not like Christmas or New Years which are reliably 12/25 and 1/1.
You say that, but then there’s Venezuela.
