December 2024
►Universal Human Rights Month
►Spiritual Literacy Month
World HIV/Aids Day
| World AIDS Day has been held annually on the 1 December since 1988. It is an opportunity for people worldwide to unite in the fight against HIV, to show their support for people living with HIV, and to commemorate people who have died |
Advent | Christian
| 1- 24 December - Period of four weeks in which Christians prepare for Christmas |
International Day for the Abolition of Slavery
| Slavery is not only an historical fact. Today, around the world, an estimated 40.3 million people are in modern slavery, including 24.9 million in forced labour and 15.4 million in forced marriage |
International Day of People with Disability
| IDPWD aims to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society |
Dutch Sinterklaas
| Sinterklaas or Sint-Nicolaas is a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. He is dear to the hearts of Dutch children and can be recognised by his eye-catching red cape with red miter and his long white beard. Sinterklaas and his helpers (all called 'Piet') arrive in the Netherlands each year in mid-November on a steam boat filled with gifts |
International Human Rights Day
"In small places, close to home – so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighbourhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerned citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world” — Eleanor Roosevelt |
Gita Jayanti | Hindu
Dhanu Sankranti | Hindu
| Dhanu Sankranti is a Hindu festival that marks the crossing of the sun over the zodiac sign Sagittarius. |
International Migrants Day
Winter Solstice/Yule | Pagan
| Marks the shortest day of the year in the northern hemisphere |
Christmas Day | Christian
| Christmas (or Feast of the Nativity) is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the Christian liturgical year, it is preceded by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night; in some traditions, Christmastide includes an octave. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world's nations, is celebrated religiously by a majority of Christians, as well as culturally by many non-Christians, and forms an integral part of the holiday season centred around it. Celebrated by Orthodox Christians on 7th January |
Hanukkah / Chanukah| Judaism
| 25 December - 2 January Hanukkah is the Festival of Lights and marks the restoration of the temple by the Maccabees in 164 BCE |
New Year’s Eve / Hogmanay
