Cultural holidays from around the world.

50 editorially curated international and religious holidays — observed by billions of people across every continent — with origin paragraphs, native-language greetings, palette and design notes, five ready-to-use verses each, and outbound links to the standard reference works.

10 holidays

South Asia

The festival calendar of the Indian subcontinent — Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist and Muslim observances across India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Bangladesh and the diaspora.

Region overview
Five-day festival around the new moon of Kartika (October–November)

Diwali

The five-day Hindu festival of lights celebrating the inner light that protects from spiritual darkness, obser

Fourth day of the Hindu month of Bhadrapada (August–September); ten-day festival

Ganesh Chaturthi

A ten-day festival welcoming the elephant-headed god Ganesha into homes and public pandals before his immersio

Full moon day of the lunar month Phalguna (March)

Holi

A spring festival of colour, forgiveness and renewal observed primarily by Hindus across South Asia and the di

Eighth day (ashtami) of the dark fortnight of Bhadrapada (August)

Janmashtami

The midnight celebration of Krishna's birth, marked by fasting, devotional singing, and the human-pyramid game

Fourteenth night of the dark half of Phalguna (February–March)

Maha Shivaratri

An all-night vigil honouring Shiva — the destroyer and renewer — kept by fasting, meditation, and the chanting

Nine nights in Ashvin (September–October)

Navratri

Nine nights of devotion to the goddess Durga in her nine forms, marked by fasting, garba dance, and Vijayadash

Ten-day festival in the month of Chingam (August–September)

Onam

Kerala's ten-day harvest festival welcoming the legendary king Mahabali home from the netherworld.

Four-day harvest festival starting 14 January (first day of Thai)

Pongal

A four-day Tamil harvest festival of thanksgiving to the sun, the rain and the cattle that work the fields.

Full moon day of Shravana (August)

Raksha Bandhan

A festival celebrating the protective bond between siblings, marked by tying a decorative thread (rakhi) on a

Generally 13 or 14 April

Vaisakhi

The Sikh new year and harvest festival commemorating the founding of the Khalsa by Guru Gobind Singh in 1699.

14 holidays

East Asia & Pacific

Lunisolar new years, harvest moon festivals, Buddhist observances and water-splashing celebrations across China, Japan, Korea, Vietnam, Thailand and Southeast Asia.

Region overview
15th day of the 8th lunar month — three-day holiday

Chuseok

Korea's three-day harvest moon festival — the country's largest annual holiday, centred on family reunion and

5th day of the 5th lunar month (May–June)

Dragon Boat Festival

An ancient summer festival of dragon-boat races and zongzi rice dumplings, commemorating the poet-statesman Qu

First day of Shawwal — end of Ramadan

Hari Raya Puasa

The Malay-speaking world's distinctive expression of Eid al-Fitr — a week of open houses, ketupat, and forgive

15th day of the 1st lunar month — closes the Lunar New Year

Lantern Festival

The 15th-day close of the Lunar New Year, when sky-lanterns rise and sweet rice balls are eaten in family.

Full moon of the 12th lunar month (November)

Loy Krathong

The Thai festival of floating banana-leaf vessels carrying candle, incense and a single coin down the river.

New moon between 21 January and 20 February

Lunar New Year

The fifteen-day festival opening the lunisolar year — the largest annual human migration on earth.

15th day of the 8th lunar month (September–October)

Mid-Autumn Festival

A harvest-moon festival of family reunion, mooncakes, and lantern processions across East and Southeast Asia.

Mid-July or mid-August depending on region (three-day festival)

Obon

A 500-year-old Buddhist festival of remembrance for ancestors, marked by lantern-floating, bon odori dance, an

Around 4–6 April (15 days after the spring equinox)

Qingming Festival

An ancient day of honouring ancestors at their graves, sweeping tombs and making offerings of food and joss pa

First day of the lunisolar calendar (January–February)

Seollal

Korea's three-day Lunar New Year — a quieter, more familial cousin of the Chinese new year, centred on the bow

13–15 April

Songkran

The Thai new year and three-day water festival of cleansing, blessing of elders, and the world's largest publi

7 July (or 7 August by the lunar calendar)

Tanabata

A summer star-festival commemorating the once-a-year meeting of the celestial lovers Orihime and Hikoboshi.

First three days of the lunar new year (January–February)

Tết

Vietnam's most important festival — a week-long lunar new year of family return, ancestor veneration, and apri

Full moon of the lunar month Vesakha (April–May)

Vesak

The most sacred Theravada Buddhist holiday, observing the birth, enlightenment, and parinirvana of the Buddha

5 holidays

Middle East & North Africa

The Islamic festival calendar — the two Eids, Ramadan, Mawlid — alongside Persian Nowruz and the older observances of the Levant and the Maghreb.

Region overview
6 holidays

Latin America

Catholic Spanish heritage braided with Indigenous American traditions — Día de los Muertos, the Posadas, Carnival, Quinceañera and the saint's days that anchor every village calendar.

Region overview
6 holidays

Europe

Saints' days, solstice bonfires, Carnival processions and the long, slow seasonal calendar that has held the continent together for a thousand years.

Region overview
3 holidays

Africa

Ethiopian Orthodox feasts, Maghrebi Eids, West African harvest rites, South African Heritage Day, and the diasporic celebration of Kwanzaa.

Region overview
6 holidays

Jewish Diaspora

The Hebrew calendar's fixed cycle of festivals — Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover, Shavuot — observed identically across thousands of miles for two millennia.

Region overview