Welcome to CEIE’s Religious Calendar at TIO

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April - May

The Iroquois Midwinter Ceremony, in which old fires are extinguished and new fires are lit, and the Hopi Holy Cycle, in which the changing of the seasons and the nature of the Hopi sacred universe are celebrated, begin in January and February, but the dates of observance vary by tribe. It is also the season of K’aliyee, the time of the north wind that blows off glaciers and icecaps that linger from the last ice age.

March and April mark the season of the Eagle Dances, when people of the Arizona Pueblo tribes dance to dramatize their communities’ relationship with the Sky-World. This month is also known as Xsaak, the season when candlefish swarm and members of the Nisga’a tribes catch these fish, dry them, and render them into oil for lamps.

April 2024

Thursday, April 5

  • Laylat al-Bara’at or Nisf Sha‘bān [through April 6] – Islam
    According to Muslim tradition, Allah approaches the earth on this night (the middle day of the eighth month in the Islamic calendar) to call humanity to repentance and grant forgiveness of sins.

Thursday, April 9

  • Jalál – Bahá’í
    The beginning of the second month in the Bahá’í calendar, “Jalál” means “glory.”

  • Eid al-Fitr [through April 10] – Islam
    This is the Breaking of the Fast that celebrates the end of the month of Ramadān.  Usually lasting three days, this festival begins at sundown with communal prayer and may also include charitable acts, visiting family and friends, preparing special foods, dressing in new clothes, and giving gifts.

Friday, April 14

  • Vaisakhi – Sikhism

    Sikhs all over the world celebrate the festival of Vaisakhi, a holiday with a special religious significance, observed each year on April 13 or 14. Originally a spring harvest festival celebrated in the northern Indian state of Punjab, the festival gained religious significance for Sikhs when Guru Gobind Singh – the 10th and final living guru for Sikhs – created the Khalsa in 1699. The Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement recognizes the importance of religious festivals as they cultivate culture, community, and identity.

Saturday, April 17

  • Rama Navami – Hinduism
    Rama Navami is a Hindu festival that celebrates the birth of Rama, one the most popularly revered deities in Hinduism, also known as the seventh avatar of Vishnu. He is often held as an emblem within Hinduism for being an ideal king and human through his righteousness, good conduct and virtue.

  • Setsunbun-sai – Shintō
    A family celebration of the end of winter; beans are thrown into rooms of a house for good luck, with the shout, “Devils out, Fortune in!”

  • Saint Blaise Day – Christianity
    Saint Blaise is recognised as the saint of throat disease or 'The Blessing of the Throats' in the Roman Catholic Church. He is also the saint of wool combers and is considered as one of the 'Holy Helpers' of which there are only fourteen. These helpers were called upon to help during the time of plague, in the hope they'd cure those that were ill.

Tuesday, April 21 

  • Ridvan [through May 1] - Bahá’í
    The festival of Ridvan is a twelve day period commemorating Bahá'u'lláh's announcement of his claim to prophethood and his departure from Baghdad in 1863, observed from sunset April 20th or 21st (depending on the date of the March equinox) to sunset on May 1st or 2nd. The first, ninth and twelfth days of Ridvan are major Bahá'í holy days on which work should be suspended. Bahá'í elections are normally held during Ridvan. The name derives from the Najibiyyih Garden in Baghdad where Bahá'u'lláh stayed during this period and to which he gave the name Ridvan (Paradise). The Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement recognizes the importance of religious festivals as they cultivate culture, community, and identity.

Wednesday, April 22

  • Eve of Pesach (Passover) [through April 30] – Judaism
    The beginning of an eight-day festival celebrating God’s deliverance of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt.  The story is told during a Seder meal at sundown, including readings from a book known as the Haggadah.  Some Jews refrain from work on the first two and the last two days of this holiday.

Wednesday, April 23

  • St. George’s Day – Christianity
    The feast day of Saint George, notably England's patron saint, but celebrated also by Christian churches, countries, and regions of which he is the patron saint, including Bulgaria, Ethiopia, Greece, Georgia, Portugal, Romania, Syria, Lebanon, Catalonia, Alcoi, Aragon, and Rio de Janeiro 

Saturday, April 24

  • Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day
    The Armenian Genocide first began on April 24, 1915, as the Ottoman government arrested and murdered hundreds of Armenian intellectuals and community leaders in Constantinople, or modern-day Istanbul. The killing expanded into brutal massacres of the male Armenian population across Ottoman lands and the deportation of Armenian women, children, and the elderly into the Syrian Desert. More than one million Armenians were killed—roughly 70 percent of the total Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire.

  • Theravada New Year [through April 26] – Buddhism
    Theravada New Year is a Buddhist festival celebrated by followers of Theravada. It is celebrated for three days, from the first full moon day in April. Countries that have Theravada Buddhism as their dominant religion, celebrate the new year at this time. CEIE recognizes the importnace of marking sacred time in a variety of ways..

Monday, April 25

  • Feast of Saint Mark, Apostle and Evangelist – Christianity
    St. Mark the Evangelist was born in the first century and is well known for being the author of the Gospel according to Mark and the founder and also bishop of the Church of Alexandria, Egypt. The Center for Ecumenical and Interreligious Engagement recognizes the importance of religious festivals as they cultivate culture, community, and identity.

Friday, April 28

  • Jamál – Bahá’í
    The beginning of the third month in the Bahá’í calendar, “Jamál” means “beauty.”

May 2024

Friday, May 1

  • Beltane (also called Beltain or May Day) – Wicca
    Celebration of the sacred marriage of the divine forces—and the conception of the sun-child—that are the basis of all creation.

Sunday, March 3

  • Feast of St. James and St. Phillip – Christianity
    This day highlights Saint James the Lesser and Saint Phillip in the Christian faith.

Monnday, March 4

  • National Day of Prayer
    The National Day of Prayer is an annual observance held on the first Thursday of May, inviting people to pray for the nation. It was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of the United States Congress, and signed into law by President Harry S. Truman.

Thursday, March 5

  • Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) [through May 6] – Judaism 
    The internationally recognized date for Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of Nisan on the Hebrew calendar. It marks the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. In Hebrew, Holocaust Remembrance Day is called Yom Hashoah. In the United States, Days of Remembrance runs from the Sunday before Yom Hashoah through the following Sunday.

  • Holy Pascha – Christianity (Eastern churches)
    Celebrating God’s raising of Jesus of Nazareth from the dead, this day is the oldest and most central festival in the Christian year and initiates the fifty-day period culminating in Pentecost.  

  • Cinco De Mayo
    This holiday celebrates the Mexican victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla, which took place on May 5, 1862.

Friday, May 17

  • ‘Azamat – Bahá’í
    The beginning of the fourth month of the Bahá’í year, ‘Azamat means “grandeur.”

Sunday, May 19

  • Malcom X’s Birthday
    Born on May 19th, 1925, Malcom X was the nation’s most visible proponent of Black Nationalism. His challenge to the multiracial, nonviolent approach of Martin Luther King Jr., helped set the tone for the ideological and tactical conflicts that took place within the black freedom struggle of the 1960s. Given Malcolm X’s abrasive criticism of Dr. King and his advocacy of racial separatism, it is not surprising that Dr. King rejected the occasional overtures from one of his fiercest critics. However, after Malcolm’s assassination in 1965, King wrote to his widow.

Monday, May 23

  • Visakha Puja (Buddha Day) – Buddhism
    Celebrated by Theravdin Buddhists on the full moon of the sixth lunar month, this is a triple commemoration of the historical Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and death and entrance into nirvana.

  • 'Martyrdom of Guru Arjan Dev Ji – Sikhism
    The first Sikh martyr and the fifth gurū, Arjan (1563 – 1606 C.E.) built the Harimandir (Temple of God) in the town of Amritsar with door facing all four directions, in order to emphasize that the Sikh way was open to all regardless of their socio-economic status.  He also compiled the Sikh scriptures known as the Gurū Granth Sahib.  

Tuesday, May 24

  • Declaration of the Báb – Bahá’í
    The celebration of the day in 1844 C.E. when he announced his identity as the Gate or herald of the new age in Shiraz, Persia (modern-day Iran).

Saturday, May 26

  • Trinity Sunday – Christianity (Western churches)
    Marking the celebration of God manifested in three Persons: as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Sunday, May 28

  • Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh [through May 29] – Bahá’í
    The Ascension of Bahá’u’lláh commemorates the anniversary of the death of Bahá’u’lláh, the founder of the Bahá’í Faith. Baha’u’llah was seventy-five years old when he passed away on May 29, 1892. CEIE recognizes the importance of religious festivals as they cultivate culture, community, and identity.

Monday, May 30

  • Corpus Christi – Christianity [Roman Catholic]
    Named for the Latin phrase “Body of Christ,” this festival is a time when Catholic Christians express their faith in Christ’s real presence in the elements of Holy Communion.