Christmas Eve is celebrated on December 24 of the Gregorian Calendar and on January 6 of the Julian Calendar. The Georgian Orthodox Churches, as well as the Greek Orthodox Church of Jerusalem, hold Christmas eve earlier than others of Christian in Finland, Italy, Puerto Rico, Spain, Sweden, Slovakia as well as to Eastern Orthodox mark Christmas Eve later on January 6 of the following year on the Gregorian calendar.
Many Roman Catholics and Anglicans traditionally celebrate a midnight Mass (Eucharist) which begins either at or sometime before midnight on Christmas Day. This ceremony, which is held in churches throughout the world, marks the beginning of Christmas Day. A popular joke is to ask what time Midnight Mass starts, but in recent years some churches have scheduled their “Midnight” Mass as early as 7 p.m.
Christmas Vespers are popular in the early evening, and midnight services are also widespread in regions which are predominately Lutheran. The old Lutheran tradition of a Christmas Vigil in the early morning hours of the 25th of December (Christmette) can still be found in some regions of Germany.
Methodists celebrate the evening in different ways. Some, in the early evening, come to their church to celebrate Holy Communion with their families. The mood is very solemn, and often the only visible light is the Advent Wreath, and the candles upon the Lord’s Table. Others celebrate the evening with services of light, which often include singing the song “Silent Night” as a variety of candles (including personal candles) are lit. Other churches have late evening services at 11 pm, so that the church can celebate Christmas Day together with the ringing of bells at 12 am. Others offer Christmas Day services as well. Each church is welcome to celebrate Christmas Eve evening and Christmas Day in their own special way.
Other churches also hold a candlelight service, which is also typically held earlier in the evening; these often feature dramatizations of the Nativity. Similar worship services are held in many Protestant churches on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day. The services of Christmas Eve are also similar to those of the Eve of Theophany or Epiphany, and the two Great Feasts are considered one celebration.
Christmas Eve is also seen as the night when Santa Claus (or some variant thereof) makes his rounds delivering gifts to good children. In the Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary, where St. Nicholas gives his sweet gifts on December 6th, the Christmas gift-giver is the Child Jesus also known to most as Christkind. In Argentina, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Quebec, Romania, Uruguay, and Sweden, Christmas presents are opened mostly on the evening of the 24th, - this is also the tradition among the British Royal Family, due to their mainly German ancestry - while in Italy, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, English Canada, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia mostly on the morning of Christmas Day.
In Finland Joulupukki and in Sweden Jultomten personally meets children and gives presents in the evening of Christmas Eve. In most parts of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland Christmas presents are opened in the evening of December 24 and are brought by Christkind or Christchild who leaves the gifts but is never seen doing so.
In Spain gifts are traditionally opened on the morning of January 6, Epiphany day, though in some other countries, like Argentina and Uruguay people received presents both around Christmas and on the morning of Epiphany day; there are also some countries, like the rest of Latin America, where people stay awake until midnight, when they open the presents. In the Netherlands gift giving on Christmas Day is a fairly new phenomenon, because of the Dutch celebration of Sinterklaas on December 5.
Jumbo large print wall calendar 2010
New Years
The New Year is the day that marks the end of one year and the beginning of the next year, and is the day on which the year count is incremented. In many culture, the event is celebrated in some manner.
In countries which use the Gregorian calendar, New Year is usually celebrated on January 1st.
Traditionally, the Roman calendar began the first day of March. However, it was in January (the eleventh month) when the consuls of ancient Rome assumed the government. Julius Caesar, in 47 BC, changed the system, creating the Julian calendar. It was modified in the time of Mark Antony consul in 44 BC, again by the emperor Augustus Caesar in 8 BC and finally by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, which brought the calendar to its present day form. This year begins on January 1. Subsequently, this day was marked with a religious significance during the Middle Ages and later centuries.
With the expansion of Western culture to the rest of the world during the twentieth century, the January 1 date became universal in nature, even in countries with their own New Year celebrations in examples China, India even Melayu.
At present, the celebration of New Year is a major celebration worldwide. Many large-scale events are held in major cities around the world New Year’s Eve (New Year’s Eve for the December 31), being accompanied by the largest fireworks events.
The Islamic New Year is a cultural event which Muslim observe on the first day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic Calendar. Many Muslims use the day to remember the significance of this month, and the Hijra, or migration, Islamic prophet Muhammad made to the city now known as Medina. Recently, in many areas of Muslim population, people have begun exchanging cards and gifts on this day, though this is not commonly done
Chinese New Year popularly mentioned Spring Festival is the most important of the traditional Chinese holidays. It is often called the Chinese Lunar New Year, especially by people in mainland China and Taiwan. The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month in the Chinese Calendar and ends on the 15th; this day is called Lantern Festival. In the Gregorian calendar, Chinese New Year falls on different dates each year, a date between January 21 and February 20.
Chinese New Year is the longest and most important festivity in the Lunar Calendar. The origin of Chinese New Year is itself centuries old and gains significance because of several myths and traditions. Ancient Chinese New Year is a reflection on how the people behaved and what they believed in the most.
2010 (MMX) will be a common year starting on Friday in accordance with the Gregorian Calendar. It will also be the first year of the 2010s decade.
Among experts and the general public, there is a debate as to how specific years of the 21st century should be pronounced in English. Although the majority of English-speakers say “two thousand X” for years of the current decade, in theory this could mean any year up to 2999.
One article suggests that since, for example, former years such as 1805 and 1905 were commonly pronounced as “eighteen oh-five” and “nineteen oh-five”, the year 2005 should naturally be pronounced as “twenty oh-five”, and that majority usage of “two thousand (and) X” is a result of influences from the Y2K hype, as well as the way “2001″ was pronounced in the influential 1968 film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.
David Crystal, author of the Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language, has predicted that the change of pronunciation to “twenty X” will occur in 2011, as “twenty eleven”, explaining that the way people pronounce years depends on rhythm, rather than logic. Crystal claims that the rhythm or “flow” of “two thousand and ten”, beats that of “twenty ten”, but the flow of “twenty eleven” beats “two thousand and eleven”. Alternatively, Ian Brookes, editor-in-chief of Chambers Dictionary, suggests the change will occur in 2013 (as 2012 is often referred to as “two thousand and twelve”).
One of the great event will come on 2010 calendar is FIFA World Cup. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the 19th FIFA WORLD CUP, the premier international football tournament. It is scheduled to take place between 11 June and 11 July 2010 in South Africa. The 2010 FIFA World Cup will be the culmination of a qualification process that began in August 2007 and involved 204 of the 208 FIFA national teams.
This will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by an African nation, after South Africa beat Marocco and Egypt in an all-African bidding process. Italy is are the defending champions. The draw for the finals will take place on 4 December 2009 in Cape Town.
The 2010 Winter Paralympics, officially known as the X Paralympic Winter Games, will be celebrated in Vancouver and Whistler, British Columbia between March 12 to March 21, 2010. The Opening Ceremony will take place in BC Place Stadium, Vancouver, British Columbia.
The Youth Olympic Games (YOG) is planned to be an international multi-sport event held every four years in staggered summer and winter events complementing the current Olympic Games and will feature athletes between the ages of 14 and 18.
The United Nations declared 2010 to be the International Year of Biodiversity. It is a celebration of life on earth and of the value of biodiversity for our lives. The world is invited to take action in 2010 to safeguard the variety of life on earth: biodiversity.
