# what is the big holiday for other cultures and religions **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 27, 2014, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-big-holiday-for-other-cultures-and-religions/708249 "2014-12-27T00:19:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-big-holiday-for-other-cultures-and-religions/708249/21 "2014-12-27T19:11:46Z")
> [@MandaJo](#): > > I think that’s her point: if we all had Holy Week off, we’d use the time ti travel to be together, and it would feel like a major holiday. A lit of what makes xmas xmas is that so many families make such an effort to be together-and our culture helps. There is that but at the same time our culture really celebrates christmas. We have decorations, and christmas awareness starts as early as September. Nobody is thinking about Easter in January by comparison. ---
**Author:** ![Hello\_Again](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hello\_Again](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hello_Again)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-big-holiday-for-other-cultures-and-religions/708249/22 "2014-12-27T19:25:48Z")
> [@Coriolanus](#): > > In Russia, New Years Eve is the biggest holiday of the year. Gift-giving, fir trees, feasts and drinking. Maslenitsa is also pretty popular now isn’t it? (it was outlawed under communism but has made a raucous return, or so I am given to understand) Maslenitsa (can be translated loosely as “Butter-fest”) is a holiday that falls in February a certain number of days prior to Eastern Orthodox Lent, and, though it can be compared to pre-Lent holidays like Mardis Gras, it’s actually older than Christianity in Russia and originally fell on the vernal equinox. You eat round foods representing the sun (especially blini), as well as all kinds of rich foods, have people over, go sledding and for sleigh rides, burn effigies, and have big-ass snowball fights. Isn’t the Hindu holiday of [Holi](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holi) a pretty big one, and also where we get the word “Holy”? ---
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-big-holiday-for-other-cultures-and-religions/708249/23 "2014-12-27T19:32:18Z")
Pagans have four major Esbats (Sabatts)-- Samhein (November 1), Imbolc (February 1), Beltane (May 1) and Lammas (August 1) and four minor ones, held on summer and winter solstices and spring and autumn equinoxes. ---
**Author:** ![MandaJo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ac91a4/32.png) [@MandaJo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MandaJo)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-big-holiday-for-other-cultures-and-religions/708249/24 "2014-12-27T21:16:49Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > There is that but at the same time our culture really celebrates christmas. We have decorations, and christmas awareness starts as early as September. Nobody is thinking about Easter in January by comparison. That’s sort of a tautology, though. You said that in historically Christian countries, Christmas is the “big” holiday. Nava said that wasn’t true in historically Christian countries that still have a lot of time off for Holy Week. You said that that wasn’t true, Christmas was the bigger deal, Easter was a secondary holiday. But she was never talking about the norm in America. American norm doesn’t equal the norm in historically Christian countries. There are plenty of others. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-big-holiday-for-other-cultures-and-religions/708249/25 "2014-12-27T22:32:24Z")
[Tet.](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T%E1%BA%BFt) ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [December 27, 2014, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-big-holiday-for-other-cultures-and-religions/708249/26 "2014-12-27T23:02:00Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Pagans have four major Esbats (Sabatts)-- Samhein (November 1), Imbolc (February 1), Beltane (May 1) and Lammas (August 1) and four minor ones, held on summer and winter solstices and spring and autumn equinoxes. As an elaboration, I’d say that out of the eight, the Winter Solstice gets most attention in the US because it coincides with Christmas, and also because you just need something to celebrate in the middle of the winter. In my limited experience with Pagan/Wiccan communities, Samhain, Summer Solstice, Mabon (fall equinox) and Beltane (in order by celebration size) were the next most important, and were certainly bigger deals than the remaining three holy days. Again, that’s just my personal experience. ---
**Author:** ![ashtayk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e68b1a/32.png) [@ashtayk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ashtayk)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-big-holiday-for-other-cultures-and-religions/708249/27 "2014-12-28T00:55:39Z")
Divali in India for the Hindus - people go bonkers spending money. I think it probably the time when the largest amount of ornamental gold is bought in the world. In any case India is the largest consumer of gold in the world until eclipsed by China last year. There are other regional festivals that are big in the particular region - the ten day festival of Durga in West Bengal comes to mind. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-big-holiday-for-other-cultures-and-religions/708249/28 "2014-12-28T02:20:31Z")
> [@LawMonkey](#): > > Which I suspect is a hold-over from communist times, but I’ve never actuall confirmed as much. Yes, the Soviets managed to shift the non-explicitly-Christian traditions from Christmas to New Year. (Julian calendar) Christmas is now a public holiday again in Russia, but Russians still reserve the trees and Grandfather Frost for New Year’s. (IIRC the Russian Orthodox Church prefers this). Many Russian Jews now living in Israel still celebrate New Year’s in the Soviet manner. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [December 28, 2014, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-big-holiday-for-other-cultures-and-religions/708249/29 "2014-12-28T04:15:51Z")
> [@Digital\_is\_the\_new\_Analog](#): > > My appologies - I misread the quote and missed the part about having a defined vacation for Easter. I withdraw my comment. Does that mean I have to withdraw the imaginary pillow I threw in your direction, too? _sigh_ Well, OK… Mind you, I still find it curious (-er and curioser) that a place called Easter doesn’t get vacations for Easter. If there’s a place that should…! (For those who aren’t familiar with the etimology, Florida is a shortening of _Pascua Florida_, one of the Spanish names of Easter Sunday). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-big-holiday-for-other-cultures-and-religions/708249.md?page=1)