Godly days for believers of all kinds

Advertiser Staff

Peel the shrink wrap off your new calendar, and you're sure to mark Auntie's birthday and the next dental appointment. But you don't want to miss the Shinto festival of Setsubun, either. So we're offering this calendar of religious holidays celebrating the faith diversity of Hawai'i.

Don't forget, yesterday was Gantan-sai, the Shinto celebration of New Year's. Out with the old and in with the new!

Note: Some religious groups may change the dates slightly from those given here. For example, Muslims will wait until the sighting of the first sliver of a new moon before declaring the start of Ramadan.

January

• 6: Epiphany (Christian, celebrates the three kings who brought gifts to Christ)
• 16: Hoonko (Jodo Shinshu Buddhist, marks Shinran Shonin's death)
• 22: Chinese New Year*
• 30: Hajj* begins (Muslim; when pilgrimages to Mecca are undertaken)

February

• 1: Eid al-Adha* (Muslim, day of sacrifice, celebrating the teachings of Ibrahim)
• 3: Setsubun (Shinto, festival in which people cast out evil spirits from their homes)
• 21: Muharram* (Muslim, new year celebration)
• 25: Ash Wednesday* (Christian, beginning of 40-day Lent season leading up to Easter)

March

• 6: (sundown) Purim* (Jewish, celebrating Esther's defeat of the plan to slaughter Persian Jews)
• 6: Holi* (Hindu, festival of colors)
• 20-21: Spring equinox (pagan, a cardinal festival); also, Spring Higan (Buddhist, see Autumn Higan in September; also Gotan-e, Shinran Shonin's birthday)

April

• 1: Loki Day/April Fool's Day (derived from the Teutonic feast of fools ruled by Loki, the trickster god)
• 5: (sundown) — Passover* (Jewish, celebrating the flight from Egypt)
• 8: Wesak (Buddhist, also called Hanamatsuri, Buddha's birthday; also celebrated May 16 by those using lunar calendars; known in South Korea as Hansik, or cold-food day)
• 11: Easter* (Christian, celebrating the resurrection of Christ)
• 21: Ridvan (Bahá'i, 12-day festival of paradise begins)

May

• 1: Lei Day (Hawaiian)
• 3: Rice Festival (Shinto)
• 23: Declaration of the Báb (Bahá'i, celebrating beginning of faith)
• 29: Ascension of Baha'u'llah (Bahá'i, celebrating the prophet and founder)

June

• 20-21: Summer Solstice (see Winter Solstice)
• 24: Festival of the Sun (Aztec)

July

• 9:Martyrdom of the Báb (Bahá'i, death of Siyyid' Ali-Muhammad, who declared himself the Báb, or "gate of God")
• 15: Obon (Buddhist festival of the dead; in Japan, celebrated in August)

August

• 1-3: Midsummer Festival (pagan, celebrating abundance, love and magic)
• 30: Chung-Yuan* (Taoist, festival of the hungry ghost, similar to obon)

September

• 15: (sundown) Rosh Hashanah (Jewish new year, observing the days of awe)
• 18-28: Ganesha Chaturthi* (Hindu, honoring elephant-headed wisdom god)
• 20-21: Autumn Equinox (pagan, celebrating balance of light and dark, when the Sun begins to wane toward harvest); also, Autumn Higan (Japanese festival focusing on moral practices that bring one to enlightenment, or "the other shore," a time to revere ancestors)
• 25: Yom Kippur (Jewish day of atonement)
• 28: Birthday of Confucius (Chinese)
• 29: (sundown) Sukkot (Jewish, harvest festival)

October

• 14-16: Li-Tou (Taoist, pole star festival, with nine days of penance)
• 7: (sundown) Simchat Torah (Jewish, celebration of the Torah)
• 14: Navaratri* (Hindu, festival of the goddess protecting the powerless, ends Oct. 22)
• 15: Makahiki (Hawaiian New Year, celebrating the emergence of the earth mother and sky father whose union produced the akua, or gods and goddesses)
• 15: Ramadan* begins (Muslim, celebrating the time when the Qu'ran was revealed to Mohammed; continues with daylong fasting until Eid al-Fitr)*
• 20: Birth of the Báb (Bahá'i)
• 31:Halloween (Christian, all hallow's eve)

November

• 12: Diwali* (Hindu, five-day festival of lights to celebrate triumph of good over evil, time for family reunions)
• 12: Birth of Bahá'u'lláh (Bahá'i)
• 13:* Eid al-Fitr (see Ramadan)

December

• 18: Bodhi Day (Japanese Buddhist, celebrates Buddha's enlightenment, though some sects celebrate Feb. 15 as the day Buddha attained nirvana)
• 7: (sundown) — Hanukkah (Jewish, eight-day festival of lights, ends Dec. 15)*
• 20-21: Winter Solstice (pagan, Shinto, Taoist, etc., celebrating return of the light after the longest night of the year; Taoists following the lunar calendar celebrate Tung-Chih, when the yang element begins a growth cycle)
• 25: Christmas (Christian, celebrating the birth of Christ)
• 26: Kwanzaa (African, time for achievements, reverence for creation, ends Jan. 1)

* Based on differentcalendars, so dates change year to year.

Compiled by Mary Kaye Ritz, Advertiser religion & ethics writer.

Hawai'i sources: Dana Washofsky, Florence Kelley, Hakim Ouansafi, the Rev. Jan Youth and Dan Furst's Universal Festivals Calendar.

Correction: Rosh Hashanah begins at sundown Sept. 15. The date was incorrect in a previous version of this listing.