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The other day a friend asked ,’tell me if you did such preparations for Ram Naumi , Krishna Jayanti, Guru Nanak’s birthday Prophet Muhammad’s birthday, Abraham’s birthday or Buddh Poornima?
The longest religious festival is The Bastar Dussehra in Chhattisgarh, lasting up to 77 days. It is a celebration of the goddess Shakti. The festival begins with the “Patjatra” rituals, lighting a log of sal which is later used to make a large chariot in which the mother goddess returns home.The tradition has been going on for the past 800 years.
The largest religious gatherings in the world are at Maha Kumbh Mela and Hajj.
The Kumbh Mela a Hindu religious festival lasts for one month and is the largest public gathering. It’s a time for pilgrims to bathe in the sacred rivers to purify themselves. It’s listed by UNESCO as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Hajj is a religious festival in Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Hajj is a series of rituals and acts of worship that take place over five to six days.
Pilgrims travel to Mecca to perform rituals at the Kaaba, the “House of Allah”, which is the holiest site in Islam.
The Hajj is a chance for Muslims to seek forgiveness, cleanse their souls of sin, and demonstrate their submission to God. It is also a time to show solidarity with other Muslims and display Muslim brotherhood.
The Hajj is a spiritual, emotional, and physical challenge. Pilgrims wear special clothing, perform rituals, and run between hills.
Based on widespread recognition and global media attention, the “most talked about festival in the world” is widely considered to be Diwali, the Festival of Lights celebrated in India, due to its large scale, vibrant celebrations, and symbolic meaning of good triumphing over evil.ay ?
Christmas is the most celebrated festivals in the world.
Why do you need to gift everyone you know a Gift on Christmas?
Four million tons of wrapping paper & shopping bags are thrown away only during Xmas holidays. Flip Kart used thousands of tons of cardboard and hundreds of meters of gum tape packing books. Both wrapping paper and cardboard are green, recyclable materials but both have only one-time use.
Gifts also include snacks, foods and cosmetics. There is crackling packaging for various food items, silver-coloured airtight packaging for snacks and foods, tetra pack for health drinks and soft squeeze tubes for cosmetics. All packaging materials made up of a fusion of paper and plastic, or aluminium and paper or plastic are non-recyclable and thus non-eco-friendly.
Pongal? Baisakhi?
I was wondering why is Christmas the most popular festival in the world. Total number of people who celebrate Christmas is more than the sum total of all other festivals. The number of people who celebrate Christmas is far larger than the number of Christians in the world. Why do people of almost all other religions also celebrate Christmas?
Santa Claus makes Christmas surreal and joyful. I could not find an equivalent to Santa in any other religion.
Popular religious festivals include the Hindu festivals of Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Holi, Dussehra and the Islamic festivals of Eid ul-Fitr, Eid al-Adha, Mawlid an-Nabi which are celebrated throughout the country. Muharram, mourning for the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson is observed by some sects of Islam.
Population of the world in 2024 is 8.2 billion. Of them 78% are either Critisians 2.4 billion, Muslims 2.04 billion, Hindus 1.2 billion, Buddists 500 million, Sikhs 30 million and Jews 15.7 millions .Rest either believe in their folk religions or are atheist’s.
The top 6 major world religions are – Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Judaism. Their percentage population being 31.1; 24.9; 15.2;6.6 ;.3 and .2 respectively.
It does not correspond to the % or total number of humans following that religion.
The question still is how is Christmas the most celebrated religious festival of the world? The probable answers are
(i) The prayer part and the celebratory part of the festival have not been merged.
ii) acceptance of Christmas celebrations by followers of other religions.
iii) projection of Christmas as a fun festival.
The Prophet Muhammad’s birthday is celebrated on the 12th day of Rabi’ al-Awwal, the third month of the Islamic calendar.
It has been observed that the share of Muslim population increased by 5.96% between 2001 and 2011, while it declined in the case of all other communities and the maximum decline (−8.02%) was noticed in the case of the Sikh population with the lowest share among all the major religious communities in India
Lord Rama’s birthday is celebrated on Rama Navami, which is the ninth day of the Chaitra month in the Hindu calendar. This day usually falls between March and April on the Gregorian calendar.
Jesus was compassionate and loving to the poor, weak, and suffering but with a fiery sense of justice, and anger toward religious hypocrites and toward selfish people. He looked lovingly at people who asked sincere spiritual questions. He spoke tenderly to a shy woman. His personality does not seem as pacifistic as “turn the other cheek” might lead one to expect. He was so outraged at finding moneychangers in the Temple that he began shouting, flipping tables, and flung furniture down the front steps of the Temple in public.
The origins of Jewish faith are explained throughout the Torah. According to the text, God first revealed himself to a Hebrew man named Abraham, who became known as the founder of Judaism.
Hinduism doesn’t have a single founder or a known prophet. Instead, Hinduism’s authority comes from a large body of sacred texts, including the Vedas, Upanishads, Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, and 18 Puranas. These texts provide Hindus with rules for worship, rituals, pilgrimage, and daily activities.
Makar Sankranti is a harvest festival celebrated in many parts of India that is similar to Pongal and is often considered the equivalent of Christmas in India:
- Makar Sankranti is celebrated with different names and customs in different regions of India. For example, in Tamil Nadu, it’s known as Pongal, and in Gujarat, it’s known as Uttarayan.
Nanak was born on 15 April 1469 at Talvaṇḍī village (present-day Nankana Sahib, Punjab, Pakistan) in the Lahore province of the Delhi Sultanate.
Hinduism and Buddhism are both considered to be among the oldest religions in the world.
1st of January is Buddhist day of Shogatsu Matsuri the Obon Buddhist celebration of the dead returning to the ancestral home, which includes many Shinto rituals, and the annual local matsuri when a shrine is transported around the local community to purify it .
1st November is Día de Muertos. Arguably Mexico’s most famous festival, The Day of the Dead isn’t actually about death, but celebrating life. This is the time for Mexican families to visit family graves and pray for those loved ones who have passed away.
Wesak the Buddha Day in April /May.
Good Friday in March/ April
Krishna August/ SeptJanmashtami
Diwali October/November
Rosh Hashanah in September /October
Ramadan Feburary/March
Eid-ul-Fitr March / April
Moharum May/June
One of the most important Hindu festival is
- Holi
A festival that symbolizes the end of errors and conflicts, and a day to forgive and forget. It is celebrated on the full moon of the Phalgun month in the Hindu calendar.
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