Holiday Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Global holidays==<!-- This section is intended as information about secular holidays celebrated on a global scale by people of multiple ethnic or religious backgrounds, or holidays with similar characteristics in different cultures. Christmas is included as a mostly secular holiday. For global religious holidays, look to the religious section below. --> The celebration of the New Year has been a common holiday across cultures for at least four millennia.<ref>{{Cite web |title=New Year's |url=https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/new-years |date=February 16, 2010 |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref> Such holidays normally celebrate the last day of a year and the arrival of the next year in a calendar system. In modern cultures using the Gregorian calendar, the New Year's celebration spans [[New Year's Eve]] on 31 December and [[New Year's Day]] on 1 January. However, other calendar systems also have New Year's celebration, such as [[Chinese New Year]] and [[Tแบฟt|Vietnamese Tet]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Crump |first=William D. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cDTfCwAAQBAJ&q=global+holidays |title=Encyclopedia of New Year's Holidays Worldwide |date=2014-04-25 |publisher=McFarland |isbn=978-0-7864-9545-0 |language=en}}</ref> New Year's Day is the most common public holiday, observed by all countries using the Gregorian calendar except [[Israel]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=New Year's Day around the world in 2023 |url=https://www.officeholidays.com/holidays/international-new-years-day |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=Office Holidays |language=en}}</ref> [[Christmas]] is a popular holiday globally due to the [[spread of Christianity]]. The holiday is recognised as a public holiday in many countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Australasia and is celebrated by over 2 billion people.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2022-12-19 |title=Christmas Day around the world |url=https://blog.officeholidays.com/christmas/christmas-day-around-the-world/ |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=Office Holidays Blog |language=en-GB}}</ref> Although a holiday with religious origins, Christmas is often celebrated by non-Christians as a secular holiday. For example, 61% of British people celebrate Christmas in an entirely secular way.<ref name=":1">{{Cite web |title=How Britons celebrate Christmas and Easter {{!}} YouGov |url=https://yougov.co.uk/topics/society/articles-reports/2020/12/29/how-britons-celebrate-christmas-and-easter |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=yougov.co.uk |language=en-gb}}</ref> Christmas has also become a tradition in some non-Christian countries. For many [[Japanese people]], it has become customary to buy and eat [[fried chicken]] on Christmas.<ref>{{Cite web |author=Kate Springer |title=How KFC became a Christmas tradition in Japan |url=https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/kfc-christmas-tradition-japan/index.html |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=CNN |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Barton |first=Eric |title=Why Japan celebrates Christmas with KFC |url=https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20161216-why-japan-celebrates-christmas-with-kfc |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en}}</ref> Recently invented holidays commemorate a range of modern social and political issues and other important topics. The United Nations publishes a list of International Days and Weeks. One such day is [[International Women's Day]] on 8 March, which celebrates women's achievements and campaigns for gender equality and women's rights.<ref>{{Cite web |title=International Women's Day 2023 campaign theme: Embrace Equity |url=https://www.internationalwomensday.com/ |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=International Women's Day |language=en}}</ref> [[Earth Day]] has been celebrated by people across the world since 1970, with 10,000 events in 2007. It is a holiday marking the dangers of environmental damage, such as [[pollution]] and the [[climate crisis]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Earth Day Timeline |url=https://www.history.com/topics/holidays/earth-day-timeline |access-date=2022-12-27 |website=HISTORY |language=en}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page