January is ushered in with New Year’s Day, which is celebrated with a public holiday for 90% of the world’s population, making it the most widely observed holiday of the year. January is notable for the lack of national days; clearly January wasn’t a good time to ask your colonial powers for your independence. Indeed […]
Continue Reading
When are the twelve days of Christmas? The twelve days of Christmas are sometimes also known as Twelvetide. There is some argument as to when exactly Twelvetide starts. While some suggest the first day of Christmas is Christmas Day itself (25th December), the majority see 26th December as day one, meaning the twelfth and final […]
Continue ReadingDownload larger world map image jpeg (192kb) December 25th – Christmas Day On December 25th each year, over 2 billion people (over a third of the world’s population) will celebrate the birth of Christ. The bible didn’t give any specific details on the exact date or year that Christ was born and many have speculated […]
Continue ReadingLarge version of the map above, detailing New Year’s Day around the world. On Friday January 1st 2021, around 90% of the world’s population will observe a public holiday to mark International New Year’s Day. What about the other 10%? This makes it easily the most popular public holiday of the year. However there are […]
Continue Reading
What better way to celebrate the birth of someone who is the basis for one of the world’s greatest religions than by chopping down a tree, sticking shiny things on it and putting it in your living room for a few weeks in December? This rather strange arboreal custom emerged in the 16th century in […]
Continue Reading