Category: Holidays & Observances

Krampusnacht

Krampus is coming to give you what you deserve, bad little boys and girls!

Many people all across Europe celebrate St. Nicholas Day on December 6 each year, as do some people in Canada who have roots in Europe. St. Nicholas comes during the night and leaves presents for good girls and boys. (Look for tomorrow’s post more more information on St. Nicholas.)

In some places, tradition holds that St. Nicholas had a helper– or at least a counterpart, who visited the bad children. Krampus.

In Germany, Austria and other Alpine countries, Krampus became a part of the St. Nicholas story. Half goat, half demon, Krampus is a nightmarish figure who comes for those overlooked by St. Nicholas, who has gifts for the good (or in some cases, the intelligent!) At best Krampus might deliver coal or twigs. But children fear far worse, that Krampus will punish them, torture them, even kidnap them and carry them away to his lair– or to Hell!

Krampusnacht is is observed in many places on December 5, with parades and other celebrations, including the Krampuslauf, or Krampus Run, in which young people dress up like Krampus.

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The Holiday Season

Here are just some of the observances, festivals, celebrations and special days that take place in the coming month or so of holidays and holy days, known to many as “The Holiday Season.”

  • December 1: Advent
  • December 3: Giving Tuesday
  • December 5: Krampusnacht
  • December 6: St. Nicholas Day
  • December 8: Bodhi Day / Rohatsu
  • December 8: Feast of the Immaculate Conception
  • December 8: Advent (second Sunday)
  • December 10: International Human Rights Day
  • December 11: Gita Jayanti
  • December 12: Feast of Masa’il
  • December 15: Advent (third Sunday)
  • December 16: Simbang Gabi / Los Posadas
  • December 21: Winter Solstice / Yule / Grianstad an Gheimhridh
  • December 22: Advent (fourth Sunday)
  • December 23: Festivus
  • December 24: Christmas Eve
  • December 25: Christmas Day
  • December 25 (evening): Hanukkah begins
  • December 26: St. Stephen’s Day
  • December 26: Kwanzaa begins
  • December 31: New Year’s Eve
  • December 31: Hogmanay
  • January 1: New Year’s Day
  • January 1: Kwanzaa concludes
  • January 2: Hanukkah concludes
  • January 7: Orthodox Christmas
  • January 13: Maghi
  • January 17: Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti

Holidays & Holy Days

December is a month of Holidays and Holy Days. In the northern hemisphere nights are longer, the darkness deepens, and the weather is colder. Many cultural and religious traditions developed around the winter solstice and the end of the agricultural year, with hope for light and warmth and new life to emerge in the coming months. Come down to your school library in person, or visit us online, to find out more about the many different festivals, celebrations and observances that take place at this time of year.

Advent

Advent Wreath and Candles.  source: Clemens PFEIFFER, Vienna (CC / wikimedia)

The Holiday Season in the western world has traditionally been synonymous with Advent, literally the period of expectation of an important arrival. For Christians the season of Advent is about the anticipation of Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Christ. In the Christian Church, on each of the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, candles are lit as symbols of Advent.

In 2024 the four Sundays of Advent are December 1, December 8, December 15 and December 22.

Happy Holidays!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American family, friends and neighbours. The American version of Thanksgiving marks the unofficial start to the “Holiday Season.” We look forward to a time of holiday cheer over the coming weeks. Be sure to visit us in your school library to find out more, especially in December when our theme is “Holidays and Holy Days.”

Songs of Peace: Alice’s Restaurant

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our American friends, family and neighbours! Along with Turkey and football games, another staple of American Thanksgiving for many is listening to the 18 minute classic, “Alice’s Restaurant.”

November has been Peace month in the School Library, with an emphasis on understanding peace education, the antiwar movements, civil disobedience and other non-violent means of social change. Such themes overlap with American Thanksgiving in “Alice’s Restaurant.”


Originally released in 1967, Arlo Guthrie’s 18 minute long recording of “Alice’s Restaurant” has become on of the most famous protest songs against the Vietnam War.  The events described in the song, beginning with a Thanksgiving celebration amongst friends during the sixties, were the inspiration for a film which was released in 1969.

More than 50 years later Guthrie’s signature song is a staple of classic rock radio stations on and around American Thanksgiving.

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source: Arlo Guthrie / You Tube via Warner Records

November is Peace Month at your School Library. Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:

Other “Songs of Peace” in this series:

Remembrance Day

Remembrance Day is November 11. Today at LTSS we will observe Remembrance Day Assemblies.

Armistice Day was established to honour the fallen of the First World War, which formally ended at “the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month.” Later, the name of the day was changed to Remembrance Day. Canadians served and died in yet another World War, as well as other wars and peacekeeping missions around the globe. Remembrance Day is a national holiday to honour the memory of those Canadians who have fallen in war.  

On Remembrance Day we pay our respect to those that have paid the terrible costs of war. Remembrance Day is not meant to celebrate war or glorify war. War has brought untold suffering and pain to the world. Those who has experienced war, especially those that have lost loved ones in war, know that war is not something to celebrate.

It is also important to remember that Remembrance Day is not one of the those holidays that is just a chance for rest and recreation. Please take some time to reflect on what Remembrance Day is all about. On November 11th at 11:00 AM, plan to take some time to honour those that have died and all those who lived through the horrors of war. Whether you attend a ceremony in person, or check out the television coverage of the ceremony in Ottawa or other parts of Canada, take some time for Remembrance.

Peace

November is Peace Month at your School Library. Learn more about peace and alternatives to war. Explore non-violence, pacifism, conscientious objectors, anti-war movements, civil disobedience, peacemakers, non-aggression, reconciliation, and other topics related to the pursuit of peace.

Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali and Bandi Chor Divas

‘Tuhanu Diwali diyan boht both vadhaiyan’

Keval Tank, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Diwali is celebrated by millions of people in India, Canada and around the world. Hundreds of millions of Hindus celebrate “the Festival of Lights.” Millions of Sikhs, and eople of other faiths, ialso celebrate Diwali.

For Sikhs the festival has added significance as it generally coincides with a Sikh celebration known as Bandi Chhor Divas. In 2024 this takes place on November 1.

Many people will celebrate a five day festival from October 31 to November 5, with the many public celebrations of Diwali in Canada on Saturday, November 2 . However, it may be celebrated at different times, and in different ways, by various groups in India, South Asia, and in the Indian diaspora.

Diwali may also be rendered as Deepavali or Divali.

For more information on Diwali, check out:

Samhain

The Gaelic Festival of Samhain marks the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter. Samhain begins at sundown on October 31 and goes until sundown on November 1.

source: wikimedia commons

The roots of Samhain stretch back deep into the prehistoric development of Celtic pagan beliefs. With the arrival of Christianity in what we now know as Ireland and Scotland, the practices of Samhain and All-Saints Day merged over time. Halloween traces many of its roots back to both Samhain and “All-Hallows Eve,” — the night before All Saints Day.

There has been a modern revival in celebrations of Samhain, in part due to the practices of Wiccans and other neo-pagans, as well other people who see it as a as a way to incorporate Celtic rituals into their belief systems. Many others see it as a way to celebrate Irish culture and history. Samhain is often celebrated with feasting and giant bonfires.

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