Festivals of All Faiths 2009

☬ Sikh. Most Gurpurabs are kept on a fixed day of a solar month, as in the calendar of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC). A month begins on Sangrand — the day the Sun enters the next sidereal sign; when that happens before sunrise, the day before is counted. Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s Gurpurab (Kartik Purnima), Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s Parkash (Poh Sudi 7), Bandi Chhor Divas (Diwali), Hola Mohalla and a few others follow the moon, so their dates move each year. The original Nanakshahi calendar of 2003, still followed by some gurdwaras abroad, fixes every Gurpurab to a Common Era date instead (for example Vaisakhi on 14 April, Guru Gobind Singh Ji on 5 January).

☪️ Muslim. For each new moon we work out, for your city, how high the young crescent stands and how wide it is just after sunset (Yallop’s test), and take the first evening it is clearly visible to the eye; the month begins the next day, and no month runs longer than 30 days. In India a month starts only when the crescent is actually seen, and haze or cloud can delay it — so treat these as expected dates and follow your local announcement. The Islamic day begins at sunset: Shab-e-Barat, Shab-e-Miraj and Shab-e-Qadr are the nights before the dates shown.

🙏 Jain. Jain festivals follow the tithi at sunrise, on the same Panchang as our Hindu calendar. Shwetambar Paryushan is the eight days ending on Samvatsari (Bhadrapada Shukla 4); the Digambar Das Lakshan Parva runs from Bhadrapada Shukla 5 to Anant Chaturdashi, and Kshamavani is the day after. Gachchhas and sanghs can differ by a day when a tithi is lost or repeated — follow your own sangh’s calendar.

✝️ Christian. Easter is the first Sunday after the church’s full moon on or after 21 March (the Gregorian rule followed by the Catholic, Protestant and most Indian churches); Lent, Holy Week, Ascension and Pentecost are counted from it. Orthodox and Syrian churches of Kerala that keep the Julian Easter may celebrate it on a different Sunday.

☸️ Buddhist. The full-moon days come from the Panchang for your city; Buddha Purnima is Vaishakha Purnima, as observed in India. Theravada countries such as Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Thailand use their own lunar calendars and may keep Vesak on another full moon; Tibetan Losar follows the Tibetan calendar and is not shown.

🔥 Parsi. Most Parsis in India follow the Shahenshahi calendar: twelve months of 30 days and five Gatha days, 365 days with no leap day, so Navroz comes a day earlier every four years. Irani Zoroastrians follow the Kadmi calendar (a month earlier), and the Fasli calendar keeps Navroz on 21 March — Jamshedi Navroz, celebrated by all.

This page shows only the main festivals of each faith — open a faith above for all its days.