Red

Letter
Days



Here are
selected
red letter days
in partner
countries



















21 MARCH
NEVRUZ FESTIVAL


April 23 National Sovereignty and
Childrens Festival celebrated each year in
Turkey is a unique festival gathering the children
from all over the world under the motto of "Love,
Friendship and Peace".The 23rd April Childrens
Festival which was gifted to Turkish children by
Mustafa Kemal Atatrk, founder of the Republic of
Turkey, to emphasize that they are the future of the
new nation.

The festival has been celebrated internationally since 1979 ,
when UNESCO proclaimed as the International Year of the
Child. The Childrens Festival was first celebrated in Turkey
on 23 April 1920, when the Turkish Grand National Assembly
was opened. The Festival intends to contribute creation of a
world where children can live peacefully by developing
sentiments of fraternity, love and friendship
We celebrate 21 March , Nevruz festival with a big party,
performances including from poems, dances,games, songs ,
jumping over a fire, to painting the eggs, which are considered
symbols of renewal and fertility of the soil.








March 21 NEVRUZ FESTIVAL; One of the oldest
traditional spring festivals in Turkish world is Nevruz ; This
festival which has been celebrated for ancient time in
different names and in different rituals coincidences with
the date March, 21 in which the day-time and the night is
equal, according to the Turkish Calendar with 12 Animals.
According to Turkish mythology, Nevruz is the date when
Turks left from Ergenekon Valley and gained their
independence. Ergenekon is the name of a legendary valley
where the Turks were trapped for four centuries- until a
blacksmith created a passage by melting rock, allowing
them to leave from the valley.

We celebrate 23 April National Sovereignty and
Childrens day every year with a big party,
performances including poems, dances,games, songs .
PEACE AT HOME PEACE IN THE WORLD
ATATURK


We celebrate 21 March as a spring festival in
Turkey . Nevruz is the good news of a new day
and spring, of nature blossoming with all its
beauty and majesty, and for our people it is the
expression of a plentiful day. It symbolizes the
bountiful, fertile and lively characteristics of the
awakening nature as well as the values of love,
fraternity, sharing, peace and friendship. Nevruz
is the day Mother Nature starts breathing again
and turns green in an act of resurrection





6



The is a religious festivity to
celebrate the Wise Men that brought
gifts of Jesus . It is also traditional
festival for children : an ugly woman
brings presents to children. Our proverb
says: The Epiphany sweeps away all
the festival


25



to celebrate the end of World War II
and the LIBERATION of Italy from Nazi-
fascism


1



Its the oldest non-religious holiday. In
Italy it was celebrated the first time in
1891.
The Italian Constitution says : The
republic is based on work. So this is a
workers day

2




The Italian Republic was founded on 2
nd

June 1946.
The Italians chose the Republic instead
of the Monarchy in a referendum

15



Religious festival :The Assumption of
Virgin Mary in heaven This festivity has
its roots in the Roman Empire for the
birthday of imperator Augustus

1
NOVEMBER




We commemorate all the Saint of the
world . This day is also called
Memorial day

1
st
January - NEW YEAR DAY
EASTER EASTER MONDAY Angel
Monday
8
th
December
IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
25
th
December
CRHISTMAS
26
th
December SANTO STEFANO
The first martyr of Christianity





Some of our holidays and festivals are:
It is celebrated the week leading up to Lent. People dress up
and go out to the street to participate in parades. There are
also groups of people that sing satirical songs cheerfully
mocking politicians, celebrities
These events culminate in the traditional Burial of the
Sardine. This marks the beginning of Lent when formally
dressed mourners carry a cardboard sardine and it is
buried in its coffin.

Holy Week is the annual
commemoration of the Passion of
Jesus Christ celebrated by Catholic
religious brotherhoods and
fraternities that perform penance
processions on the streets of almost
every city and town during the last
week of Lent, the week immediately
before Easter.
In the processions, many marchers
wear clothes meant to depict the
Nazarenos, people from Nazareth.
The people who carry floats bearing
sculptures and models of biblical
scenes, called costaleros.


12th October is a national holiday in Spain. The
Hispanity Day is celebrated commemorating the
arrival of Christopher Columbus to America that
day in 1492. That was the beginning of the
"meeting of two worlds", which led to an exchange
of cultures, food, resources, etc. between Europe
and America.
It is celebrated with military processions held in
Madrid. It is also Saint Day for anyone called Pilar.

Holidays and festivals in Germany

Labour Day (Tag der Arbeit) 1
st
May

German Unity Day (Tag der Deutschen Einheit) 3
rd
October

Rose Monday (Rosenmontag) Monday before Ash Wednesday

This holiday was
established in 1933 as an
official state holiday. Today,
Berlin witnesses yearly
demonstrations and
celebrations on May Day,
the largest organized by
labour unions, political
parties and others.
National holiday since
1990, commemorating
German reunification on
that date.
On this day schools are closed and
people celebrate ending of the
carnival. Celebrations usually
include dressing up in fancy
costumes, dancing, parades and
general public displays with floats.
Usually sweets and tulips are
thrown into the crowd.
Red letter days celebrated in Wales

Dydd Santes Dwynwen - 25th January
Dydd Santes Dwynwen is considered to be the Welsh
equivalent to Valentine's Day and is celebrated on
25th January every year. It celebrates Dwynwen: she is the Welsh saint of
love.

Valentine's Day - 14th February
Saint Valentine's Day, also known as Valentine's Day or the Feast of
Saint Valentine, is a holiday observed on February 14th each year. It is
celebrated in many countries around the world, although it is not a
holiday in most of them.

Saint David's Day - 1st March
Saint David's Day, is the feast day of Saint David, the
patron saint of Wales, and falls on 1 March each year.
The first day of March was chosen in remembrance
of the death of Saint David. Tradition holds that he
died on that day in 569.The date was declared a national
day of celebration within Wales in the 18th century.

Halloween- 31st October
Halloween] is a yearly celebration observed in a number of countries on 31
October, the eve of the Western Christian feast of All Hallows' Day. It
initiates the triduum of Hallowmas, the time in the liturgical year dedicated
to remembering the dead, including saints (hallows), martyrs, and all the
faithful departed believers.

Guy Fawkes Night- 5th November
Guy Fawkes Night, also known as Guy Fawkes Day, Bonfire Night and
Firework Night, is an annual commemoration observed on 5 November,
primarily in Great Britain. Its history begins with the events of 5 November
1605, when Guy Fawkes, a member o the Gunpowder Plot, was arrested
while guarding explosives the plotters had placed beneath the House of
Lords.



Greek Red Letters Days

January 1
st
: Feast of St Basil. This is associated with a good
start for the New Year.

January 6
th
:Epiphany,the baptism of Jesus, is
celebrated throughout Greece when the Blessing
of the Waters takes place.

January 30
th
: The Three Holy Hierarchs. Commemoration of the
patron saints of education .

Clean Monday or Kathari Deftera 40 days before Easter,
marks the first day of lent and it is customary to go out
in the country and fly paper kites.


March 25
th
: Independence Day, is the Greek National
Anniversary and a major religious holiday. This
celebrates Greece's victory in the war of Independence
against the Ottomans who had occupied the country for
400 years.

Easter Sunday is the biggest church holiday in Greece.


May 1st or Protomagia, is Labor day and the Feast
of the Flowers.

August 15
th
: The day of the Panagia (Virgin Mary). This is
one of the biggest religious holidays and
especially on the island of Tinos this day is
celebrated like no other.


The 28
th
October is Ochi Day, celebrating the
Greek refusal to let Italy occupy the country during
WWII.

The 17
th
of November Polytechneio Day, is the anniversary
of the student uprising at the Polytechnic University in
Athens in 1973. The demonstrations against the military
dictatorship gained momentum and was crushed when tanks
broke down the gates of the university killing many
students.

Christmas celebration on the 25
th
of December is the second
most important religious holiday in Greece, after Easter.

Red letter days /Austria

New years day: On this day we celebrate the beginning oft he new year. At midnight we have mostly a big party
with champagne and a buffet. We share a collection of good luck charm. We say Prosit new year and
continue the party. The day itself is not so important- we are tired because of the party,but well have
sometimes a lunch together with the family and friends.



Twelfth day (6.1.): On this day children walk around looking like the three holy kings from bethlehem
Kaspar,Melchior and Balthazar and collect money for poor regions or por people. Thats the end of our
christmas time.



Easter Sunday/ Monday : On that day we celebrate the end of Easter-Easter begins on Holy Thursday with the
tradition to eat spinach, then Good Friday-we dont eat meat on that day and dont drink alcohol, it was a day
without cinema or theatre and on television without advertisment and comedies, now it isnt any more like
that.We celebrate the resurrection of Jesus.


Labour Day (1.5.): It is a free day with a big military show in Vienna and a march of the Social Democratic Party
of Austria.
Ascension (29.5.2014): This is a religious holy day and we celebrate it always on Thursday- when depends on
the moon.
Pentecost: A holy day celebrated on Sunday and Monday is celebrated because oft he spirit oft he pneuma.
Corpus Christi: It is celebrated with a procession carrying the Corpus Christi throught the street.
Ascension Day (15.8.)
National Day (26.10.): We celebrate the treaty after the Second World War.



All Hallows (1.11.) It is a day for the deceased: We go to the Cemetery to light candles.
( 8.12.) Conception Marias