17th August 2026
Rastafarian
Marcus Garvey’s birthday is celebrated by Rastafarians on August 17th, the day he was born in 1887. This date is significant because Garvey is viewed as a prophet and leader who inspired the Back to Africa movement, a key component of Rastafarian ideology.
20th August 2026 Zoroastrian (Shenshai)
26th March 2026 Zoroastrian (Iranian)
21st July 2026 Zoroastrian (Kadmi)
The Birthday of Zarathushtra, one of the most important Zoroastrian festivals. Khordad means perfection and although the actual date of his birth cannot be accurately identified, the festival of Khordad Sal symbolically celebrates the birthday of Prophet Zarathushtra and falls on the sixth day following NoRuz.
Khordad means perfection, and it is customary on this day to visit the Fire Temple to give thanks to Ahura Mazda, the Persian name for the one God, for giving humanity the ideal gift of the Prophet Zarathushtra. His followers participate in a jashan or thanksgiving ceremony; listen to stories of his miraculous birth and life; and then celebrate with a lavish community meal, a drink and a dance.
On Khordad Sal Parsis clean their houses, hang torans of fresh flowers in the doorways, and create designs made of chalk on the floors (called rangoli). They wear new clothes, cook traditional foods, exchange gifts and salute each other with the greeting: Khordad Sal Mubarak!. Prayers are offered and are followed by festive parties to give thanks for and celebrate the soul that evinced a philosophy of life that is both giving and fulfilling.
Zarathustra’s ideas (monotheism tempered by belief in the Devil, the struggle between Good and Evil, a final judgement) greatly influenced today’s major world religions, particularly Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the Baha’i tradition. The Zoroastrian faith has endured many hardships, the most significant being the invasion into Iran by Alexander and later, the Arab conquest of Iran. Though greatly diminished in numbers, Zarathustra’s followers have continued to honour his revolutionary teachings for over 3000 years.
Parsi families come together during the festivities that are put on during Khordad Sal – if families are unable to be together then prayers are offered for those who are not in attendance. It is an important celebration for the Parsi community, and because family (and community) is central to the themes of Zoroastrianism, guests are invited to participate in the festivities. Parsis also take the time during Khordad Sal to be introspective. They look at ways in which they can improve the lives of others and themselves.
27th August 2026
Buddhist (Chinese)
Chinese Buddhist and ancestral festival, often called the ‘Festival of Hungry Ghosts’. Paper objects for use in the spirit world are made and offered to aid those spirits who have no resting place or descendants. Large paper boats are made and burnt at temples to help these spirits on their journey across the sea of torment to Nirvana.
Buddhists and Taoists participate in rituals throughout the Hungry Ghost Month but particularly on the Hungry Ghost Festival. It is thought that the gates of hell are open throughout the Hungry Ghost Month, but that they are most open on this night. It is believed hungry and wayward ghosts often come to visit the living.
Many believers refrain from going out after the dark for fear they may encounter a ghost. They are also extra cautious near water as the ghosts of people who die by drowning are considered particularly troublesome, especially when they wander around the living world.
The Hungry Ghost Festival often begins with a parade where decorated lanterns in various shapes, including boats and houses, are placed on decorated floats. The paper lanterns are then carried to the water, lit, and released. The glowing lanterns and boats are meant to give directions to lost souls and help ghosts and deities find their way to the food offerings. The paper lanterns eventually catch fire and sink.
At some Hungry Ghost festivals, as Keelung in Taiwan, a Chinese character of a family’s last name is placed on the lantern that the family has sponsored. It is believed the further the lantern floats on the water, the more good fortune the family will have in the coming year.
Offering food and support to ancestors and their spirits brings fulfilment, both to those who perform it and to those whose role is to be recipients of it.
9th August 2026
Jain
28th August 2026
Hindu
This festival takes place on the full moon of the month of Shravana. Raksha means ‘protection’ and bandhan means ‘to tie’. Girls and married women in families which come from a north Indian background tie a rakhi (amulet) on the right wrists of their brothers, wishing them protection from all sorts of evil influences of various kinds. The brothers in return promise to protect their sisters and offer them gifts and sweets. This ritual not only strengthens the bond of love between brothers and sisters, but also reinforces the unity of the family.
Rakhis are traditionally simple, colourful bracelets made of interwoven red and gold threads. Some of them feature precious silk, beautifully crafted with gold and silver threads, embroidered with sequins and studded with semi-precious stones.
The key to understanding Raksha Bandhan is to know that it is marked by happiness and excitement, especially for young girls and women. Preparations for the festival begin well in advance. Then, on the Raksha Bandhan day, the festivities start at day break. Everyone is ready early and they gather for the worship of the deities. After invoking the blessings of the gods, the sister performs ‘brother’s arti‘, puts a tika on his forehead and ties her rakhi amidst the chanting of mantras. Then she gives him sweets and gifts. The brother accepts her offerings and vows to take care of her and be by her side in the time of her need. As a token he gives the sister a return gift and sweets. The family reunion itself is sufficient reason for celebrations, marked by . Tasty dishes, sweets, gifts, song and dance.
This is a universal opportunity for reunion and celebration. People exchange gifts and share exotic dishes and wonderful sweets. For those who are not able to meet each other, rakhi cards, e-rakhis and rakhis sent by post perform alternative ways of communicating the rakhi messages. Handmade rakhis are bought and sold, and homemade rakhi cards are increasingly frequent. It is typically a Hindu festival but nowadays people from different faiths celebrate it too.
No Hindu festival is complete without these typical Indian festivities, the gatherings, celebrations, exchange of sweets and gifts, lots of noise, singing and dancing. Raksha Bandhan has now become a regional celebration of just this sort to celebrate the sacred relationship between brothers and sisters. It is celebrated in different forms in different areas of India and is also known by different names. So. for example, in western Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa, Hindus offer coconuts to the sea god, Lord Varuna, and the festival is accordingly called Nariyal Purnima, coconut full-moon.
Throughout the country, but especially in north and western India, females tie rakhis around the wrists of boys and men who have no sisters. A man might acquire a sister who in every respect is such except in biological fact; or a woman may tie a rakhi around the wrist of her male first cousin who is without sisters. Indian texts are replete with the observation that men should look upon women as their sisters and mothers.
15th August 2026 Zoroastrian (Kadmi)
16th July 2026 Zoroastrian (Kadmi)
New Year’s Day on the Shenshai Calendar. In the tenth century a group of Zoroastrians fled from Iran and were given religious sanctuary by the Hindus of Western India, where they became known as Parsis (or Persians). During the twentieth century the Zoroastrians of Iran have revised their calendar to take account of the leap year, while the Parsis of India have continued following the traditional imperial or Shenshai calendar. By the twentieth century the Parsis of India had become the largest group in the world to practise Zoroastrianism, and in the twenty first century over 95% of Zoroastrians in the UK are Parsis. Like their Indian counterparts, they celebrate two new years – giving more time for making merry!
15th August 2026
Christian (Roman Catholic, Anglican)
Dormition of the Mother of God – Christian (Orthodox) Julian Calendar
On this day many Christians celebrate the ‘taking up’ of Mary, body and soul, to heaven. Several Catholic communities mark the festival of the Assumption with processions and fêtes.
On this day, Eastern Orthodox Christians commemorate the passing of Mary, Mother of Christ, in the presence of the Apostles. Miraculously brought together at her house, Mary told the Apostles of the reason for their gathering, and comforted them. She raised her hands to pray for peace for the world, and blessed each apostle before giving up her spirit. The apostles buried Mary at Gethsemane, where Jesus had also been buried; but on the third day after the burial, when they were eating together, Mary appeared to them, saying “Rejoice”. In this way, the apostles first learned that Mary’s body had been taken up into Heaven, where Christ had already taken her spirit. When the apostles went to the grave, her body was gone, leaving a sweet fragrance. The symbolism of this event encompasses the idea of death as ‘falling asleep’ (this is what ‘dormition’ means), to be followed by eventual resurrection.
13th -15th August 2026
Japanese (in Tokyo – for rest of Japan, see 13 July)
A Japanese festival when the spirits of the departed are welcomed back home with feasting and dancing. Fires are often lit to illuminate their arrival and departure. Celebrations in rural areas may take place one month earlier.
19th August 2026
Chinese
This Double Seven festival perpetuates an ancient Chinese (and Japanese) folk tale of two stars, one on either side of the Heavenly River (the Milky Way). They are held to have been a herd boy and a heavenly weaving maid who had married but were then separated by a river (formed by the use of a magic hairpin) when the maid was summoned to return to heaven. The lovers are allowed a reunion once a year on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month, when a flock of magpies forms a bridge across the Heavenly River. But if it rains on that day, the river overflows and sweeps away the bridge, so preventing their meeting for a whole year. Women traditionally pray for clear skies on the night of the seventh day of the month.
There are several, varied versions of the story, most of them telling how the poor young farmer who looked after his herd of cows was taken to a lake where several women were bathing. He was told to steal the red clothing of the one who served a royal majesty by skilfully weaving clothes. The others fled but the weaver was promised the return of her clothes if she would marry the herd boy. After several happy years together she was forced to return to her heavenly home to continue her weaving, whereas he was trapped on the wrong side of the waters.
These legends portray and seek to explain several of the groupings of stars in the Milky Way, relating them to the various levels humans occupy in the social order and illustrating that the path to love is not always smooth.
6th August 2026 (Christian)
6th August 2026 (Orthodox Julian Calendar)
This festival commemorates the occasion when Jesus went up a mountain with three of his disciples, Peter, James and John; here, as his death approached, they saw in a vision how his face changed and his clothes became dazzling white; they witnessed him in conversation with Moses and Elijah, and heard a voice saying, ‘This is my own dear Son with whom I am pleased – listen to him’. For many Christians this account confirms the divine nature of Jesus.
For Orthodox Christians this is an especially important festival, pointing to Christ as both human and divine. Although Moses and Elijah had died centuries before, they could both live again in the presence of the Son of God, implying that a similar return to life can apply to all who face death.
Most scholars date the transfiguration of Jesus to the time of the Festival of Booths, the Jewish feast of God dwelling with his people. The celebration of the event in the Church became for Christians the New Testamental fulfilment of the Jewish feast of Sukkot in a way remarkably similar to the influence of the Jewish feasts of Passover and Pentecost on Christian celebrations.
The feast of the Transfiguration is currently observed on the 6th of August. The summer celebration of the feast lends itself well to the concept of transfiguration. The blessing on this day of grapes, as well as other fruits and vegetables, relates effectively to the paradisal view of God’s Kingdom where the whole earth will he transformed by the glory Jesus reveals here to his disciples.
The timing of the transfiguration is significant in the ministry of Jesus. Matthew 15:29 tells of the healing of the multitudes and the feeding of the 4000. This apparently prompted the Pharisees to wonder if Jesus was the Messiah, for they came to him asking for a sign (16:1ff). Jesus knew the disciples were harbouring the same expectations of him (cf. Luke 22:37-38 and Acts 1:6), and posed the famous question ‘But who do you say that I am?’
Peter’s answer in Matthew 16:16 was a great break-through, and Jesus commended Peter for it (v.17). He wanted his disciples to believe that he was the Son of God, the Messiah. Then, immediately after Peter’s confession, Jesus announced, for the first time in an explicit way, his coming death and resurrection (Matt. 16:21), indicating the nature of his Messiahship.
It is in this context of this discovery made by the disciples that the transfiguration story falls. Six days went by after Peter’s confrontation with Jesus. Then he took Peter, James, and John up ‘to a high mountain’ (possibly Mount Tabor?) where they witnessed a wonderful sight: Jesus was glorified before their eyes. (Matt. 17:2).
Then there appeared Moses and Elijah. These two characters fit perfectly into this scene. Moses was the great lawgiver in Israelite history, but he was also the first of God’s great prophets (cf. Deut 18:14ff). Elijah was a great prophet too. Furthermore, both of them saw an appearance of God in their lifetimes (Moses: Exod 33:17ff; Elijah: 1 Kings 19:9ff), and both of these occurred on a mountain (Mt. Sinai). Both of them, like Jesus, had performed mighty works in the name of the Lord God of Israel, and both had experienced, to some degree, the rejection of their own people. These two characters have symbolic significance. Together they represent the Law and the Prophets, both of which pointed forwards to Jesus (cf. Rom. 3:21) and to his future suffering and exaltation.
Matthew 17:1-17, Mark 9:2-13 and Luke 9:28-36.
1st August 2026
Lammas/ Lughnasadh – Wiccan
Lughnasadh – Pagan
Lughnasadh, otherwise called Lammas, is the time of the corn harvest, when Pagans reap those things they have sown and when they celebrate the fruits of the mystery of Nature. At Lughnasadh, Pagans give thanks for the bounty of the Goddess as Queen of the Land. Lammas is the first harvest, a time for gathering in and giving thanks for abundance; then Mabon or the Autumn Equinox is the Second Harvest of Fruit; and Samhain is the third and Final Harvest of Nuts and Berries.
With the coming of Christianity to the Celtic lands, the old festival of Lughnasadh took on Christian symbolism. Loaves of bread were baked from the first of the harvested grain and placed on the church altar on the first Sunday of August. The Christianized name for the feast of Lughnasadh is Lammas which means “loaf mass”.
But this is also the major festival of Lugh, or Lug, the great Celtic Sun King and God of Light. August is His sacred month when He initiated great festivities in honour of His mother, Tailtiu. Feasting, market fairs, games and bonfire celebrations are the order of the day. Circle dancing, reflecting the movement of the sun in sympathetic magic, is popular, as are all community gatherings. August is considered an auspicious month for handfastings and weddings.
At Lammas the Goddess is in Her aspect as Grain Mother, Harvest Mother, Harvest Queen, Earth Mother, Ceres and Demeter. Demeter, as Corn Mother, represents the ripe corn of this year’s harvest and her daughter Persephone/Kore represents the grain – the seed which drops back deep into the dark earth, hidden throughout the winter, to reappear in the spring as new growth. So as the grain harvest is gathered in, there is food to feed the community through the winter and within that harvest is the seed of next year’s rebirth, regeneration and harvest. The Grain Mother is ripe and full; heavily pregnant she carries the seed of the new year’s Sun God within her. This is the deep core meaning of Lammas and evokes the fullness and fulfilment of the present harvest, holding at its heart the seed of all future harvests.
But underlying this is the knowledge that the bounty and energy of Lugh, of the Sun, is now beginning to wane. It is a time when the year changes and shifts. Active growth is slowing down and the darker days of winter and reflection are beckoning. There is tension here. For Lugh, the Sun God, the God of the Harvest, the Green Man, or John Barleycorn, surrenders his life with the cutting of the corn. In the form of John Barleycorn, he is the living Spirit of the corn, or grain. As the corn is cut so John Barleycorn is cut down also. He surrenders his life so that others may be sustained by the grain, and so that the life of the community can continue. He is both eaten as the bread and is then reborn as the seed returns to the earth.