14th April 2026
Hindu
Tamil New Year also known as Puthandu is the first day of year on the Tamil calendar that is traditionally celebrated as a festival by Tamils in Sri Lanka – the festival date is set with the solar cycle of the solar Hindi calendar as the first day of the month of Chittirai.
29th April 2026
Baha’i
The most important Baha’i festival. In these 12 days, in the garden outside Baghdad after which the festival is named, Baha’u’llah declared himself the Promised One, prophesied by the Bab. The first, ninth and twelfth days are especially significant and are holy days, when no work is done. It is during this period that Baha’is elect all their governing bodies.
21st April 2026
Rastafari
Groundation Day, or Grounation Day, is a significant holy day in Rastafari, celebrated on April 21st. It commemorates Haile Selassie’s visit to Jamaica in 1966, which is considered a pivotal moment in the development of the Rastafari movement. This day is often celebrated with Nyabingi sessions, including music, chanting, and prayer. It is the second most important holiday in the Rastafari calendar, after Coronation Day, which celebrates Haile Selassie’s coronation.
29th April 2026
Japanese
This is a public holiday in Japan and celebrates the birthday of Emperor Hirohito the reigning emperor from 1926-1989. Sho means shining or bright and Wa means peace.
12th April 2026
Rastafarian and Christian Orthodox
Easter Day is the most important festival of the Christian year, as it is when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus. Many Easter traditions, such as the giving of chocolate Easter eggs symbolise the gift of new life.
Matthew 28:1-11, Mark 16:1-10, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-10.
2nd – 9th April 2026
Jewish
This major Jewish festival lasts eight days and commemorates the liberation of the Children of Israel and their Exodus from slavery in Egypt. The highlight is the Seder meal, held in each family’s home at the beginning of the festival, when the story of their deliverance is recounted, as narrated in the Haggadah (the Telling, or the Story). Matzah, (unleavened bread) is eaten throughout the festival, as are other foods that contain no leaven (yeast). There is a major spring cleaning in the home shortly before the festival to ensure that no trace of leaven is left in the house during Pesach. Coconut pyramids and matza balls (which are put in soups) are foods that might be eaten at this time.
Marking the key events in Jewish history is part of the Jewish calendar’s annual programme. Right at the heart of Jewish history is the Exodus with its theme of God’s unconditional relationship with his chosen people. A relationship that does not preclude suffering but eventually demonstrates both God’s power and His continuing commitment to his people. As a result of the regular telling of the story of slavery and freedom, Jews are called upon (more than 30 times in the Torah) to remember the stranger ‘because you were strangers in Egypt’. This sense of having been a slave people and a migrant people is central to Jewish consciousness and is recalled daily in Jewish liturgy and weekly in the practice of Shabbat.
Exodus 7-12.
NB The first two days and the last two days are full festival days when, for Orthodox Jews, work is not permitted.
3rd April 2026
Christian (Western Churches)
This day commemorates the crucifixion of Jesus. Although essentially a sombre day, it is called ‘Good Friday’ since, for Christians, it is ‘God’s Friday’, and recalls how Jesus chose to give up his life for others. To Christians, the day is not just a historical event but commemorates the sacrificial death of Jesus, which, along with the resurrection, comprises the heart of the Christian faith.
Church services recall the account of Jesus’ death as given in the gospels. Jesus was questioned, beaten, and sentenced to death by the Roman governor Pontius Pilate. Soldiers placed a crown of thorns on his head with a sign that read ‘The King of the Jews’, and stripped him of his clothing. He was led to a place called Golgotha, where they nailed him to a cross along with two other criminals. He died on the cross that afternoon and was laid in a donated tomb, buried according to custom.
The celebration of Good Friday stems from ancient times. According to Egeria, writing in a 4th century letter to her ‘sisters’, Christians in Jerusalem spent Good Friday at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a large compound of courtyards and chapels built over the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. In the morning they engaged in the Veneration of the Cross. From noon to three in the afternoon they attended a series of Bible readings, including the Passion story.
For Christians today, there is no Mass or Eucharist on Good Friday. Communion, if taken, comes from hosts consecrated on Holy Thursday. The major Good Friday worship service begins in the afternoon at 3:00 PM (the time Jesus is said to have died). It consists of seven sermons on the seven last words of Jesus. This service has become popular in many Protestant churches.
The Veneration of the Cross is another frequent practice, when Christians approach a wooden cross and venerate it, often by kneeling before it, or kissing part of it. On Good Friday many churches also celebrate the ‘Stations of the Cross’ (often called the ‘Way of the Cross’), a devotion in which fourteen events surrounding the death of Jesus are commemorated.
The Eastern Churches have different customs for the day they call ‘Great Friday’. Evening Prayer ends with a solemn veneration of the epitaphion, an embroidered veil containing scenes of Christ’s burial. Compline (Night Prayer) includes a lamentation as from the Virgin Mary. On Good Friday night, a symbolic burial of Christ is performed. In Russian Orthodox churches a silver coffin is placed in the church for the faithful to venerate the image of Jesus painted on the winding sheet or shroud.
The Church – stripped of its ornaments, the altar bare, and with the door of the empty tabernacle standing open – is as if it is in mourning. The organ is silent from Holy Thursday until the Alleluia at the Easter Vigil, as are all Church bells and other instruments, the only music during this period being an unaccompanied chant. Traditionally Good Friday was the day when everything was cleaned and whitewashed in preparation for Easter Sunday, but churches are not decorated on Good Friday – in some, pictures and statues are covered over. It is indeed a time of mourning.
Good Friday is an official fast day within the Roman Catholic Church. Fasting means eating only one (meatless) meal on this day. (Fish rather than meat is eaten on all Fridays). Hot cross buns, said to have originated at St Alban’s Abbey in 1361, are particularly associated with Good Friday.
The sacramental ‘mark’ of the cross is important to Catholic people to this day. They are anointed with it, at baptism and at confirmation, and the sign is used at the ordination of a priest or bishop. In the sacrament of the sick the priest anoints the person with the sign of the cross made with oil; and, on Ash Wednesday, foreheads are marked with the sign of the cross made with palm ashes.
The most common cross for Catholics is a crucifix – a cross with the image of Christ’s body nailed to it. Crucifixes are found in all Roman Catholic churches and chapels and are regularly carried in liturgical processions. This image is venerated by the faithful in a special ceremony on Good Friday.
Matthew 27:32-34, Mark 15:21-32, Luke 23:26-43, John 19:17-27.
4th April 2026
Christian (Western Churches)
This is the last day of Lent. Special services involving the lighting of the Paschal Candle and the renewal of baptismal vows take place in the evening in preparation for Easter.
5th April 2026
Christian (Western Churches)
Easter Day is the most important festival of the Christian year, since this is when Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus three days after his death by crucifixion in Jerusalem over 2000 years ago. For Christians, Easter is a day marked by special religious services and the gathering of family members together. Easter Candles are lit in churches on the eve of Easter Sunday, as a resurrection symbol of Christ as the light of the world, though some believe that these may have originated in the Pagan customs of lighting bonfires to welcome the rebirth/resurrection of the sun God.
Theologians of all Christian traditions regard Easter as the lynchpin of Christian belief, and view faith in the resurrection of Jesus as the determining factor in assessing orthodoxy. The annual rejoicing that ‘Christ is risen; He is risen indeed!’ is common to Eastern and Western traditions alike throughout the world.
Easter and the Jewish Passover are closely related, especially in the complex method of fixing the date of Easter. The resurrection of Jesus took place during the Passover. Christians of the Eastern church initially celebrated both holidays together, but the Passover can fall on any day of the week, and Christians of the Western church preferred to celebrate Easter on Sunday, the day of the resurrection.
The name Easter comes from Eostre (pronounced yo’ster), an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honour. Some Easter customs have come from this and other pre-Christian spring festivals.
The Easter Bunny, a popular image of the festival, originated with the hare, an ancient symbol for the moon. According to legend, the bunny was originally a large, handsome bird belonging to Eostre, the Goddess of Spring. (Eostre is also known as Ostara, a Goddess of fertility who is celebrated at the time of the Spring equinox.) Eostre ‘resurrected’ the bird into a rabbit, which may explain why the Easter bunny builds a nest and fills it with (coloured) eggs. The first edible Easter bunnies were created in Germany during the early 1800s, made of pastry and sugar.
The white lily as a symbol of the resurrection and of purity has become the typical Easter flower. The Madonna lily was used for years as the Easter lily, but it often failed to bloom in time for Easter, and so the Bermuda, or white trumpet, lily is often used instead.
The egg is another popular symbol of Easter. Eggs were dyed and eaten during spring festivals in ancient Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome. Coloured eggs were not, however, associated with Easter until the 15th century. Many churches today follow old traditions of colouring hard-boiled eggs and giving children little chocolate eggs as symbols of the resurrection.
Matthew 28:1-11, Mark 16:1-10, Luke 24:1-12, John 20:1-10.
5th April 2026
Chinese
This is the first occasion in the year when Chinese visit their family tombs. After sweeping the tombstones, people offer food, flowers and paper replicas of favourite items dear to the dead, such as a telephone, a car or a house; they then burn incense and paper money and bow before the memorial tablets. In Chinese culture, even though a person has died, he/she may still have need of these. This practice reflects a form of belief and care for their deceased family members, who still survive in some way in the after life.
Families make a special effort to come together and to return to the family graveyard on this occasion. Many people picnic by the grave to ‘join’ the ancestors in the feast. No food is cooked on this day and only cold meals are served. There should always be an even number of dishes put in front of the grave, along with a bowl of rice with an upright incense stick. Then family members start taking turns to bow before the tombs of the ancestors, starting with the most senior members of the family.
The festival is also one of the 24 seasonal division points in China, and falls on April 4-6 each year. In contrast to the solemnity of the tomb sweepers, people also enjoy the hope of Spring, since the Qingming Festival is a time when the sun shines brightly, the trees and grass become green and nature is lively once more. It is the high time for spring ploughing and sowing. Since ancient times, people have followed the custom of Spring outings.
People love to fly extravagant kites during the ‘Festival of Pure Brightness. Many people fly kites not only during the day, but also – and especially – at night. A string of little lanterns tied onto the kite or its tail look like shining stars, and therefore are called ‘god’s lanterns’.
Respect for the dead and also for the elderly has long been a feature of Chinese practice, belief and culture. This annual family meeting at the tombs is a time of solemnity but not sadness, and enshrines a message of hope for a brighter future ahead.