30th September 2025
Hindu
Durgashtami, also known as Durga Ashtami or Maha Ashtami, is the eighth day of the Navratri festival celebrated by Hindus in honor of Goddess Durga. It holds significant religious and cultural importance, particularly in Eastern India, where it is a crucial part of the five-day Durga Puja festival
28th September 2025
Chinese
Confucius was born in the 22nd year of the reign of Duke Xiang of Lu (551 BCE). The traditional claim that he was born on the 27th day of the eighth lunar month has been questioned by historians, but September 28 is still widely observed in East Asia as Confucius’s birthday.
Confucius was a Chinese philosopher, poet and politician of the Spring and Autumn period who was traditionally considered the paragon of Chinese sages. Confucius’s teachings and philosophy formed the basis of East Asian culture and society, and continues to remain influential across China and East Asia as of today.
6th September 2025
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.
Around 21st September 2025 – Dates vary
Christian (Western, Anglican and Free Churches)
Special services are held around this time of year to give thanks for the goodness of God’s gifts in providing a harvest of crops along with all the other fruits of society. Displays of produce are often made, usually distributed afterwards to those in need. Increasingly the emphasis is on a wider interpretation than just the harvests of the fields and seas.
1st September 2025
Sikhi
Amritsar 1604 CE
In 1604 CE, in the place of worship where the Golden Temple now stands, Guru Arjan Dev, the Sikhs’ fifth Guru, installed the Adi Granth, a newly compiled volume of scripture. It consisted of the hymns of the first five Gurus plus those of other Indian and Persian ‘saint-poets’ from the Hindu and Muslim traditions. After the selections were made, the Guru dictated the hymns to Bhai Gurdas, who wrote down the words and music of the Adi Granth. Guru Arjan later suffered a martyr’s death, preferring to save his life rather than make alterations to the hymns, as required by Emperor Jahangir.
Having compiled the Granth, the Guru placed it in the newly-built Harmandir Sahib (Golden Temple) in Amritsar. He nominated Bhai Buddha as the custodian of the Granth. The Guru bowed before the collection, acknowledging the higher authority of the written words to the personal importance and significance which he possessed as Guru. After this time, he no longer sat at a level above the Granth, but below it. He also instituted daily public worship at the Harmandir Sahib, where the Granth was recited all day long to the accompaniment of stringed musical instruments.
The second version of the Granth was prepared by Guru Gobind Singh in 1706 CE. He dictated the entire Guru Granth Sahib from memory to Bhai Mani Singh, re-editing the Adi Granth to the form in which it is found today. He removed several unauthenticated writings and added four hymns for evening prayers and several from his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur. Otherwise, the Granth was left as it was before in the days of Guru Arjan. Sikhs regard the Guru Granth Sahib as their living Guru – hence the importance of this celebration. Since his day the Guru Granth Sahib consists of 1430 pages and 5864 verses. Its spiritual teachings are referred to as bani or gurbani.
In all gurdwaras and many Sikh homes, the Guru Granth Sahib is read every day. No Sikh ceremony is regarded as complete unless it is performed in the presence of the Granth. Sikhs frequently receive a hukam or divine order through one of the hymns chosen at random from the left hand pages of the Guru Granth Sahib. Similarly, at the end of a service, after the ardas prayers, the Granth is opened at random and a portion is read. On special occasions, the Guru Granth Sahib is recited non-stop from cover to cover by a string of readers. It requires nearly 48 hours to complete the continuous reading, which is known as an akhand path. This can be performed on any important occasion, and is regarded as the highest and noblest ceremony in the Sikh religion.
The Guru Granth Sahib is a remarkable storehouse of spiritual knowledge and teachings which does not prescribe any rites or rituals but stresses meditation on the Name of God. Most of the hymns are addressed to God and often describe the devotee’s condition: his aspirations and yearning, his agony in separation and his longing to be with the Lord. There are no mythological narratives, although God is described in anthropomorphic terms, and the Gurus are not afraid to use the imagery of family relationships to describe the union of God and man. Whether in Temple, Gurdwara or home, the Guru Granth Sahib has become the focal point of all Sikh worship.
1st September 2025
Zoroastrian (Shenshai; Parsi)
On the day of Fravardin, the 19th day of the month of Fravardin, the first month of the year, Zoroastrians visit the vicinity of the Towers of Silence in India (or in the UK the Zoroastrian Cemetery in Brookwood, Surrey) to participate in a jashan ceremony in memory of the departed fravashis (guardian spirits and souls of the community). Sacred food is prepared as an offering to the departed during the jashan and is later shared by the participants.
23rd – 24th September 2025
Jewish
(New Year’s Day, 5780 years from the creation of the world). Rosh Hashanah marks the beginning of ten days of repentance and self examination, during which God sits in personal judgment on every individual. The blowing of the ram’s horn (shofar) in the synagogue is a reminder of Abraham’s sacrifice of a ram instead of his son, Isaac. Apples dipped in honey are eaten in the hope of a ‘sweet’ new year. The greeting is ‘Leshanah Tovah Tikatev’ (may you be inscribed for a good year).
The sequence of repentance that Rosh Hashanah starts accentuates the Jewish conviction that God forgives the sincere penitent – that He is a merciful judge. While that does not relieve each person of the responsibility to accept the consequences – including punishment – for their actions, it means that Jews do not see people as essentially ‘sinners’, merely ‘people who inevitably sin and must repent’. The mood is solemn in synagogue, but it is not sad at all. Everyone present knows that this happens every year, but that does not relieve them of the need to try again. At the same time, the haunting notes of the shofar make the festival somehow timeless and simple. Unlike many other Jewish festivals, there are very few practices or customs associated with the day, though it is very widely observed and families frequently travel long distances to gather for the festive meals.
Genesis 22, Leviticus 23:24-25.
11th September 2025
Rastafari
Ethiopian families love to celebrate their New Year, which they call Enqutatash, ‘gift of jewels’, with presents and visits. They celebrate a four year cycle, in which each year is named after an evangelist. It is claimed that the Queen of Sheba was in fact an Ethiopian, and that when she returned from her visit to King Solomon, her chiefs welcomed her back by replenishing her treasury with enku, ‘jewels’.
Rastafarians throughout the world honour it too. It is a spring festival that has been celebrated since early times, and the cessation of the rains marks a month of transition from the old year to the new. Early in the morning everybody goes to Church wearing traditional Ethiopian clothing. Afterwards there is a family meal of injera (flat bread) and wat (stew). Children dance through the villages dressed in their new clothes at this time, and in the evening households light bonfires as the focus for much singing and dancing. Girls go from house to house handing out bouquets and singing songs, and boys sell pictures that they have painted so that they will have sufficient money to buy presents for members of their families.
21st – 25th September 2025 Higan
23rd September 2025 Shun No Hi
23rd September 2025 Buddhist
Japanese
This celebration marks the autumn equinox for Japanese people. As at the spring equinox, harmony and balance are the themes; sutras are recited and the graves of relatives are visited. September 22 is the equinox, the 24-hour period when day and night are the same length, the beginning of Autumn. On this day the sun shines at the equator for 12 hours. On the next day, days begin to become shorter than nights in the Northern Hemisphere.
In the past, the autumnal equinox in Japan was called shuki–koureisai (the autumn festival of the Emperor’s spirits). On this day, the emperor worshipped his ancestors by himself. Nowadays it is called Shuubun-no-hi and is a national holiday. It is the middle day of higan, a seven day period when the people of Japan commemorate their ancestors. Memorial services often take place at Buddhist temples, and many people visit their family’s graves with offerings of rice cakes, flowers, incense sticks, and offer prayers to comfort the spirits of their ancestors. Although Buddhism is common in India and China, these countries have no similar custom.
Higan has Buddhist origins. It literally means the “other side of the river of death”. The two sides of the river represent the worlds of life and death. During these days, Japanese families honour and pray for the repose of their deceased ancestors. This is different from Obon where the spirits of the dead are said to visit the houses of their relatives. At this time of year, living relatives are the ones who visit graves. They clean the tombs and offer prayers and flowers. They also burn incense sticks and offer sweet rice balls called Ohagi.
Higan, for Buddhists, is a good time to focus on the 6 Perfections: Dana (generosity), Sila (virtue), Ksanti (patience), Virya (effort), Dhyana (meditation, also ‘zen’), and Prajna (wisdom). Just as the worlds of death and life are separated by a river, so the Buddhists believe the 6 Perfections will be the bridge to cross from this life to Nirvana.
22nd September 2025
(MABON) Wiccan Pagan
(Alban Elued or Alban Elfed) Druid
Day and night stand hand in hand as equals. As the shadows lengthen, Pagans see the darker faces of the God and Goddess. For many Pagans, this rite honours old age and the approach of Winter.