Easter is the most important festival in the Christian calendar. 
It is the commemoration of Jesus’s death and his rising from the dead, also known as the resurrection. It comes at the end of Lent. The week leading up to it is called Holy Week. Christianity tells us that Jesus was crucified on the cross and died on Good Friday. He was rose from the dead on Sunday, known as Easter Day. But, as the West has become more secular, for some, Easter has become a time to celebrate with chocolate Easter Eggs and little religious ceremony. Bunnies (baby rabbits) are a symbol of Easter. Eggs and bunnies are symbols left over from pagan celbrations of Spring.
International Women’s Day is a global day to celebrate the economic, political and social achievements of women past, present and future. The first IWD was launched by a woman named Clara Zetkin (German) in 1911. In some places like China, Russia, Vietnam and Bulgaria, IWD is a national holiday. However, the plight of women and the hardship they still face in many countries is highlighted by many organisations – see below.
Global issues facing women include:
Females in developing countries on average carry 20 litres of water per day over 6 km
Globally, women account for the majority of people aged over 60 and over 80
Pregnant women in Africa are 180 times more likely to die than in Western Europe
530,000 women die in pregnancy or childbirth each year
Of 1.2 billion people living in poverty worldwide, 70% are women
80% of the world’s 27 million refugees are women
Women own around only 1% of the world’s land
AIDS sees women’s average life expectancy reduced to 43 in Uganda and Zambia
Women are 2/3 of the 1 billion+ illiterate adults who have no access to basic education
Read Fakhria Ibrahimi’s account of the plight of women in Afghanisaton
Official International Women’s Day site – see how you can help bring about change in the world.
Photograph by web/graphic designer Melanie Cook, used with permission. Thank you!
For us in the West, Valentine’s Day is the day that celebrates love. 
St. Valentine has become the patron saint of lovers and on this day we traditionally exchange messages of love, send poems and simple gifts such as chocolates and flowers to our beloved. Traditionally, these are sent anonomously – ‘From Your Valentine’ – which is thought to have come from the farewell note sent from St. Valentine to his gaoler’s daughter just before he was put to death. In the United States, Miss Esther Howland is given credit for sending the first valentine cards. Commercial valentines were introduced in the 1800′s and now the date is very commercialised. The colour Red, Roses and Hearts are the symbols tradtionally associated with this day. Read below for the full history of St. Valentine’s Day.
Read more.. »
Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated internationally on 
27th January each year. On this day in 1945 the Soviet Army liberated the largest Nazi concentration camp – Auschwitz-Birkenau – and the world began to truly understand what took place. When I was a teenager, I remember interviewing my local doctor – Dr. Norman - for a school project about the holocasut. Dr Norman was with the first contingent of the British military that entered the camp and he then had to travel to other concentration camps to make a report for the British Government. An experience that haunted him for the rest of his life. HMD Trust.
Louis Braille’s birth day. This day celebrates the contribution 
that Louis Braille has made to the lives of those who are blind, deafblind or living with vision loss. In 1829, Louis Braille published the Method of Writing Words, Music, and Plain Song by Means of Dots, for Use by the Blind and Arranged by Them. Today, this method – braille – is used in virtually every language as the standard form of reading and writing for the blind or poorly sighted. This has become the annual opportunity for blindness organizations to promote braille literacy, showcase their work and raise public awareness of blindness issues.
Thanksgiving is celebrated in the USA.
Thanksgiving Day is traditionally a time for giving thanks for the harvest, so is really harvest festival. However, in the US and Canada it is celebrated as THE holiday of the year, when everyone tries to get home to spend the day with relatives where a large festive meal with turkey is prepared. Even though Thanksgiving is religious in origin, it is identified as a secular holiday in the modern world. The location and date of the very first Thanksgiving celebration has been a topic of contention. The earliest attested celebration took place in 1565 at St. Augustine, Florida. However, the traditional one occurred in 1621 at Plymouth Plantation.
Find out more about Thanksgiving Day.
11th Hour, of the 11th Day , of the 11th Month.
Armistice & Veterans Day is commemorated, especially in Europe and North America, in rememberance of the ending of the First World War. 11am on November 11th was the date chosen to end formal hostilities. The day is now used to remember all those who have lost their lives during war times. Although not a public holiday in Europe, a one-minute silence is observed at 11am. The nearest Sunday to the 11th traditionally is Remembrance Sunday when town officials place wreaths of poppies on their town’s memorials.
In Poland, 11th November is a national holiday and, besides Remembrance Day, it celebrates Polish Independence Day. In the USA, if Veterans’ Day happens to fall on a Sunday, then the following Monday is declared a public holiday. This is considered to be one of the most important holidays in America. Comemorated in Italy on 4th November.
Read more about USA Veterans Day
Read more about Polish Independence Day
Halloween Day is celebrated as a festival around the world.
Especially celebrated by the younger generation, this festival of All Hallowes comes about as a practice followed among the Christian population and has its origins as a Pagan Celtic festival – Samhain. It’s celebrated the night before the Christian Festival of All Saints Day. Adults create laterns for their children made from large pumkins which have been made into ghoulish faces. Children play ‘trick or treat’.
However, in the Nordic countries this is the evening when friends and relatives who have died are remembered. People often go to the cemetary and place lit candles in the snow. The sight of hundreds of candles burning in the dark, illuminated by the white snow is quite a sight.
Find out more about Halloween
Find out more about All Saints Day
Hello, I'm Deborah Swallow and, for the last fifteen years, I've worked in over thirty countries addressing the complexities of people working internationally across multiple cultures, so individuals and organisations alike can gain an authentic competitive edge and win in international markets. 
