Religious Holidays 2012: An Interfaith Calendar (Christian, Hindu, Jewish, Muslim And More) (PHOTOS)

Click through the slideshow to see a pictorial religious calendar for 2012 with photographs of celebrations of the world's numerous beautiful and sacred holidays:

We live in a beautiful diverse world, and almost each day of the year is a sacred time for someone, somewhere. HuffPost Religion is proud to present an interfaith, inclusive religious calendar for nine major world religions: Baha'i, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, Islam, Paganism, Shinto and Sikhism. We hope you will come to this page regularly to learn about the festivals of your religious tradition as well as your neighbors'.

Please note that, unless otherwise noted, Jewish holidays start at sundown and continue through sunset the next day. If this list does not include your sacred observance, please email [e-mail] with a brief description of the holiday so that we can add it here.

Click on each link for festivals and holy days of that religion.

Baha'i Holidays 2012
Buddhist Holidays 2012
Christian Holidays 2012
Hindu Holidays 2012
Jewish Holidays 2012
Muslim Holidays 2012
Pagan Holidays 2012
Shinto Holidays 2012
Sikh Holidays 2012

Baha'i Holidays 2012:
Jan 15 - World Religion Day
Mar 2-20: Baha'i Fast
Mar 20 - Nowruz (Baha'i, Zoroastrian, Iranian New Year)
Apr 21- May 2 - Ridván
May 29 - Ascension of Baha'u'llah
July 9 - The Martyrdom of the Bab
Oct 20 - Birth of the Bab
Nov 12 - Birth of Baha'u'llah

Buddhist Holidays 2012:
Jan 9-12: Mahayana New Year
Feb 8 - Nirvana Day
Apr 6 - Theravada New Year
May 5 - Wesak
Dec 8 - Bodhi Day

Christian Holidays 2012 (all denominations):
Jan 1 - Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God (Catholic)
Jan 1 - Feast of St. Basil (Orthodox Christian)
Jan 6 - Epiphany
Jan 6 - Feast of Theophany (Orthodox Christian)
Jan 6 - Nativity of Jesus (Armenian Orthodox)
Jan 7 - Christmas Day (Orthodox Christian)
Jan 20 - Timkat (Ethiopian Orthodox Christian)
Jan 25 - Conversion of St. Paul
Feb 2 - Candlemas
Feb 11 - Feast Day of Our Lady of Lourdes (Catholic)
Feb 22 - Ash Wednesday
Feb 27 - Clean Monday (Orthodox Christian)
Mar 17 - St. Patrick's Day (Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran)
Mar 25 - Annunciation
Apr 1 - Palm Sunday
Apr 5 - Maundy Thursday
Apr 6 - Good Friday
Apr 7 - Holy Saturday
Apr 8 - Easter (Protestant, Catholic)
Apr 15 - Easter (Orthodox Christian)
May 17 - Ascension of Christ
May 27 - Pentecost
June 3 - Trinity Sunday
Jun 7 - Corpus Christi (Catholic)
June 29 - St. Peter and St. Paul's Day
July 22 - Feast of Mary Magdalene
Aug 6 - Transfiguration of Jesus
Aug 15 - Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (Catholic)
Aug 15 - Dormition of the Theotokos (Orthodox Christian)
Sept 8 - Nativity of the Theotokos / Birth of Virgin Mary
Nov 1 - All Saints Day / All Hallows' Day
Nov 2 - All Souls' Day
Nov 15 - Nativity Fast starts
Dec 2 - Advent Sunday
Dec 8 - Feast of Immaculate Conception (Catholic)
Dec 12 - Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Dec 24 - Christmas Eve (Western Churches)
Dec 25 - Christmas Day (Western Churches)

Hindu Holidays 2012:
Jan 14 - Makar Sankranti / Pongal
Jan 28 - Saraswati Puja
Feb 20 - Shivratri
Mar 8 - Holi
Mar 23 - Ugadi
Apr 1 - Ram Navami
Apr 6- Hanuman Jayanti
Jul 3 - Guru Purunima
Aug 2 - Raksha Bandhan
Aug 10 - Janmasthami
Aug 29 - Onam
Sept 23 - Radhasthami
Oct 16-24 - Navratri
Oct 21-24 - Durga Puja
Oct. 24 - Dussehra
Nov 13 -17 - Diwali (Hindu, Jain)

Jewish Holidays 2012:
Feb 7 - Tu B'Shevat
Mar 7 - Purim
Apr 6-13 - Passover
May 26-27 - Shavuot
July 28 - Tisha B'Av
Sept 16-18 - Rosh Hashanah
Sept 25-26 - Yom Kippur
Sept 30 - Oct 7 - Sukkot
Oct 8 - Simchat Torah
Dec 8-16 Hanukkah

Muslim Holidays 2012:
Feb 3 - Mawlid al-Nabi
July 20 - Ramadan Starts
Aug 14 - Lailat al Qadr
Aug 19 - Eid-ul-Fitr
Oct 26 - Eid-ul-Adha
Nov 15 - Al-Hijira (Islamic New Year)
Nov 24 - Ashura

Pagan Holidays 2012:
Feb 2 - Imbolc
Mar 20 - Spring Equinox
May 1 - Beltane
June 20 - Summer Solstice
Aug 1 - Lughnasadh (Lamamas)
Sept 22 - Autumn Equinox
Oct 31 - Samhain
Dec 21 - Winter Solstice (Yule)

Shinto Holidays 2012:
Jan 1 - Gantan-Sai
Feb 3 - Setsubun

Sikh Holidays 2012:
Jan 5 - Guru Gobind Singh Jayanti
Jan 13 - Lohri
Jan 28 - Vasant Panchami
Mar 9 - Hola Mohalla
Apr 13 - Vaisakhi
Nov 13 - Bandi Chhor Divas
Nov 24 - Martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur
Nov 28 - Birthday of Guru Nanak

Comments

[Sheryled]

10:10 PM on 12/12/2012

Missed Festivus for the Rest of Us

[Gayle Sprague ODonnell]

01:03 PM on 12/04/2012

As much as I appreciate the idea behind this calendar, it seems it would have been more helpful to post the calendar for 2013 since 2012 is over in 27 days. Are these calendars actually for 2013 and someone just screwed up what it says?

[Bret Bennett]

11:22 AM on 09/27/2012

Thank you for such a wonderful service!

[Noury Rouhipour]

04:42 PM on 06/15/2012

Hello Dear Sir, In Baha'i religion holydays list ,you miss one of the holyday and it is May. 23.
The Declaration of Bab.
Thank you very much .
N. Rouhipour

[Inannawhimsey]

07:07 AM on 06/15/2012

so many ways that people have of celebrating life :3

[ruths]

08:17 PM on 06/02/2012

Thank you for such a wonderful service!

[EclecticWarrioress]

11:24 AM on 05/01/2012

Happy Beltane and blessings all around!!!

[mustbelove]

12:06 PM on 04/21/2012

Still hoping Starhawk, Zsuzsana Budapest or some other talented pagan will start blogging here. :)

[Karima Nur]

05:40 PM on 03/29/2012

The Wheel of the Year website is really helpful with interfaith holidays/holy days.

[byteb]

10:20 AM on 03/20/2012

Blessed Ostara! Ithink it's sad that while covering so many stories on so many faiths, HuffPost ignores its Pagan readers with no mention of the Spring Equinox as part of the cycle celebrated by earth-based religions.

[Karima Nur]

05:38 PM on 03/29/2012

I've noticed they aren't represented. Maybe get someone like Starhawk or Zsuzsana Budapest to contribute here.

Blessed Ostara!

[ruths]

01:41 PM on 02/09/2012

This is wonderful, a calendar showing all religious holidays. Thank you for posting this! Very good.

[season555]

02:04 PM on 02/01/2012

Liked many of the pictures:

O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a male and a female, and made you into nations and tribes, that ye may know each other (not that ye may despise (each other). Verily the most honoured of you in the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of you. And God has full knowledge and is well acquainted (with all things) Surah al-Hujurat (49:13)

By the way worshiping any grave even prophet Muhammed's is SHIRK. n Islam, shirk is the sin of idolatry or polytheism. i.e. the deification or worship of anyone or anything other than the singular God, or more literally the establishment of "partners" placed beside God
Within Islam, shirk is an unforgivable crime; God may forgive any sin except for committing shirk.

Hazrat Abu Abu Bakr said : Anyone amongst you used to worship Muhammad, then Muhammad has passed away, but if (anyone of) you used to worship Allah, then Allah is Alive and shall never die.

So to create a copy of the Prophet's grave and worship it is NOT ISLAM.

[Acorn Tree]

03:45 PM on 03/15/2012

you say knowledge is power but it seems like you are guided by hate.

[Karima Nur]

05:54 PM on 03/29/2012

I watched a very interesting talk on Youtube this afternoon. The author showed the connections Islam has to the Ancient Egyptian world and their deities. He said Hagar may very well have been an Egyptian Priestess who served and a bunch of other really amazing connections.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDF52350A20F77023

I am a Sufi and I know it is a Sufi belief that every word in Quran has many meanings. This proved that to me. Dua Netjer!

Many pagans believe God being ultimately unknowable, but revealing Itself in a myriad of ways. In this way the 99 Names of God are qualities very similar to the way Netjer also reveals itself by qualities.

[Bertrand T Russell]

10:12 AM on 01/16/2012

Good shopping days..... all of them!

[Jill Press]

11:08 AM on 01/16/2012

Re: good shopping days: I saw a tv commercial advertising the "Sears MLK Sales Event." Dr. King has been promoted from being a mere champion of freedom and justice to a sales pitch.

[GraniteSkyline]

07:29 PM on 01/14/2012

Happy Timkat everyone!
[whatever that is.]

[illiezeulette]

07:16 PM on 01/12/2012

I have no idea why Pagan religions are lumped together. They are SO different. These eight festivals belong to only a small amount of Pagan, Neo-Pagan, and Indigenous European Reconstructionist religions. For example, Odinists, Asatruar, the Theodish, the cultus deorum Romanorum, and others definitely do not celebrate Samhain. Pagan traditions are as unique from one another as Christianity is from Islam and Hinduism.

[LintLass]

07:41 PM on 01/20/2012

Well, that list is inclusive of the major ones commonly-celebrated, (even if Heathens don't celebrate all of them, or dates may vary. ) The diversity's obviously out there, but apart from very specific traditions with their own calendars, it does seem to be about as generic a list as could be managed for interfaith purposes.

[illiezeulette]

07:56 PM on 01/20/2012

I respectfully disagree. It's like saying Abrahamics celebrate Hannukah. Correctly, Jews do, but Christians and Muslims don't. It's not generic; it's misrepresentational. And to suggest that they are commonly celebrated--sure, many non-Abrahamics have festivals on the same days (winter solstice, for example), but they go by very different names and have different practices and different myths for them. It's as absurd as saying Christmas is another name for Saturnalia. Of course I am grateful for an attempt at inclusion, but I think that they should do it correctly if they are going to do it at all.

[illiezeulette]

07:57 PM on 01/20/2012

And by Saturnalia, I meant Sol Invictus. Whoopsie. (:

[dragondancer1814]

01:04 PM on 02/04/2012

Well, all the different Christian sects are lumped together as well, and there are as many varieties of them as there are Pagan religions.

[illiezeulette]

02:54 PM on 02/04/2012

Except that HuffPost made a big effort to separate the Christian traditions in this slideshow, and many of them celebrate the same holiday (though perhaps on different days). They made NO effort to separate Pagan groups, which truly have little to no unifying body of holidays (in terms of traditions). If we have a holiday on the same day, you can bet that it's called something different by each tradition, celebrated for different reasons, a different way of celebrating, etc. that it might as well be on a different day. Quite a large number of us aren't generic Wicca or Celtic-flavored NeoPagans, so it doesn't really make sense to say that Pagans celebrate X holiday because a huge number of us don't.