Seasons, harvest and the calendar
Customs tied to a season, a harvest, a moon or a day of the week.
Seasonal and calendar traditions follow the turning of the year: the first thaw, the monsoon, the harvest, the longest night, the new moon. They also follow the days of the week, with Friday prayers, Sunday roast and Monday fasts. Because these customs are tied to nature and time, they appear almost everywhere, though each place names and keeps them in its own way. EveryParampara links them to the live calendar, so that you can see what is being kept today and what is coming in the year ahead.
Seasons and harvests
Farming societies marked the sowing, the first fruits and the harvest with offerings and feasts, and many of those festivals are still kept: Pongal, Chuseok, Thanksgiving, the New Yam Festival. Spring brings festivals of renewal, from Nowruz to Holi and Easter, and midwinter brings fire and light. In the tropics the rains rather than the temperature set the year, and festivals greet their arrival or their end.
Moons, weeks and days
Lunar calendars shape the dates of Ramadan, Lunar New Year, Vesak, Diwali and the Jewish festivals, so the dates move against the solar year. The week has its own rhythm, with a day of rest, a day of market and days of fasting for particular gods. EveryParampara's calendar and weekday pages show these patterns, so a visitor can see why Friday is couscous in Morocco and Saturday is Shabbat in Israel.
Written by the EveryParampara desk with AI assistance. Background on Seasons, harvest and the calendar (kind of tradition). Customs differ from place to place and family to family. If this is your tradition and we have it wrong, tell us.
🇦🇲 Armenia and 2 moreVardavarՎարդավառ
An Armenian midsummer festival where people playfully douse each other with waterFestival
🇦🇿 AzerbaijanNovruzNovruz Bayramı
The Azerbaijani spring equinox festival of bonfires, sweets and sprouted wheatSeasonal · Feasts and festival meals
🇬🇪 Tbilisi, GeorgiaTbilisobaთბილისობა
An annual October festival celebrating the culture, harvest, and history of TbilisiFestival
🇺🇿 Bukhara, UzbekistanNavruzNavroʻz
The spring equinox festival celebrated across Uzbekistan with sumalak and family visits.Seasonal · Sweets given and shared
🇬🇪 GeorgiaAlaverdobaალავერდობა
A harvest and saint's feast celebrated at Alaverdi Cathedral in eastern GeorgiaSpiritual
🇦🇲 Armenia and 1 moreTrndezտրնդեզ
An Armenian fire feast forty days after Christmas, kept with bonfires and shared sweetsSpiritual · Feasts and festival meals
🇦🇲 Armenia and 5 moreFeast of the TransfigurationՊայծառակերպութիւն
A Christian holy day marking the revelation of Christ's divine glory on Mount TaborSpiritual · Feasts and festival meals
🇬🇪 GeorgiaTheodore's Saturday
The first Saturday of Lent, kept with boiled wheat and visits to the gravesSpiritual · Sweets given and shared
🇦🇲 Armenia and 4 moreBlessing of the Throats
A Christian prayer rite touching throats with crossed candles for protection from illnessSpiritual
Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- Vardavar: Камалян001, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Novruz: Abutalub, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Tbilisoba: DDohler, CC BY 2.0, source
- Navruz: dalbera, CC BY 2.0, source
- Alaverdoba: Grigory Gagarin, Public domain, source
- Trndez: Armineaghayan, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Feast of the Transfiguration: Unknown artist, Public domain, source
- Blessing of the Throats: © Ralph Hammann - Wikimedia Commons, Public domain, source