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.
About this page
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.
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Photo credits on this page
The small pictures above come from Wikimedia Commons under free licences. Some are cropped to fit.
- National Thanksgiving Turkey Presentation: Trump White House Archived, Public domain, source
- Friday the 13th: Leonardo da Vinci, Public domain, source
- Groundhog Day: Anthony Quintano, CC BY 2.0, source
- Mother's Day: Dave Parker, CC BY 2.0, source
- Kwanzaa: Apavlo at English Wikipedia, Public domain, source
- Martin Luther King Jr. Day: O. Fernandez, New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer, Public domain, source
- Labor Day: Author not known, but more than 100 years old, Image edited, Public domain, source
- Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day: Montrealais, CC BY-SA 2.5, source
- Presidents' Day: Alexander Gardner, Public domain, source
- Victoria Day: abdallahh, CC BY 2.0, source
- Thanksgiving: Jennie Augusta Brownscombe, Public domain, source
- Las Posadas: Yavidaxiu, CC BY 3.0, source
- Thanksgiving: Lars Plougmann, CC BY-SA 2.0, source
- Makahiki: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Carnival of Mazatlán: The New Foxy, CC0, source
- Quebec Winter Carnival: Shapiros10, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Easter parade: Meister der Palastkapelle in Palermo, Public domain, source
- West Indian Day Parade: Fordmadoxfraud, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Columbus Day: Unknown author, Public domain, source
- Night of the Radishes: AlejandroLinaresGarcia, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- Rose Parade: Prayitno / Thank you for (12 millions +) view, CC BY 2.0, source
- Mexican Revolution Day: Ute Hagen, CC BY 2.0, source
- Saint Patrick's Day in the United States: White House/Chuck Kennedy, Public domain, source
- Flag Day: Freekee /Kevin Hansen, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Trinity Sunday: Max Fürst, Public domain, source
- Green Corn Ceremony: George Catlin, Public domain, source
- Feast of the Ascension: Gebhard Fugel, Public domain, source
- Jews and Thanksgiving: Executive Committee of Congregation Shearith Israel., Public domain, source
- Father's Day: Jjsarto, CC BY-SA 4.0, source
- No Bra Day: Ralf Roletschek, GFDL, source
- Buy Nothing Day: Brave New Films, CC BY 2.0, source
- Workers' Memorial Day: Jungpionier, CC BY-SA 3.0, source
- Day of the Dead: RubeHM, CC BY-SA 4.0, source