2017 Winter and Spring Religious Holidays

What follows is a list of the upcoming religious holidays for the Winter and Spring 2017 semesters.

As the Winter 2017 semester begins, I would like to refer back to the posts for these holidays made last year.  For many of these holidays (those from religions that follow calendars that differ from the Gregorian calendar), the dates in the secular year will differ but the main content of the posts should not. 

To that end, I would like to give the dates for the holidays in the next few months paralleling the Winter, Spring and Summer semesters in US universities (I am, after all, a professor in the United States).

WINTER AND SPRING 2017 RELIGIOUS HOLIDAYS

The list below gives the date for 2017, the name of the holiday, the main religion observing the holiday and the previous David Victor Vector post on that holiday. Some of the links here are older posts that have been updated posts for the current year. Other of these holiday posts will be entirely new posts (for example, the upcoming Asian New Year of the Rooster).  I have indicated that this will be posted at a later date in those instances.

January 7
Eastern Orthodox Christmas/Feast of the Nativity

Eastern Orthodox and Coptic Christianity

http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-day.html

January 19
Timket (Ethiopian Orthodox Christian)
Ethiopian Orthodox Christian
http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2011/12/christmas-day.html

February 27
Clean Monday
Eastern Orthodox Christianity
             http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/04/easter-and-pascha.html

January 28
Asian Lunar New Year: Year of the Rooster
Buddhism, Taoism
Many non-Buddhist observers celebrate the holiday as well

  February 2
  Candlemas (Roman Catholic, Epsicopalian, Anglican)

  Presentation of the Lord (Evangelical Lutheran)
  Imbolc (Wicca, Neo-Paganism, Neo-Druidism)

    http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/02/candlemas-presentation-of-lord-imbolc.html

February 8 (or February 15, depending on tradition)
Paranirvana
Festival of Lord Buddha's Renunciation (celebrated by some in place of Paranirvana)
Buddhism
                  http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/02/parinirvana-or-nirvana-day.html

February 27
Presentation of the Lord (Eastern Orthodox Christianity) http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/05/pentecost.html

March 1
Ash Wednesday
Roman Catholic, Episcopalian, Anglican, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Methodist Christianity
http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/02/lenten-season.html

Sunset March 11 through sunset March 12
Purim
Judaism
            http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2013/02/as-part-of-my-ongoing-on-upcoming.html

March 13-16
Holi
Hindusim
http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/03/holi.html\

March 17
St. Patrick's Day
Roman Catholic Christianity
http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/03/saint-patricks-day.html

Sunset March 19 through end of March 20
Ostara
Wicca, Neo-Paganism, Neo-Druidism http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/03/ostara.html

Sunset March 20 through sunset March 21
Naw Ruz
Bahai'i, Zoroastrianism, Alawite Islam, Alevi Islam, Bektashi Islam

http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/04/ridvan.html

Sunset April 10 through sunset sunset April 18
(first two nights may affect attendance at school and work)
Passover
           Judaism
           http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/04/passover.html



April 14
Good Friday
Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity
http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/04/easter-and-pascha.html

April 16
Easter
Roman Catholic and Protestant Christianity
Pascha (Orthodox Easter)
             Eastern Orthodox and Coptic Christianity
             http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/04/easter-and-pascha.html


Sunset April 20 through sunset May 2 (first and last days may affect attendance at school and work)
First Day of Ridvan
Bahai'i
             http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/04/ridvan.html

May 1
Beltane
Wicca, Neo-Pagan, Neo-Druidism
 http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2013/04/beltane.html

May 10, 11 or 12
Mahayana Vesak (Buddha's birthday)
Theravada Buddhism
 http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/04/vesak.html

Sunset May 26 through sunset June 25
Ramadan
Islam

             http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/07/ramadan.html

Sunset May 30 through sunset June 1 

Shavuot
Judaism
            http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/05/shavuot.html


June 4
Pentecost
Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Coptic, and most Protestant Christianity
http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/05/pentecost.html

  June 21
  Litha
Wicca, Neo-Pagan, Neo-Druidism
 http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2014/06/midsummers-day-litha-and-saint-johns-   eve.html     

Sunset June 25 through sunset July 27
Eid al-Fitr
Islam    
             http://davidvictorvector.blogspot.com/2012/07/ramadan.html

A FEW CLOSING REMARKS

In all likelihood, I have overlooked a holiday or observance. Please feel free to share this with me.

Some controversy exists over the specific dates of some holidays in various traditions.  For example,
considerable difference of opinion exists as to what is the proper date for the beginning of holidays in Islam, with some holding that the date is that of when the moon is sighted in Mecca while others with the date that the moon is sighted in the specific location where one lives (e.g., a different day for those in the Western hemisphere than those in the Eastern hemisphere.). I am not endorsing one or the other of these by posting the date that is here, and I have explained to the best of my ability the difference of opinion in the blogpost itself. Please take this as a good-faith effort toward information rather than an opinion on the matter (of which I am attempting here to be neutral).  Relatedly, all holidays in Islam depend on the actual sighting of the moon. If the moon is not sighted, the holiday date is adjusted. The dates here presume that the moon will be sighted on the date indicated.

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Thanks so much!