Holidays in your Countries

As We know today is Father´s Day at least in Mexico and U.S but here are people who is from other countries so tell us about holidays in your own country I also want to know about what do you do to celebrate. So I start:

New Year: Jan 1/ Familt dinner and 12 grapes at 12 and the rest you know(party time).
3 Holy kings: Jan 6/ Presents for every children. We eat Kings bread and inside it is a little Child hide the perso who get the child has to invite anothe dinner on Candelaria´s day.
Candelaria´s day: Feb 2/ Tamales and hot chocolate in the house of the one who found the Child in the bread.
Aniversary of 1917 constitution:Feb 5/ No classes and no Work.
St. Valentine´s day: Feb 14/ Your own manner.
Flag day: Feb 24/ Nothing special.
Aniversary of Benito Juarez and beginning of spring: March 21/ No classes and no work.
Children day: April 30
Labor day: May 1/ No work
Aniversary of the Battle of Puebla: May 5/ Only in city of Puebla no classes and no work. thank God I live in Puebla.
Mother´s day: May 10
Teacher´s day: May 15: No classes
Father´s day: Third Sunday of June
Independence day: Starts at September 15 night and continues all September 16/ Full of Mexican food every where Mariachis, costumes, and party is my Favorite
Race day: October 12/ No classes
Aniversary of the Saints: November 1
Deaths day: Nov 2/ Families put Altars to their beloveds who have die and put food and water in it so their beloveds can eat and drink that day.
Aniversary of Mexican Revolution: Nov 20/ No classes no work
Virgin of Guadalupe: December 12/ People offer flowers to the Virgin and Ask her for something Mexican people are very devoted.
Christmas: December 25/ Family dinner, Presents and give thanks.
Inocents day: Dec 28/ Jokes time


Mexicans are knew for their Holidays because people says that We always look for an excuse to miss work or classes what can I say I being Mexican
I almost forget one June 25: My birthday

New Year: Jan 1/ Family dinner (almost every family makes asado, but its not written in stone) and the rest you know(party time).No work
3 Holy kings: Jan 6/ Presents for every children.
Malvinas recovery aniversary: April 2 (It used to be on june 10 because it was also veterans day, but it was changed 4 years ago). No work
Labor day: May 1/ No work
Revolution day: May 25 ( May 25 of 1810 the people of Buenos Aires decided to kick out the Spanish ruled and established a government of patriots)No work
Flag day: June 20. No work
Father´s day: Third Sunday of june
Independence day: July 9. (It took us 6 years after the revolution day to declare ourselfs independent from Spain, because the people of the north of the country wanted to remain loyal to the King)No work
Friends Day: July 20. Everybody goes to pubs with his/her best friends to celebrate.
San Martin's day: August 17. (A General that fought for Argentina and that liberated Chile and Peru from Spain)No work
Teacher's day: September 11. No classes (I watch the colapse of the world trade center live because that day I didn't have to go to class that day)
Columbus day: October 12/ No work
Mother's day: Third Sunday of october.
Mary's day: December 8. No work. You are supposed to put your christmas tree and ornaments that day
Christmas: December 25/ Family dinner, Presents and give thanks. Of course, No Work

Mexicans have a lot of holidays, but back here in Argentina we are macking efforts to catch you on that subject.

In San Antonio we celebrate "Battle of the Flowers" on the last friday of our 2 week long fiesta celebrations in april. Everyone gets off school and most offices only work half days. Its basically an excuse to drink in the middle of the day. There is a very long parade through the middle of town, nearly every hs band and dance team marches in front of floats carrying our fiesta queens.

happy birthday Nadia!intersting thread!holidays for me are never enough

New Year's eve: usually I have dinner with my family, then meet my friends and we party all night(and drink )
New Year, Jan.1: return from the party at 8a.m. and go to sleep
3 Holy kings, Jan 6: presents for the children
St. Valentine´s day, Feb 14
Women's day, March 8: men give women a flower of which I can't find the name on the dictionary... it's a plant with small yellow round flowers that in italian is called mimosa. any idea?
Father´s day: March 19
Easter: eating lots of chocolate eggs with surprises inside, and traditional sweets(every region has got its own)
Angel's monday(the day after Easter): outdoors
Anniversary of liberation, april 25
Labour day: May 1
Mother´s day, the second Sunday of May
Aniversary of the republic, June 2:no school. it was celebrated until some years ago(don't know when because I wasn't born yet), then the government decided that it shouldn't be a holiday anymore, then two years ago they started to celebrate it again.
S.Giovanni Battista(St. John the baptist),June 24:each city has its own saint that should protect it, so each city celebrates its saint in different days. this is the one we have in Genova.
August 15:no work
the Saints, November 1: no school
Deaths day, Nov 2: once people did something, prepared special foods and so on, but now this tradition is disappearing. simply, on this day some people go to the cemetery. It's not considered a holiday, people go to school and to work
Maria Immacolata, December 8: no school
Christmas, December 25: with the family, eating a lot and opening the presents
December 26: no work

Russian holidays that are so persistent we keep them in the US:

New Year -- THE holiday. Party with the friends and midnight, then try to stay awake for a family dinner on the 1st. I think even my grandparents don't get home on New Year until around 3 am.

March 8 - Women's day. When I was little, this would start in my family with me climbing into bed with my mom, and dad serving us breakfast in bed. Now, we make it into a fun holiday with various presents and activities for family members (especially older ones)

May 9 - Victory Day. End of WWII. Yah, yah, everything was actually signed on the 7th, but in USSR, they didn't announce it until the 9th. My grandfather always meets with other veterans that day. I try to call all my relatives who served in the war.

Other Russian holidays:
February 23d. Not actually a day off. Technically, it's the day of the armed forces. However, with no special "men's day", it was used as the counterpart to March 8.

The rest was all Soviet crap, such as November 7 (Revolution day), May 1 (Labor Day), etc.

Different states have regional holidays.

Massachusetts has Patriots' Day, celebrating the battles of Lexington and Concord in MA, and the start of the American Revolution. No school or work throughout the state, and people recreate the battle in Lexington. This affects my income tax, since Patriots' Day is April 17th and often I get an extra day because of Patriots' Day

In Rhode Island, there are a lot of Italians, and they celebrate Columbus Day with a day off work and school. I believe it is the only state that has C.D. as an official holiday.

Vermont has 2 special holidays. One is Town Meeting Day. It is on a Tuesday in early March, and all the small towns hold town meetings to vote on absolutely everything that will be done in the town and the school for the next year. In Underhill, where we used to live, half of the day is the School meeting, and the other half of the day is the town meeting. A potluck dinner is held at the school between the two meetings. There are special recipes, including a cake, that are named Town Meeting Cake, Town Meeting Casserole, etc. Most employers give a day off from work.

The other is Green Up Day, loosely coordinated with Earth Day, and celebrated on a weekend. Vermonters organize groups in each town to go out and clean up the roadsides after the winters' garbage thaws out of the snow.

Here on the Thames River in CT, we celebrate the week after fourth of July, and in Groton/New London, the big fireworks display is not on July 4th, it's the following week. There is method to this madness. We get Grucci fireworks at a cheaper price than on the 4th of July. Foxwoods donates the fireworks at this time.The name of the event changes. Last year it was Sailfest, in 2000, it was OpSail. The main feature of the week is a celebration of seaside heritage, including visits by tall ships, sail boat races, and in the area where you can visit the boats, there will be food stands and rides and such set up. In big years, like 2000, there are over 20 of the tall ships.

I forgot one thing: 4 or 5 years ago in Italy young people started to have parties for Helloween. I think it's funny, up to 10 years ago people almost didn't know what it was and now on the night of october 31 children knock at your door saying trick or treat.