Category: Annual Celebration

Shavuot (16-18 May) Shavuot is one of the Jewish harvest festivals, also known as the festival or feast of ‘Weeks’, taking place seven weeks (fifty days) after the first day of the spring festival of Passover. It was originally an agricultural festival, marking the beginning of the wheat harvest. The first fruits of the harvest … Continue reading “Shavuot”

Eid-al-Fitr (Ramadan ends) From the evening of 12 May to the evening of 13 May Eid al-Fitr, also called the “Festival of Breaking the Fast”, is a religious holiday celebrated by Muslims worldwide that marks the end of the month-long dawn-to-sunset fasting of Ramadan, as well being as a time for spiritual reflection and prayer. … Continue reading “Eid-al-Fitr”

The theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week is ‘Connect with Nature’. During lockdown, websites which showed footage from webcams of wildlife saw hits increase by over 2000%. Wider studies also found that during lockdowns, people not only spent more time in nature but were noticing it more and re-discovering our need to connect … Continue reading “Mental Health Awareness Week 10-16 May”

Tchin Tchin! OBRIGADA to Gisele Tyba Mayrink Redondo Orgado, Research Fellow in Portuguese Studies from Brazil, currently at the UoB, also galloping gourmet and cocktail maker extraordinaire! At an event to mark World Portuguese Language Day (5 May), Gisele entertained a Zoom group of students and staff (lusophones and non lusophones) in the ways of … Continue reading “World Portuguese Language Day cocktail celebrations”

The Lusophone world celebrates 5 May as the international day of the Portuguese language and culture. The language is spoken by over 250 million people in nine countries and is the third most widely spoken European language, after English and Spanish. The Council of Ministers of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP) originally began observing … Continue reading “World Portuguese Language Day 5 May”

Celebrate World Portuguese Language Day on 5 May and join us for a Zoom session creating cocktails and mocktails and learning a little Portuguese too. This event is hosted by Gisele Tyba Mayrink Redondo Orgado (Dept of Modern Languages, UoB) wpld.freecluster.eu

Saint George’s Day is celebrated on 23 April by various Christian churches and by the several nations, kingdoms, countries and cities of which Saint George is the patron saint, including England and regions of Spain and Portugal in particular. Saint George is most widely known for slaying a dragon. According to legend, the only well in … Continue reading “St George’s Day”

Ram(a) Navami (21 April) is a spring Hindu festival celebrating  the birth of Lord Rama, son of King Dasharatha of Ayodhya. Rama was an incarnation of Vishnu and the hero of the Ramayana, the Sanskrit epic of 24,000 stanzas. A continuous recital of the book takes place for about a week prior to the celebration … Continue reading “Rama Navami”

Vaisakhi (13 April) is celebrated by Hindus and Sikhs and marks the beginning of the Hindu solar New Year. It was originally a harvest festival in the Punjab until it became Sikhism’s most important festival. Vaisakhi, also called Baisakhi, is the festival which celebrates the founding of the Sikh community, the Khalsa. In 1699, Sikhs … Continue reading “Vaisakhi”

Ramadan is expected to begin on Monday 12 April, following the sighting of the moon over Mecca. Lasting for 30 days, Ramadan will end on Tuesday 11 May, with the celebratory days of Eid al-Fitr starting on Wednesday 12 May. The auspicious month of Ramadan is a time for reflection, contemplation and celebration. Sawm is … Continue reading “Ramadan 2021”