Religious Holidays

On this page:

What is a religious holiday?

What, exactly, is a religious holiday? How are they defined? When you look at your own religious tradition, you may think the answer is straightforward, but when you start to dig into the question more deeply—and begin to look at traditions other than your own—things become much more complex very quickly.

The fact is, even within the same religion, religious holidays are both defined and experienced quite differently by individuals, especially when those individuals come from distinct family backgrounds—to say nothing of distinct cultural contexts. How much more so, then, when we look at different religions, do we find even greater variance: Western societies heavily influenced by monotheistic Judeo-Christian-Islamic traditions think about religious holidays much differently than Eastern societies heavily influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism, and Confucianism, for example.

Why we recognize a variety of religious holidays

Yet this multivalent understanding and experience of religion is not reason to avoid the category of “religious holiday” altogether. For most religions, specific “holy” days are a key aspect of religious practice, belief, and belonging, and an important means by which individuals and their communities reinforce their identities and their relationships—with each other, with family and friends across time and space (including the deceased), and with the Divine.

Therefore, for many adherents of a religious tradition, the freedom and support to observe these holidays are of central importance to one’s self-understanding; and particularly for college students, this becomes a means of reinforcing one’s relational identity even when far from home, family, and culture.

Learn more about religious holidays

To this end, we have established this calendar of important religious holidays from a wide variety of traditions. It is not meant to be comprehensive—for that, please see Interfaith Calendar, which includes both current dates and definitions of a vast number of different religious celebrations. Instead, here, we have sought to reflect our own particular student population, and the specific needs of our community.

We encourage you to peruse this list and learn more! The Pluralism Project is another excellent website in this regard. Here, you will find not only information about various religious traditions, but also locations of places of worship all across the United States.

We hope you appreciate and enjoy these resources; if you have any questions, or would like to talk further, please contact our office.

Calendar of religious holidays

Current year: These dates are for the 2025–26 Academic Year.

Holidays in 2025

HolidayDatesFaith
First of MuharramJune 27Islam
AshuraJuly 4–5Islam
Krishna JanmashtamiAugust 16Hinduism
Ganesh ChaturthiAugust 27Hinduism
Rosh Hashanah (New Year)September 22–24Judaism
NavratriSeptember 22–October 2Hinduism
Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement)October 1–2Judaism
SukkotOctober 6–13Judaism
Shemini Atzeret / Simchat TorahOctober 13–14Judaism
DiwaliOctober 20Hinduism
Day of the DeadNovember 1–2Mexico / Catholicism
All Saints DayNovember 1Christianity
AdventNovember 30–December 24Christianity
Feast of the Immaculate ConceptionDecember 8Christianity
Bodhi Day / Rohatsu (Japan)December 8Buddhism
Our Lady of GuadalupeDecember 12Christianity
HanukkahDecember 14–22Judaism
ChristmasDecember 25Christianity
KwanzaaDecember 26–January 1African–American
Feast of the Holy FamilyDecember 28Christianity

Holidays in 2026

HolidayDatesFaith
Solemnity of the Blessed Virgin MaryJanuary 1Christianity
Christmas (Orthodox)January 7Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Lunar New YearFebruary 17Confucianism / Taoism / Buddhism
Maha ShivaratriFebruary 15Hinduism
Ramadan begins (30 days)February 17–March 19Islam
Ash Wednesday / Beginning of LentFebruary 18Christianity
PurimMarch 2–3 (begins at sundown)Judaism
HoliMarch 3Hinduism
Laylat al QadrMarch 16Islam
Eid al FitrMarch 19–20Islam
Orthodox Great Lent beginsFebruary 23–April 11Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Passover / PesachApril 1–9 (begins at sundown April 1)Judaism
Paschal TriduumApril 9–11Christianity (Catholic / Protestant)
Good FridayApril 3Christianity
Easter (Western)April 5Christianity
Orthodox Good FridayApril 10Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Pascha (Orthodox Easter)April 12Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Yom HaShoahApril 14Judaism
ShavuotMay 22Judaism
PentecostMay 24 (Western & Orthodox)Christianity
Eid al-AdhaMay 27Islam