Learn More about Holidays Around the World with Infobase

Learn More about Holidays Around the World with Infobase

December 21, 2023

Why do we celebrate holidays? Some holidays are celebrated for religious reasons or to maintain old traditions and shared values. Some are national holidays, celebrating a great event or person in history. Infobase has databases with an abundance of content that can give your students a brief glimpse into the history behind different holidays, fostering an understanding of and appreciation for the cultures, nations, and traditions that created them.

Introduce Elementary Students to Holidays Both Familiar and New to Them

The World Almanac® for Kids Elementary features an entire topic area devoted to holiday celebrations that offers full-color illustrated articles and Fun Facts with details on the backgrounds, customs, and traditions of the world’s holidays and celebrations, from religious observances to independence days, all written on an elementary school level. The section on winter holidays covers Chinese New Year, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, New Year’s, and Valentine’s Day. Students and educators will also find age-appropriate articles on the holidays of other seasons as well as uniquely American holidays, articles on why we celebrate holidays, and more. 

"Holiday Celebrations" from The World Almanac® for Kids Elementary

Broaden the Perspectives of Intermediate Students with Holidays & Celebrations

For students at a middle-school level, The World Almanac® for Kids features a Holidays & Celebrations topic area with detailed information on the backgrounds, customs, and traditions of the world’s holidays and celebrations, from religious observances to independence days, organized by holiday and region. Find full-color, in-depth articles on Christmas and Hanukkah celebrations from around the world as well as Fun Facts articles (including one on the Hanukkah song “I Have a Little Dreidel”) and holiday-related glossaries. Holidays & Celebrations also features articles on New Year’s celebrations (including Chinese New Year), Thanksgiving and other harvest festivals (including Kwanzaa), spring holidays (including Easter and Passover), Halloween, Ramadan, and much more. 

"Holidays & Celebrations" from The World Almanac® for Kids

Get a Country-by-Country Look at Holidays

Did you know that World Geography & Culture—an award-winning resource for the study of countries, cultures, and geography concepts—includes detailed, reliable information about the holidays of every country in the world? The Holidays and Celebrations page in each country’s in-depth national profile presents dates and facts about the nation’s public/legal holidays, religious holidays, and regional holidays, along with who in the nation observes them. In addition to holidays, researchers can also find valuable information on each country’s rites of passage, cuisine, culture and lifestyle, family life, entertainment and recreation, and so much more.  

Iceland's Holidays & Celebrations, from World Geography & Culture

Focus on Religious Holidays with an Objective, Reliable Source

If you’re looking for content on religions and religious holidays that approaches them in an objective manner, check out World Religions. This award-winning database features a Holidays & Observances Calendar covering the celebrations of 15 of the world’s living religions and traditional spiritual practices, from Orthodox Christianity’s Feast of St. Basil on January 1 to the start of Gahambar Maidyarem (Midwinter) in Zoroastrianism on December 31. Each holiday is linked to a detailed, illustrated article with information about the holiday. 

The 2023 Holidays & Observances Calendar from World Religions

Users can also find Topic Centers on each of those same 15 religions—African Traditional Religion, Baha’i Faith, Buddhism, Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity, Confucianism, Daoism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Native American Religions, New Religious Movements, Protestantism, Shinto, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism—with links to core essays, key primary sources, complete sacred texts, fact files, glossary terms, timelines, images, videos, and more. 

Want to explore these resources yourself? Why not take a FREE trial today?

See also:

About The Author

Patrice Keville (she/her) has been Proofreader/Coordinator at Infobase for nearly a decade and has worked in marketing and editorial capacities at library and education-focused companies for well over 15 years. Prior to working at Infobase, she was an Assistant Editor at the H.W. Wilson Company, where she worked on H.W. Wilson’s Core Collections (formerly Standard Catalogs); she was also Online Editor at Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology News. She lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Matthew.