For me, the Christmas season doesn't start until December 1st or at least until the day after Thanksgiving. Now I enjoy Christmas...the decorations, the music, etc. but personally, I just can't sustain the "Christmas spirit" (or any holiday anticipation/excitement for that matter) for more than a month. For the same reason, I don't start celebrating Halloween in August or Independence Day in June. This is why it's so disappointing for me when stores begin removing Halloween decorations in early October in place of Christmas trees. I like to enjoy holidays one at a time and when I've been hearing "Jingle Bells" for two months straight, it is difficult not to be covering my ears by the time December 25th actually rolls around.

I definitely think the push to begin celebrating Christmas as early as possible is mostly driven by companies looking to capitalize on consumer spend, which is obviously highest during this time of year. However, for those who legitimately feel "Christmassy" during early Fall, more power to you, celebrate away. That being said, I simply can’t help but roll my eyes at the ornaments and candy canes being hauled out while kids are still trick-or-treating. Call me a Grinch.

December 26 is called Boxing Day in England and other countries in the Commonwealth, but it is unknown exactly when it first began.

Boxing Day seems to have originated in the mid nineteenth century in England. Some historians believe the name 'Boxing Day' came about because the boxes placed in churches where parishioners deposited alms (coins) for the poor and needy were opened, and the contents were distributed on December 26, which is also the Feast of St Stephen. (St Stephen was the first Christian martyr.)

Others believe that the Boxing Day tradition originated as a holiday for members of the upper class to give boxes containing food, clothing or money to tradespeople and servants, in much the same way that many employers offer their employees bonuses today. These gifts were usually given in boxes; hence the name 'Boxing Day".

Oxford English Dictionary says this comes from the Christmas box; the verb box meaning: To give a Christmas-box, and then leading to the term boxing-day.

An extension of the above theory is that when Christmas holidays were much shorter than they are today certain services often only had Christmas Day as a holiday and returned to work the day after. These included services such as the mail, newspaper or milk delivery. Householders would give them a Christmas gift or, as it was commonly called, a Christmas box on this day to thank them for their service throughout the year.

The common theme, however, is that Boxing Day has absolutely nothing to do with the sport of boxing.

Likewise, it does not gain its name from the overpowering need to rid the house of an excess of wrappings and mountains of now useless cardboard boxes the day after St Nick arrived to turn a perfectly charming and orderly home into a maelstrom of discarded tissue paper.

The name also has nothing to do with returning unwanted gifts to the stores they came from, despite its common association with hauling about boxes on the day after Christmas.
as after Christmas families had extra food left over so they would put it into boxes and bring it around to their neighbours
It was custom for tradesmen to collect boxes of gifts for charities and homeless. Now its just a holiday boxing day dates back to around 400 A.D. but its true origin remains a mystery.

I guess I get where this can be confusing, because both are clovers, but it’s pretty clear: A shamrock has three leaves, and a four-leaf clover has, well, four.

Though there are around 300 species of clover, a shamrock isn't one of them—in fact, it could be any of them. Any type of clover that typically has three leaves can be considered a shamrock. The shamrock is the main symbol of St. Patrick’s Day and all things Irish because it’s supposedly what St. Patrick used to illustrate the concept of the Holy Trinity. Four-leaf clovers, on the other hand, are just freaks of nature in those same species of clover.

Easter is always on the first Sunday after the Paschal Full Moon, which, yes, does sound like some pagan witchcraft, but I assure you that’s official church policy.

So, what’s a Paschal Full Moon, you might ask? It’s the first full moon after the vernal equinox. However, there’s an important caveat: The church observes the vernal equinox on March 21 each year, whether it actually falls on that date or not. And this is only true of those following the Gregorian calendar; Eastern Orthodox Easter is figured on the Julian calendar instead, and their Easter is later.

In 2020, the Paschal Full Moon falls on April 7, making Easter April 12.

Mexican holidays include:

Observed by law:

• January 1: Año nuevo / New year's day

• February 5: Dia de la constitucion / Constitution Day

• March 21: Nacimiento de Benito Juarez / Benito Juarez's birthday - honors the most beloved president among Mexicans.

• May 1: Dia del Trabajo / Workers' day

• September 16: Independence day's military parade (Mexican Independence was declared on September 16, 1810 and the celebration usually begins on the late hours of September 15 at the Grito de independencia).

• November 20: Dia de la Revolucion / Mexican Revolution Day - commemorates the Mexican Revolution of 1910.

• December 25: Navidad / Christmas

Not observed / Religious holidays:

Note: Many companies and businesses grant these as paid-absence holidays, but it depends on an individual basis.

• January 6: Dia de los Santos Reyes / Epiphany celebration - is the day when Mexicans exchange Christmas presents.

• February: Carnaval / Lent - equivalent to the Mardi Gras in the United States, it is celebrated with parades, floats and dancing in the streets.

• February 2: Dia de la Candelaria / Candle-mas

• February 24: Dia de la bandera / Flag Day

• March 18: Expropiacion Petrolera / Expropriation of the oil industry in 1938.

• April: Semana Santa / Easter

• April 30: Dia del Niño / Children's day - Due to the celebration of the Revolution on November 20, in Mexico Children's Day is celebrated on April 30.

• May 5: Cinco de Mayo / Fifth of May - honors the Mexican victory over the French army at the Battle of Puebla in 1862.

• May 10: Dia de las madres / Mother's day - Due to the importance of the mother in Mexican culture, Mother's Day is an especially significant holiday.

• June 1: Dia de la marina / Navy day

• September 13: Niños Heroes de Chapultepec / Child Heroes of Chapultepec - Honors the martyr cadets of the Battle of Chapultepec during the Mexican-American War of 1847.

• October 12: Dia de la raza / Columbus Day

• November 1 & 2: Dia de los muertos / Day of the dead - Mexican holiday that merges Pre-Columbian beliefs and modern Catholicism.

• December 12: Dia de Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe / Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe - honoring Mexico's patron saint.

International Women’s Day (IWD) was born out of women’s rights activism in the early 20th century. Its roots can be traced back to a 1908 demonstration for women in New York City—15,000 women marched through the streets advocating for better pay and shorter hours in addition to the right to vote.

Then, in 1909, National Women’s Day was celebrated for the first time in the U.S. as an extension of these activists’ work. National Women’s Day was observed on the last Sunday of February until 1913, but the first official IWD was held in Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland on March 19, 1911. It was transferred to March 8 in 1913, and it was celebrated by the United Nations for the first time in 1975.