India (West Bengal) : public and bank holidays, closure of banks, stock exchanges, school vacations

Banks only :

Jainism : Jain festival honoring Lord Mahavira on the founders birthday.

School holidays :

Jainism : Jain festival honoring Lord Mahavira on the founder's birthday.

Catholic or protestant : The First Council of Nicaea (a gathering of bishops in the early days of Christianity) wanted to find a day to commemorate the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. This commemoration had to be linked to Jewish holiday traditions, since the last supper of Christ was believed to be a Jewish Passover meal. But the Jewish calendar is based on lunar and solar cycles, so the Easter celebration had to follow the same calendar.

Catholic : Easter Saturday Christian community only

Hinduism : Born in 1812 at Safaldanga, Gopalgaunge. He experienced atmadarshan (self-realisation) and preached his ideologies and religious philosophy in twelve commandments. His followers consider him as God (Thakur) Harichand and as an avatar of Vishnu

Jainism : Mahavir Jayanti Jain community only

Secular holiday : This lawyer and politician drafted the constitution of India.

Secular holiday : Under the Mughals, agricultural taxes were collected according to the Hijri calendar. However, as the Hijri calendar is a lunar calendar, it does not coincide with the harvest. As a result, farmers were hard-pressed to pay taxes out of season. In order to streamline tax collection, the Mughal Emperor Akbar ordered a reform of the calendar. Accordingly, Fatehullah Shirazi, a renowned scholar and astronomer, formulated the Bangla year on the basis of the lunar Hijri and Bangla solar calendars. The new year subsequently became known as Bôngabdo or Bengali year

Muslim, Sufi : Ends the ninth month in the Islamic calendar. There were 30 days of strict fasting from sunup to sundown in honor of the first revelation to the Prophet Mohammed. In India, except in Arunachal Pradesh.

Secular holiday : Chicago, Saturday May 1st, 1886: 350,000 workers go on strike to call for an 8-hour working day. Industries are paralyzed nationwide. On Monday, as demonstrations go on, the police open fire. On Tuesday, Chicago is again on strike. Following a bomb launched against them, the police shoot again. 12 dead, of which 7 policemen. 8 anarchists will be condemned and executed. In 1889, the Socialist International Movement met in Paris and declared this day international workers' day . The Soviets will follow suit, just as the Nazis. In France, under the Vichy regime (1940-1944), the celebration is renamed Labour Day .

School holidays :

Hinduism :

Secular holiday : Also written Rabīndranātha Thākura (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941), sobriquet Gurudev, was a Bengali polymath who reshaped Bengali literature and music, as well as Indian art with Contextual Modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. [Wikipedia]

School holidays :

Muslim, Sufi :

Banks only :

Muslim, Sufi : The first day of the year is observed on the first day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar. The first Islamic year beginning in 610 AD during which the emigration of Muhammad from Mecca to Medina, known as the Hijra

Hinduism : The annual festival of Raksha Bandhan, which is meant to commemorate the abiding ties between siblings of opposite sex, usually takes place in late August, and is marked by a very simple ceremony in which a woman ties a rakhi — which may be a colorful thread, a simple bracelet, or a decorative string — around the wrist of her brother(s). The word raksha signifies protection, and bandhan is an association signifying an enduring sort of bond; and so, when a woman ties a rakhi around the waist of her brother, she signifies her loving attachment to him. He, likewise, recognizes the special bonds between them, and by extending his wrist forward, he in fact extends the hand of his protection over her.

Secular holiday : Commemorates the day in 1947 when India achieved freedom from British rule

Hinduism : The annual festival of Raksha Bandhan, which is meant to commemorate the abiding ties between siblings of opposite sex, usually takes place in late August, and is marked by a very simple ceremony in which a woman ties a rakhi — which may be a colorful thread, a simple bracelet, or a decorative string — around the wrist of her brother(s). The word raksha signifies protection, and bandhan is an association signifying an enduring sort of bond; and so, when a woman ties a rakhi around the waist of her brother, she signifies her loving attachment to him. He, likewise, recognizes the special bonds between them, and by extending his wrist forward, he in fact extends the hand of his protection over her.

Hinduism : Hindu celebration of the birthday of Sri Krishna, an incarnation of Lord Krishna. Sweets, fruits and milk products are available in abundance. Sri or Shree: A prefix denoting auspiciousness

Culture :

Muslim, Sufi :

Banks only :