Holidays Calendar for December 21, 2020
São Tomé Day is a public holiday in the Democratic Republic of São Tomé and Príncipe celebrated on December 21. It commemorates the discovery of the island of São Tomé by Portuguese navigators around 1470.
Although the Roman Catholic Church has celebrated the feast of Saint Thomas the Apostle on July 3 since 1969, some Western Christian churches prefer the original date, which is December 21. In the countries where these churches are prevalent, St. Thomas’s Day traditionally ushers in the Christmas season.
On December 21, Doctor Who fans across the world observe International Dalek Remembrance Day, also known as simply Dalek Day. It celebrates a fictional alien race of violent and merciless cyborgs, who are the greatest enemies of Doctor Who’s protagonist, the Doctor.
World Saree Day, also known as International Saree Day, was created to recognize the historical and cultural significance of a traditional women’s garment from the Indian subcontinent. It is celebrated annually on December 21.
National Kiwifruit Day, also known as National Kiwi Fruit Day or National Kiwi Day, is celebrated annually on December 21. It recognizes a delicious fruit that is native to China but became known in the rest of the world thanks to its introduction to New Zealand.
Armed Forces Day in the Philippines is celebrated on December 21 to commemorate the foundation of the country's military in 1935. Although it is not a public holiday, it is marked with relevant events and activities.
Pancha Ganapati is a modern Hindu festival that lasts for five days, from December 21 to December 25. It honors Ganesha, one of the most worshiped Hindu deities. Ganesha is venerated as the patron of arts and culture.
Celebrate Short Fiction Day, also known as National Short Story Day, is observed annually on December 21, the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It was created to honor the short story in all its forms and lengths, as well as to recognize authors of short fiction.
In China and other parts of East Asia, winter solstice is marked with a traditional festival called the Dongzhi Festival. Falling between December 21 and December 23, it is celebrated by the Chinese, Japanese and Koreans, but only Macau recognizes Dongzhi as a public holiday.
Saparmurat Niyazov Memorial Day is a special remembrance day in Turkmenistan that commemorates the death anniversary of the country's first president. It is observed on December 21.
If you see a person wearing shorts in the cold, you will probably think they are not in their right mind. But before labeling them as crazy, check the date. If it is December 21, they are probably celebrating Shake and Freeze Day and raising awareness of Parkinson’s disease.
National Homeless Persons’ Remembrance Day, also known as National Homeless Persons’ Memorial Day, is a United States observance held annually on December 21 (on or close to the winter solstice in the Northern Hemisphere). It was created to honor those who have died while homeless over the past year.
Anne and Samantha Day is observed twice a year, on the days of the summer and winter solstice. It was created to honor Anne Frank and Samantha Smith, two young girls who left a visible trace in history but whose lives were tragically cut short.
The National French Fried Shrimp Day is celebrated annually on December 21. It is a perfect excuse for all seafood lovers to treat themselves to a delicious dish.
If you love brandy, we know a holiday just for you! National Armagnac Day is celebrated annually on December 21 in honor of a distinctive kind of brandy that is produced exclusively in the Armagnac region of France.
“There wasn't an ounce of snow, but oh, the coquito would flow!”, sings Daniela, a character from Lin-Manuel Miranda’s iconic musical In the Heights, while sharing her childhood memories of Christmas in Puerto Rico with her neighborhood. Coquito is a Puerto Rican Christmas drink that even has its own holiday, National Coquito Day, which is celebrated annually on December 21.
National Crossword Puzzle Day, sometimes referred to as simply Crossword Puzzle Day, is celebrated annually on December 21. This unofficial holiday commemorates the invention of a word puzzle enjoyed by millions of people across the world.
If you hate making your bed in the morning, we have good news for you: you have a perfect excuse to leave your bed unmade on December 21 because it is Don’t Make Your Bed Day. Give yourself a break by skipping an easy but somewhat tedious chore.
Humbug Day is observed annually on December 21. Contrary to a popular misconception, it is not dedicated to hating Christmas; it is a day for you to embrace your inner Scrooge or Grinch and let out all your frustrations before the start of Christmas festivities.
Short Girl Appreciation Day, also known as National Short Girl Appreciation Day, is celebrated annually on December 21, on the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.
National Flashlight Day is celebrated annually on the winter solstice day in the Northern Hemisphere, which occurs on December 21 or 22. This informal holiday was created to celebrate the amazing invention that is flashlight.
In many cultures, the winter solstice is considered as a special moment of the annual cycle, and there are a lot of holidays that coincide, or used to coincide, with the winter solstice day, from Christmas and its predecessors, such as the Germanic Yule festival, to Shab-e Yalda, an Iranian festival marking the longest and darkest night of the year.
Yule, also known as Yuletide, is an ancient Germanic midwinter festival. It is observed on the day of winter solstice, originating as a pagan festival celebrated by the Germanic peoples. Some of its customs are still reflected in the present-day Christmas celebrations.
World Basketball Day is a United Nations observance held annually on December 21. It was crated to commemorate the day when the first ever game of basketball was played and highlight the contribution of sport in general and basketball in particular to sustainable development.
Festivals on December 21, 2020
- TSB Festival of Lights in New Plymouth, New Zealand
- Dubai Shopping Festival in Dubai, UAE
- Helsinki Christmas Market in Helsinki, Finland
- Portland Christmas Ship Parade in Portland (OR), USA
- Warsaw Christmas Market in Warsaw, Poland
- GUM Christmas Fair at Red Square in Moscow, Russia
- Barcelona Christmas Market (Feria de Santa Lucia) in Barcelona, Spain
- Maastricht Christmas Market in Maastricht, Netherlands
- Nuremberg Christmas Market in Nuremberg, Germany
- Tallinn Christmas Market in Tallinn, Estonia
- Madrid Christmas Market in Madrid, Spain
- Brussels Christmas Market in Brussels, Belgium
- Striezelmarkt (Dresden Christmas Market) in Dresden, Germany
- Geneva Christmas Market in Geneva, Switzerland
- Cologne Christmas Market in Cologne, Germany
This Day in History
- 2020 Jupiter and Saturn were separated in the sky by 0.1 degrees. This astronomical event is called a great conjunction. The 2020 great conjunction was the closest one since 1623.
- 2019 Died: Emanuel Ungaro, French fashion designer, who founded the fashion house that bears his name in 1965. Before that, he had worked for Cristóbal Balenciaga and Courrèges.
- 2012 Gangnam Style by the South Korean musician Psy became the first YouTube video to reach one billion views. The music video first went viral in August 2012.
- 2009 Died: Edwin G. Krebs, American biochemist who won the 1992 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery concerning reversible protein phosphorylation.
- 2006 Died: Saparmurat Niyazov, also known as Türkmenbaşy, Turkmen politician and statesman who served as the leader of Turkmenistan from 1985 until his death.
- 2004 A suicide bomber carried out a terrorist attack at the Forward Operating Base near Mosul, Iraq, killing 14 U.S. soldiers, 4 U.S. civilians, and 4 Iraqi soldiers.
- 1996 Born: Kaitlyn Dever, American actress. She is known for her roles in the television series Justified, Man Standing, Unbelievable, and Dopesick.
- 1990 Died: Kelly Johnson, American systems engineer and aeronautical innovator best known as the developer of the Lockheed U-2 and Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird".
- 1988 A terrorist bomb exploded aboard Pan Am Flight 103, killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew. The aircraft crashed in Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 11 people on the ground.
- 1982 Born: Tom Payne, English actor. He is best known for his television roles as Paul "Jesus" Rovia in The Walking Dead, Brett Aspinall in Waterloo Road, and Malcolm Bright in Prodigal Son.
- 1970 Elvis Presley met United States President Richard Nixon at the White House. At the meeting, he expressed his patriotism and his contempt for the counterculture.
- 1967 Born: Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgian and Ukrainian politician. He served as the 3rd President of Georgia and Governor of Odesa Oblast (region) in Ukraine.
- 1966 Born: Kiefer Sutherland, Canadian actor and musician. He is best known for his starring role as Jack Bauer in the television series 24, for which he won several awards.
- 1958 Charles de Gaulle was elected the first President of the French Fifth Republic. This was the only French presidential election by the electoral college.
- 1958 Died: Lion Feuchtwanger, German-Jewish novelist and playwright who influenced many contemporaries. His best known works include Jud Süß and Die Jüdin von Toledo.
- 1948 Born: Samuel L. Jackson, American actor and film producer. His is known for his roles Jungle Fever, Jurassic Park, the Marvel Cinematic Universe and many other films.
- 1946 A 8.1-magnitude earthquake occurred in Nankaidō, Japan. It caused extensive damage, destroying 36,000 homes,killed at least 1362 people and injured over 2600.
- 1940 Died: F. Scott Fitzgerald, renowned American novelist, short story writer, and poet. He widely is considered to be one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century.
- 1940 Born: Frank Zappa, American musician, songwriter, composer, conductor, bandleader, record producer, and filmmaker. His prolific career spanned over three decades.
- 1937 Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the world's first full-length animated feature film, premiered at the Carthay Circle Theatre, Los Angeles, California.
- 1937 Born: Jane Fonda, American actress of stage and screen, writer, former fashion model and fitness guru, political activist. She has won two Academy Awards for Best Actress.
- 1935 Born: Phil Donahue, American talk show host, film producer, and author best known as the creator and host of The Phil Donahue Show that premiered in 1967.
- 1920 Died: Mohammed Abdullah Hassan, Somali religious and patriotic leader who established the Dervish State, an early 20th-century Somali Sunni Islamic state.
- 1917 Born: Heinrich Böll, German writer. He was awarded the 1972 Nobel Prize in Literature. Böll is considered to be one of Germany's foremost post-Second World War writers.
- 1913 English journalist Arthur Wynne published the first ever crossword puzzle in the New York World. The puzzle was originally named "a word-cross puzzle".
- 1890 Born: Hermann Joseph Muller (H. J. Muller), American geneticist, molecular biologist, and educator who was awarded the 1946 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
- 1873 Died: Francis Garnier, French officer and explorer known for his exploration of the Mekong and Yangtze rivers in Southeast Asia and China, respectively.
- 1872 The Challenger expedition, led by Captain George Nares, sailed from Portsmouth, England. The expedition made many discoveries to lay the foundation of oceanography.
- 1824 Died: James Parkinson, English surgeon, apothecary, geologist, paleontologist, and political activist. He is best known for being the first to describe Parkinson's disease.
- 1804 Born: Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, British Conservative politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kindgom in 1868 and from 1874 to 1880.
- 1773 Born: Robert Brown, Scottish botanist and palaeobotanist primarily remembered for his observation of Brownian motion (random motion of particles suspended in fluid).
- 1620 The Pilgrim Fathers landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts. The anniversary of this event, Forefathers' Day, is erroneously celebrated in Plymouth on December 22.
- 1549 Died: Marguerite de Navarre, princess of France, Queen of Navarre, and Duchess of Alençon and Berry, the wife of Henry II of Navarre (since 1525).
- 1375 Died: Giovanni Boccaccio, Italian writer, poet, and important Renaissance humanist. Boccaccio's most notable works include The Decameron and On Famous Women.
- 1118 Born: Thomas Becket, also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. He is venerated as a saint and martyr.