What is Ash Wednesday ?
92417
Ash Wednesday, today, is the beginning of the Catholic religious season of Lent.  Lent is a time period where most Catholics choose something to give up (often sweets, dessert, porn, gambling) that they tend to indulge in.  It is a period of 40 days when Catholics remember the 40 days Jesus fasted in the desert and his ultimate sacrifice at the end of Lent, Good Friday.  Marti Gras (french for Fat Tuesday) has traditionally become the time for celebration as a last big fling before Lent arrives and people try to restrict themselves more.  Also, during Lent, Catholics are supposed to avoid meat other than fish on fridays.  On Ash Wednesday, Catholics go to a church service during which the entire congregation processes up to have the priest place ashes on their forehead as a reminder that "of dust we were made and to dust we shall return" and our own mortalities.
188678
Boxing day is an English tradition it is celebrated the day after Christmas because you took the gifts that you did not care for or got two of and boxed them up and gave them to other family friends or relatives. Maybe the boxing boy is because a large number of Gay men celebrate this holiday. Many of my friends do.
494179
Seventh Day Adventists believe that we should observe the same day of rest and worship as the Israelites, whose days began from sundown til sundown, and Sabbath was from sundown Friday until sundown Saturday. Most folks today recognize Sunday as the last day of the week (or as the first ) and the one that is reserved for most religious services. For 7DA, it's about whether you are a Sunday keeper or a Sabbath keeper.
90396
The name literally translates as "Gray Wednesday," or Ash Wednesday, which begins the lent season for Catholics, and ushers in a time when they are supposed to give up things, fast, pray, and generally act grave.  So, to prepare, they party hearty up to that point, and thus the tradition of wild festival just before you have to go all serious and sober.\n\nIn modern times, Mardi Gras is a way for the tourist trade in New Orleans to draw attention to itself.  Make a lot of money on hotels, restaurants, saloons, etc.  This year, what with hurricane damage and all, the festival seems to be taking on a sort of "black humor," if you will.
234777
The first day of the week, Sunday, since ancient times has been designated the "day of rest". For Christians it is the holy day of the week, due to the fact that Christ was reported to have risen from the dead upon this day. \nYet the name of Sunday has nothing to do with Christianity, but everything to do with even more ancient religions. The ancient Greeks knew that the sun was the source of life on the planet and they gave it prime importance in their thinking. When the Romans later adopted the seven day week they emphasize their respect for the sun by naming the first day of the week for it..."dies solis"..."day of the sun". \n\nThe actual word "Sunday" is derived from the German word "Sonntag" (and they likely got it from the Scandanavians). These folk too placed a great deal of importance on the sun. Some tribes of these Germanic peoples invaded England in the 500's or so. They were known as the Angles and the Saxons. The old English work was "sunnandaeg" and it changed over time to become our current, "Sunday". \n\nThere are several holidays that are traditionally held on Sunday. Mother's Day (second Sunday in May) and Father's Day (third Sunday in June) began to be celebrated rather recently, 1914 and 1924 respectively. Easter is an ancient holiday that was officially designated by the Church in the year 325. Its position on the calendar has confused lay people for centuries. The date is calculated by taking the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the 21st of March.
381256
Haloween began as a pagan ceremony, but was moved to October 31, All Souls Day, when Europe became Christianized.  It became a day to pray for all the people who have died and are still in purgatory.
274579
Such a day exists in most latin countries "Dia del Niño" and is celebrated on april 30th. Tradition is to go out with your own children or to give something back to society by giving to children of the least fortunate.
1173032
The Philippines has its own traditions during the season of the dead.  The 2 day holiday starts with Nov 1 as All Saints' Day and then Nov 2 as All Souls' Day.  The people generally go to mass or the cemetary to visit their departed loved ones.  Halloween (American-style) stuff can only be seen in stores because businesses want to capitalize on this season.  Fortunately, it hasn't caught on.
180285
Ah, Ash Wednesday.  The meaning of Ash Wednesday is that it's the first day of Lent for Latin Rite Catholics (Most Eastern Catholics begin Lenmt or the Great Fast on the Monday preceding the West's Ash Wednesday).  Lent is the forty day period during which the whole Catholic Church is supposed to reflect and prepare for the Death and Ressurrection of Jesus Christ.  The forty day period is mainly derived from the time in the Gospels where Christ retreats to the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, in preparation for preaching.  We are supposed to puriy ourselves in order to be better witness to the Life, Death and Resurrection of Christ.  Why so much emphasis here, well, most Christian religions believe that Christ died on the Cross to save man from the Original Sin of Adam and Eve, and so the Crucifixion and Ressurrection of Christ are central to the Christian religion no matter what denomination you belong to.  In fact, it is one of the few points that nearly all Christians agree upon.\nAs to ashes, they always have been a sign of repentance.  In the Old Testament, remember ashes and sackcloth.  The ashes still retain that same significance and are a sign of repentance, i.e. attoning for past sins and resolving to avoid them in the future.  Interestingly, not all Caholic Churches make the sign of ashes on the forehead as is commonly believed.  In Poland, for example, the minister will sprinkle the ashes over the head of the recepient in the form of a cross.  Also, ashes are supposed to remind us of the impermenance of earthly things.  One of my professors brought forth this very interesting point, most ashes for Ash Wednesday are made from the palms used at Palm Sunday (the celebration of Christ's entry into Jerusalem preceding his Crucifixion) the previous year.  These palms were a sign of earthly glory.  In the Gospels, we find the same crowd once chorusing "Hosanna!" to shouting "Crucify Him!"  The fleetingness of earthly glory.  The palms, these signs of earhtly glory, are burned to show us just how fleeting they are.  Also, the ashes remind us of our own mortality, as the minister quotes the Scriptures while distributing ashes:  "Remember, thou art dust and to dust thou shalt return."  Our bodies came from the dust of the Earth and will decay back into the earth, but our souls shall remain.
174885
The Sabbath is the Sabbath.  God never changed it, Jesus never changed it, the desciples never changed it.  The Lords Day, is also the Sabbath, unless you are looking for a way to justify going to church on monday, or teusday, aor any other day that you want to identify as the Lords.\n\nThat being said, nobody is going to Heaven nor hell based on thinking that one day is better than another.
907358
boxing day is called boxing day as churched opened up the day after christmas so those who recieved presents could go around the back of the church and donate their unwanted gifts into the boxes so the church could then distribute them to the poor and use the money to refurbish the church...\n\nyou put as much as you wanted in to these boxes as it was always anonymous-only "god" judged you for your generosity\n\nhope that helps\n\nx
326098
Ash Wednesday on the Christian religious calandar.  (The day after Mardi Gra for some of the world).  The actual date varies from year to year but is generally early in March.
258910
Originally the sabbath day was the seventh day of the week, or Saturday. Seventh Day Adventists still worship on Saturdays. Most of the Christian world, however, worships on Sunday, the Lord's day of resurrection. So, is it okay to go to church on Saturdays? It depends on what your understanding of the scriptures leads you to do. I, personally, worship on Sundays and do my best to keep the Lord's day holy.
849841
Actually, the 7th day is Saturday.  However, Christians have gone to church on Sunday for many years because Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday.\nIt's no bother to God that we go to church.  He created us to worship/glorify him, so he likes it when we go to church.  It's not work if he's being honored.  When we pray, it doesn't bother him, either.  We can pray any day of the week, and not just Sundays.
707119
Sunday isn't exactly a holiday, it is just a day that we set aside for God.\n\nIt started in the New Testament, in Acts to be precise, when the disciples and early Christians met together on the first day of the week to pray and remember what the Lord did.\n\nIt also has a little to do with the fourth commandment (remember the Sabbath Day to keep it holy). This commandment was given to Jews but we remember Sunday for the same reason as they remember the Sabbath...namely, to keep it holy. It is the day on which Jesus rose from the grave and, as that is the foundation of Christianity, it is important to us.\n\nI hope that helped.
105041
go find a really good dictionary, and look up sabbath, if it is a good dictionary it will tell you that it is Saturday. Look up Saturday and it will tell you that it is the seventh day of the week, sunday is the first day of the week. Go look at you calender, the week begins with sunday and ends with saturday. It is one thing to go by the Bible and it is truth, but when you start going to secular things, dictionary, encylopedia, calender, and they tell you these things, well  how can people argue it, with that is just what the bible says.
241209
A Hindu festival. Actually it would be called that in any language :)