April 2024 - Intercultural calendar

The calendar provides an overview of public holidays, traditional and religious holidays and international commemoration days without intending to be exhaustive.

1 April: Easter Monday (Catholic, Protestant, public holiday) - Christianity

On this day, it is a tradition to visit family and go on day-trips together. Taking the family on an Easter walk commemorates the Walk to Emmaus, in which Jesus walks a part of the way with two disciples, who do not recognise him at first.

8 April: International Romani Day - international

Since 1990, the International Romani Day has been marked worldwide on 8 April. It is a day to raise awareness of the Romani’s historical and ongoing persecution and discrimination. At the same time, it is a day to celebrate Romani culture and traditions.

10 to 12 April: Eid ul Fitr (Turkish: Seker Bayrami; Ramazan Bayrami, Arabic: Eid Al-Fitr) - Islam

The month of fasting ends with the 3-day festival. It is a festival of thanksgiving to Allah for enjoying the month of Ramadan and symbolises the breaking of the fasting period. In private but also in mosques, more people meet than usual. After the festive prayer there is a common celebration and children receive gifts. Today, the Turkish name Seker Bayrami is associated with the sweets (seker = sugar) which are given as presents on this day. That is why the day is also called "Sugar Festival". Depending on national tradition, the date can vary by one day.

13 April: Vaisakhi - Sikhism and Hinduism

For Sikhs Vaisakhi is the most important feast of the year and the anniversary of the founding day of the Khalsa. The day remembers the tenth Guru Gobind Singh who founded the Khalsa in 1699. People wear new clothes and give each other presents on Vaisakhi. Nishan Sahib is the name given to the flag outside every temple. It is a triangular piece of saffron coloured cloth with the Khanda emblem in the middle. The flag post also has a Khanda on top and is covered with a new cloth on Vaisakhi. In Hinduism Vaisakhi is a thanksgiving festival.

17 April: Yazidi New Year - Yazidi

Carsema Sor ("Red Wednesday") is the religious New Year’s festival of the Yazidi. It is celebrated on the first Wednesday in April in the Julian calendar. According to Yazidi tradition, the creation of the earth began on this day. Traditionally, on this day, houses are decorated with flowers, painted eggs are placed visibly in the windows or distributed to the children, and ribbons in the colours red, yellow, white and green are worn either on the hand or in a braid. On the day of the festival, the graves of the deceased are visited, food is placed on the graves and the whole procedure is accompanied by religious songs and music. The day before, sacrificial animals are slaughtered and the meat is used to prepare special dishes.

20 April: Holiday on occasion of the Ridván festival - Bahá’i

The Ridvan Festival commemorates the anniversary of the garden sojourn where Bahá'u'lláh declared his mission in the Garden of "Ridván" (paradise) before his banishment to Istanbul (then called Constantinople) in 1863. The holidays of the Ridván are celebrated by the Bahá'i communities around the world with prayers and in a spiritual atmosphere. According to the holy script no work is done on these days.

23 to 30 April: Pesah/Passover - Judaism

The feast of unleavened bread is dedicated to the celebration of the deliverance of the Jews from slavery in Egypt. At the Seder, a unique ceremony, Jews commemorate the "pass over" when God would send the Angel of Death to kill the firstborn males but would see that the Israelites had marked their houses with lambs' blood and would command his angel to "pass over", to kill no one there.

23 April: St. George's Day (Catholic, Orthodox) - Christianity

A spring festival, dating back to pre-Christian spring festivals, also celebrated by Muslim Roma. In Austria, St. George's Festival (Djurdjevdan) is mostly celebrated by Serbian Orthodox migrants (e.g. Roma). Saint George is the patron saint of the Roma. It is also a festival in Orthodox churches, which follow the Revised Julian or Gregorian calendars, e.g. the Romanian Orthodox Church.