Learn More - Celebrations

These stories are all about a special day in the year. I bet one your favourite days is your birthday! It certainly is one of ours. Perhaps you recognise some of the celebrations we have in our stories:

Christmas

Christmas is one of our favourite days in the year. It is the Christian celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, who is believed to be the Son of God. It is generally celebrated on the 24th or 25th of December, but some countries have their celebration on different days. It is usually a time for family and friends to get together. It has become a great day of giving and receiving gifts and of eating delicious Christmas Dinner. The typical Christmas picture would probably have snow, but of course December is different all over the world. It is summer time in Australia! And of course,  we can't forget to mention the special visitor who comes on Christmas Eve. He has a red suit with white fur. He carries a huge sack full of presents especially for you. Can you guess who it is?

Pancake Day

How fitting that such delicious food should have a day named after it!
Pancake day is actually another name for Shrove Tuesday. This is a Christian tradition in preparation for Easter. Many years ago, Christians would follow lent; the 40 days before Easter. It is a practice to remember when Jesus went into the desert for 40days before he was to be killed. People gave up eating milk, eggs, butter and meat. In fact many people still give something up for lent.
Lent starts on Ash Wednesday, the day after Shrove Tuesday. So what should we do with all those eggs, milk and butter? Why, make pancakes of course! There are lots of celebrations all over the world for this day. Listen to Pancake Day to hear some of them.

St Patrick

St Patrick is the patron Saint of Ireland. He was just a boy when he was kidnapped by some Irish raiders and made to work with sheep on Mount Slemish. But we won't spoil the story for you, listen to St Patrick to hear about his life .
St Patrick died on March 17th and now people all over the world celebrate the day. The Shamrock is an important St Patrick symbol and people wear green to celebrate.