Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi

Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi is an important religious festival for the Muslim communities across the world. It is the day to celebrate the birth of the Prophet Muhammad. According to historical accounts, the Prophet was born on Rabi' al-awwal, which is the third month of the Islamic lunar calendar. In 2012, the event is expected to be observed on 5^th February in the region of Pakistan and India.

Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi Celebrations

This is an event full of fun and festivity. Street processions and special events to discuss the teaching of the prophet are organized in several neighborhoods.

The festival is celebrated with great fervor in different Islamic as well as non-Islamic countries. In many nations, it is also a national holiday and public offices and educational institutes remain closed on this day.

Saudi Arabia is the only Islamic nation where it is not a holiday on Milad. But, except that, Mawlid is celebrated worldwide in countries like Pakistan, Egypt, Syria, Sudan, the Islamic nations in Africa and Asia and other countries like UK, India, Kenya, Canada, etc.

In Pakistan, the national flag is hoisted on the day of Mawlid and salutes of 31 guns are fired in the dawn. One of the biggest celebrations in India takes place in Jammu and Kashmir and Shab-khawani, a night long prayer is organized in Hazratbal Shrine outside Srinagar.

On this day, mosques and neighborhoods are decorated with festoons, flags, lights, etc. Milad Mehfils, Mehfal-e-Naat, and Qawalis are organized in many places to commemorate the day. Donations are made and families gather together to share meals. However, since the day also commemorates the death of the Prophet the festival is celebrated in a limited and restricted way.

Send Eid-e-Milad-un-Nabi cards to your friends and relatives.

Australia Day

The Australia Day is celebrated on 26th of January every year. Australian of the Year Awards are given out to notable Australians in different domains on this day.

Australia Day

January 26 is the national day of Australia. On this day Australians celebrate the first arrival of settlers to the country. In 1788 a fleet of 11 ships carrying the first generation settlers arrived at Sydney Cove in Australia. The captain of the ship Arthur Phillip named the region where they landed and its surroundings Sydney after the name of the then British Home Secretary Lord Sydney.

This was done as it was Sydney’s idea to establish this new colony in the new and unexplored continent. The Australia Day was first celebrated as the Foundation Day. The first official celebration of the event took place in 1818 with the establishment of the new state of New South Wales.

Today the Australia Day is a national holiday in every state of the country. The celebration of the day begins with public addresses from the Governor-General and the Prime Minister. The Australian of the Year award and the Order of Australia lists are announced on the eve of the celebration.

The Invasion Day

Australia Day however isn’t an event of celebration for all. Some of the indigenous tribes of the country observe this day as Invasion Day. They consider the British settlers as foreigners and look at the entire episode as an invasion of their land. Demonstration and protests take place in many venues across the country on this day.

In 1988 the aborigines of the country demonstrated against the establishment on issues like recognition, basic needs, rights over land etc. Since then Invasion Day protests have been taking place almost regularly.

Attractions of Australia Day

Community festivals, fairs, sports events, community barbeques, live music concerts, boat races, and firework shows are some of the attractions of the Australia Day. The National Australia Day Council is responsible for organizing the celebrations.

The Big Day Out, the Triple J Hottest 100, and the Australia Day Live Concert are some of the music concerts on the Australia Day that get telecast nationwide. Organizing international cricket matches in Adelaide Oval is also a part of the commemoration. Swimming competitions and boat races are organized in Sydney harbor.


Send Australia Day cards to your friends and relatives.

Chinese New Year Tradition !!!!!!!!!

Chinese Culture is rich in its culture and traditions . They have their own beliefs and New Year traditions , which they follow ardently. Although the Chinese New Year , Nian, lasts only two or three days including the Chinese New Year's Eve, the Chinese New Year season extends from the mid-twelfth month of the previous year to the middle of the first month of the new year. A month from the onset of the Chinese New Year, it is supposed to be a good time for business. People will pour out their money to buy presents, decoration material, food and clothing.

It is the Chinese New Year tradition that every family gives its house a thorough cleaning, hoping to sweep away all the ill-fortune there may have been in the family to make way for the wishful in-coming good luck. People also give their doors and window-panes a new paint, usually in red color. They decorate the doors and windows with paper-cuts and couplets with the very popular theme of "happiness", "wealth", "logevity" and "satisfactory marriage with more children". Paintings of the same theme are put up in the house on top of the newly mounted wallpaper. In the old days, it was a Chinese New year tradition to distribute various kinds of food at the alta of ancestors

Send Chinese New Year Cards to your friends and Family!!!

Adorn your home with Chinese New Year Decorations

The Chinese New Year is incomplete without the elegant and colorful decorations that adorn people's homes during this time. The favorite colors of Chinese New Year decorations are red and gold. Red symbolizes happiness while Gold symbolizes wealth. These two colors are predominant in most Chinese New Year decorations and greeting cards. Doors and windows are often given a fresh coat of red paint on Chinese New Year .

People in China adorn their front doors with Chinese decorations and Spring Couplets, which are fragrant with fresh India ink, to give the feeling of life's renewal and the return of spring. Spring couplets are paper scrolls and squares engraved with blessings and wishes for good fortune, happiness, prosperity, health, wealth and a long life. These Chinese couplets have three pieces, two longer ones vertically hung on each side of door, and one shorter one horizontally hung on the top of the door.

Paintings of various such themes are also put up to adorn their homes with a festive look. In addition, the Chinese New Year decorations also include embellishing their doors or windows with auspicious Chinese New Year Children Figures, usually one boy and one girl, opposite each other. They both hold “Lucky” signs and are the symbols of “Good Luck” for the Chinese New Year .

Children love celebrating the Chinese New Year because they can enjoy the firecrackers on the Chinese New Year 's Eve and hold lightened colorful lanterns on the Lantern Festival, which is on the Fifteenth of the First Month.

Decorations of the countryside are with Chuang Hua – Window Flowers, usually in large paper cut format. Most Chuang hua are in red and have lucky and prosperous symbols such as children holding fishes or flowers.

Prior to Chinese New Year 's Day, decorations of the living rooms include vases of pretty blossoms, platters of oranges and tangerines and a candy tray with eight varieties of dried sweet fruit. Chinese New Year Decorations on the walls and doors include poetic couplets, happy wishes written on red paper.

Chinese New Year decorations are enough to spark off the celebrations in your heart! So get into the festive groove of goodness and celebration as you adorn your home with Chinese New Year Decorations and it a dazzlingly spirited look

Know about the harvest festival of South India-Pongal

Pongal is celebrated in the southern part of India but mainly by people of Tamil Nadu. It is a festival of harvesting for Tamils. Pongal is celebrated to pay a tribute to Sun, for abundant crop yield. It is a festival of thanksgiving to the sun and farm animals for the high yield of crops. This festival of Pongal is celebrated for four days in Tamil Nadu. The first day is Bhogi that is celebrated by removing all the old garments and materials by setting them on fire as it marks the ending of the previous and beginning of the new.

According to Hindu myths this is a festival of harvest celebrated mostly in south India and is celebrated for three days. A large number of traditions and customs are associated with this festival of Pongal. Special prayers are performed on Bhogi, the first day of Pongal just before the cutting the paddy crop. Farmers worship Sun and earth as they help them to produce high yields of crop. Ploughs and sickles are smeared with the paste of sandal wood as these tools help them to cut newly harvested rice.

According to a myth, once Lord Shiva requested his bull, Basava, to visit earth and request people to eat once a month, have an oil massage and bath every day. Accidentally, Basava declared that people should have an oil bath once a month and they should eat daily. This mistake of Basava made Shiva angry and he cursed Basava, expelling him to live on the earth. He would plough fields on earth and help people to create more food.

Pongal is celebrated for four days and Bhogi is the first day and is devoted as a day for the family. On Surya Pongal, the second day people worship the Sun God. Pongal dish is cooked on this day for which new rice along with milk and jaggery is boiled and made to fall to make a offering to Sun God. Maattu Pongal is the third day of Pongal celebrations and people worship farm animals like cattle on this day. The animals are decorated and offered with Pongal dish on this day. Kaanum Pongal is the final day of Pongal celebrations and people visit their near and dear ones on this day.

Send Pongal cards to your friends and relatives and wish them on this auspicious occasion.