Many countries, predominantly Muslim-majority nations like Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Somalia, and Yemen, don't celebrate Christmas as a public holiday due to religious or political reasons, as do some Buddhist nations like Bhutan, and communist states like North Korea, where it's often banned or suppressed, though some countries like Japan and China have secular celebrations despite not being public holidays.
Countries in which Christmas is not a formal public holiday include Afghanistan, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bhutan, Cambodia, China (excepting Hong Kong and Macau), the Comoros, Iran, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Laos, Libya, the Maldives, Mauritania, Mongolia, Morocco, North Korea, Oman, Qatar, the Sahrawi Republic, ...
It's a period of deep reflection and respect, not celebration. Our ancestors used to sleep without a mattress and blanket to honor these martyrs. So, it makes no sense to celebrate any event, like Christmas, which doesn't even belong to sikh community.
Muslims don't celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday but we absolutely honor the story at the heart of it. In fact, Mariam or Mary, the mother of Jesus, is one of the most honored women in Islam. An entire chapter of the Quran is named after her.
Top 20 Countries That Don’t Celebrate Christmas and Why | Surprising Facts You Didn’t Know
Who banned Christmas in the UK?
Supported by his Puritan forces, Cromwell believed it was his mission to cleanse the country of decadence. In 1644 he enforced an Act of Parliament banning Christmas celebrations. Christmas was regarded by the Puritans as a wasteful festival that threatened core Christian beliefs.
Before the Reformation in 1560, Christmas in Scotland had been a religious feasting day. Then, with the powerful Kirk frowning upon anything related to Roman Catholicism, the Scottish Parliament passed a law in 1640 that made celebrating 'Yule vacations' illegal.
Muslims hold a profound respect for Jesus Christ, recognizing him as a divinely chosen prophet and the Messiah, born miraculously through a virgin birth as a testament to Gods power. This event, along with Jesus ability to speak in the cradle, serves as a reminder of Gods omnipotence.
Whether Muslims can say "Merry Christmas" is debated, with some scholars allowing it as a general greeting of goodwill (especially in secular contexts) as long as it doesn't affirm Christian beliefs about Jesus' divinity, while others advise avoiding it to prevent endorsing a religious festival contrary to Islamic tenets, suggesting neutral phrases like "Happy Holidays" instead. The core issue is balancing kindness and social harmony with core Islamic beliefs, particularly the strict monotheism (Tawhid) that rejects Jesus as God's son, which Christmas celebrates.
He says it's common for families to have a family meal, and in order to avoid accusations that this is a Christmas celebration, they might avoid cooking a roast. A smaller number might decorate their homes. They may send cards of “Season's Greetings” and offer gifts to their neighbours and colleagues.
Judaism is a prominent religion that does not observe Christmas. This is primarily because Jews do not recognize Jesus as the Messiah, which is a central tenet of their faith. Instead, they celebrate their own holidays, such as Hanukkah, which may occasionally coincide with the Christmas season.
While Sikhs may accept Jesus as a prophet, they believe that Jesus cannot be God because God cannot be born. However, Jesus says, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am” (Jn. 8:58). When interrogated by the high priest asking, “'Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?
Yes, Japan celebrates Christmas, but as a largely secular, commercial, and romantic event rather than a religious holiday, with unique traditions like KFC for dinner and strawberry shortcake, especially focusing on Christmas Eve as a date night, though December 25th isn't a federal holiday. Cities light up with stunning illuminations, restaurants offer special menus, and couples exchange gifts, while the general population enjoys it as a festive winter occasion, distinct from Western religious observances.
Afghanistan, Algeria, Bhutan, North Korea, Libya, Mauritania, Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan,Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Yemen do not recognize Christmas as a public holiday.
No, North Korea does not officially celebrate Christmas; it's effectively banned as a Western, foreign holiday, with the state promoting strict atheism and loyalty to the Kim dynasty, viewing Christianity as a threat, though tiny, secretive underground Christian communities exist with severe risks, while some state-organized decorations appear for Kim Jong-suk's birthday (Kim Jong-un's grandmother) on December 24th instead.
Adam Zeidan is an Assistant Managing Editor, having joined Encyclopædia Britannica in 2018. He covers a range of topics related primarily to the Middle East and North Africa. Christmas is traditionally a Christian festival, with markedly Christian teachings, and so Muslims do not typically celebrate the holiday.
So frequently do Muslims and Arabic-speaking Jews and Christians invoke this phrase that the quadriliteral verb hamdala (Arabic: حَمْدَلَ), "to say al-ḥamdu li-llāh" was coined, and the derived noun ḥamdala is used as a name for this phrase.
Of course, Jesus was a Jew. He was born of a Jewish mother, in Galilee, a Jewish part of the world. All of his friends, associates, colleagues, disciples, all of them were Jews. He regularly worshipped in Jewish communal worship, what we call synagogues.
In the Qurʾān, Mary receives an annunciation and conceives Jesus by God's command in two principal passages: the angels (or a "spirit") tell her she has been chosen to bear a "pure son" (3:42–47; 19:16–22), and conception occurs through God's "breath/Spirit" (21:91; 66:12); Scholars note clear points of contact with ...
What do Muslims do instead of celebrating Christmas?
Muslims don't celebrate Christmas; instead, they observe two major festivals, Eid al-Fitr (marking the end of Ramadan) and Eid al-Adha (the Festival of Sacrifice), focusing on communal prayer, charity (Zakat), feasting, visiting family, and giving gifts, rooted in Islamic traditions rather than Christian ones. While some Muslim families in multicultural settings might join secular holiday activities or share meals with non-Muslim friends, their core religious celebrations are the Eids, emphasizing gratitude and community.
It's a commonly held belief that Cromwell 'banned' Christmas. His reputation as a highly puritanical political leader has always been hotly debated, and as with all controversial figures, myths and legends about his famously zealous character have proliferated.
In Scotland, Christmas is traditionally called Yule, derived from Old Norse for winter feasts, and remains a common term for the festive season, though modern Scots also use "Christmas," with "A Blithe Yule" meaning Happy Christmas and "The Daft Days" referring to the festive period. While banned for centuries after the Reformation, modern Scotland now celebrates Christmas similarly to the rest of the UK, but with unique traditions like "first-footing" and "Sowans Nicht".
Did you know that Christmas isn't a big holiday in Scotland? That's because the celebration was outlawed in the 16th century Scottish Reformation. The ban persisted for 400 years, and Christmas was only declared a public holiday in 1958!
