Event Date
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The Multicultural Calendar serves as a resource for students, staff, and faculty to plan events, activities, meetings, retreats, and courses throughout the year. It is a resource for understanding religious and cultural observances.
Multicultural Calendar - September 2026
Ganesh Chaturthi / Vinayak Chaturthi / Vinayaka Chaturthi / Ganeshotsav
Hindu
Celebration of the birthday of deity Lord Ganesh (Ganesh Chaturthi). Ganesh is depicted with an elephant's head on a human body and in the Hindu tradition he is the son of Lord Siva and the Goddess Parvati.
General Practices: Hymns are sung and offerings made to Ganesh. Sweets are also distributed because in Hindu legend Ganesh liked them.
Krishna Janmashtami
Hindu
Recommended Accommodation: Avoid scheduling major academic deadlines on this day, since it is likely that students will be operating on very little sleep.
This two-day festival celebrates the birth of Krishna, a widely worshiped Hindu god. Krishna is considered to be a warrior, hero, teacher, and philosopher.
General Practices: During this festival, Hindus are likely to forgo sleep to sing bhajans, traditional Hindu songs. Many Hindus also fast during the first day of the festival.
Friday, September 4, 2026
Nativity of Mary
Christian
Christian celebration of birth of the Virgin Mary.
Date Details: Tradition celebrates the event as a liturgical feast in the General Roman Calendar and in most Anglican liturgical calendars on September 8, nine months after the solemnity of her Immaculate Conception.
Monday, September 8, 2025
Paryushana Parva
Jain
Recommended Accommodation: Avoid scheduling important academic deadlines, events or activities during the eight days of fasting.
Jain festival signifying human emergence into a new world of spiritual and moral refinement. This festival consists of eight days of intensive fasting, repentance and pujas. Celebration of the natural qualities of the soul. The eighth day (Samvatsari) is most important and is focused on forgiveness.
Tuesday, September 8 to Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Paitishahem Gahanbar
Zoroastrian
Recommended Accommodation: Each Gahanbar is a period to focus on worship and those celebrating will perform only necessary work.
There are six Gahanbars (five-day festivals) spread throughout the year. This feast is the Zoroastrian's celebrate the creation of earth or the "feast of bringing in the harvest."
Friday, September 12 to September 16, 2026
Rosh Hashanah
Jewish
Recommended Accommodation: Significant. Avoid scheduling important academic deadlines, events, or activities on this date. If planning an event, provide food accommodation (kosher restrictions apply).
Start of the Jewish New Year, day of judgment and remembrance. The Jewish calendar celebrates the New Year in the seventh month (Tishrei) as a day of rest and celebration ten days before Yom Kippur.
General Practices: Prayer in synagogue and festive meals.
Date Details: Begins at sundown on the first day.
Friday, September 11 to Sunday, September 13, 2026
Fast of Gedaliah
Jewish
Fast day from dawn until dusk on the day after Rosh Hashanah to lament the assassination of the governor of Judah of that name, whose murder ended Jewish autonomy following the destruction of the First Temple.
Monday, September 14, 2026
Yom Kippur
Jewish
Recommended Accommodation: Significant. Avoid scheduling important academic deadlines, events, or activities on this date and after a day of fasting. Avoid scheduling activities after 3:00 pm on the first day.
Yom Kippur is often considered the holiest day of the year for Jews, and the day is dedicated to atonement and abstinence. During Yom Kippur, Jews fast from before sundown on the first day until after sunset on the second day, and light a Yahrzeit memorial candle at sundown on the night of Yom Kippur.
Date Details: Begins at sundown on the first day.
Sunday, September 20 to Monday, September 21, 2026
Alban Elfed / Autumnal Equinox
Wiccan, Druid
Also referred to as Harvest Home, the Feast of the Ingathering. Mabon is the second celebration of the harvest, a ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth, and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and the God during the coming winter months. It is one of the eight major annual sabbats or festivals.
Date Details: Begins at sundown on the first day.
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Mabon
Pagan
Also referred to as Harvest Home, the Feast of the Ingathering. Mabon is the second celebration of the harvest, a ritual of thanksgiving for the fruits of the earth, and a recognition of the need to share them to secure the blessings of the Goddess and the God during the coming winter months. It is one of the eight major annual sabbats or festivals.
Date Details: Begins at sundown on the first day.
Wednesday, September 23, 2025
Sukkot
Jewish
Recommended Accommodation: Significant. Avoid scheduling important academic deadlines, events, or activities after sundown on the first evening and on the following two days. If planning an event, provide food accommodation (kosher restrictions apply).
A week-long celebration that begins with the building of Sukkah for sleep and meals. Sukkot is named for the huts Moses and the Israelites lived in as they wandered the desert before reaching the promised land.
Date Details: Begins at sundown of the first day. Work holiday varies by denomination.
Friday, September 25 to Friday, October 2, 2026
Elevation of the Life-Giving Cross, Holy Cross Day
Roman Catholic
Roman Catholic liturgical observance, red vestments are worn at church services conducted on this day, and if the day falls on a Sunday, the holiday's Mass readings are used.
Sunday, September 27, 2026
Meskel
Ethiopian Orthodox Christian
Meskel is the Ethiopian and Eritrean Orthodox Christian commemoration of the discovery of the True Cross by Queen Eleni (St. Helena) in the 4th century.
Date Details: It is celebrated soon after the beginning of the Ethiopian calendar year (mid-September).
Sunday, September 27, 2026
International Blasphemy Rights Day
Atheist, Agnostic
A day celebrating blasphemy as defined in the various national, state or religious laws that encourages individuals and groups to openly express criticism of religion and blasphemy laws. Celebrations include educating about the importance of freedom of expression, even opinions contrary to religions or offensive to religious people.
Date Details: Blasphemy Day is celebrated on September 30 to coincide with the anniversary of the publication of satirical drawings of Muhammad in one of Denmark's newspapers, resulting in the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy.
Wednesday, September 30, 2026