File:Feb1712.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
name day
Sign in to savecelebrating a day of the year that is associated with one's given name
Wikidata facts
- Subclass of
- holiday
- Image
- Feb1712.jpg
Show 2 more facts
- topic's main category
- Category:Name days
- Commons category
- Saints days
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
~27 min read
Encyclopedic overview
A Swedish calendar page from February 1712 with name days listed. Note that in Sweden, February 1712 had 30 days. In Christianity, a name day is a tradition in many countries of Europe and the Americas, as well as Christian communities elsewhere. It consists of celebrating a day of the year that is associated with one's baptismal name, which is normatively that of a biblical character or other saint. Where they are popular, individuals celebrate both their name day and their birthday in a given year.
The custom originated with the Christian calendar of saints: believers named after a saint would celebrate that saint's feast day . Within Christianity, name days have greater resonance in areas where the Christian denominations of Catholicism, Lutheranism and Orthodoxy predominate.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “name day” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.