Interfaith Information

Resource: Excerpts from An Interfaith Celebration of Spiritual and Religious Care (Ontario Multifaith Council on Spiritual and Religious Care)

One of the Ontario Multifaith Council’s responsibilities is to assist in the formation of appropriate responses to spiritual and religious needs. The following excerpts from An Interfaith Celebration of Spiritual and Religious Care (available at http://www.omc.ca/sandrcare/2005/interfaithcelebration.pdf can be used by teachers for students' study of comparative beliefs and values. The excerpts included in this document, the Days of Significance: A Curriculum Resource 2009-2010, provides background information of various faith and belief systems that can be used in conjunction with, and as a supplementary source for, specific faiths as identified in the TDSB’s Guidelines and Procedures for the Accommodation of Religious Requirements, Practices, and Observances. 

Please note  

Information included from this source is not intended to provide exclusive and definitive coverage of faiths that are acknowledged and valued by the TDSB. Information and source documents related to these faiths are included only as samples that teachers may use to teach skill expectations in appropriate elementary programs and/or secondary courses of study.

I am Baha’i   |   I am a Muslim.   |   I am Buddhist.   |   I am a Jew.  

I am a Jain.   |   I am a Christian.   |   I am a Zoroastrian.   

 I am a Hindu.   |   I am a Sikh.   |   I am Wiccan.

 I am a Unitarian Unversalist.  |  Aboriginal World View.

 

Calendar Systems

Buddhism
Buddhist calendars are as varied as the different schools and traditions that make up the faith. In addition, different Buddhist traditions use different calendar systems; the TDSB acknowledges that dates of holy days may vary accordingly. This curricular resource  includes observances common to most Buddhist traditions.

Please contact the TDSB Human Rights Office if date clarification is needed for the purposes of application for religious accommodation.

Christian
Christians use one of two solar calendars: the Julian (Eastern Orthodox) or the Gregorian (Western). Fixed feasts, such as Christmas and Epiphany, occur on the same day every year. Movable feasts, such as Easter, are set in relation to the moon and the March equinox. Their dates vary from year to year. Generally, Julian calendar dates will follow the Gregorian calendar dates by up to one to five weeks.

Hinduism
Hindus’ cultural heritage is Indian and they use Indian calendars, such as the Bikarami and the Saka, to determine festivals. The calendars are lunar, but Hindus add a month every second or third year to bring them into phase with the solar year. Many Hindu festivals are observed only locally or regionally.

Islam
The Islamic calendar is based on lunar reckoning. The months begin with the appearance of the new moon and alternate in length between 29 and 30 days. Consequently, dates will shift about ten days from year to year on the Gregorian calendar. It takes 32½ years for a given Islamic calendar date to correspond once again with the same Gregorian calendar. The dating of the Islamic calendar begins with the migration (Hijra) of the Prophet Muhammad from Mecca to Medina.

Judaism
The Jewish calendar is “lunisolar” and a year consists of 12 or 13 lunar months. An extra month is added periodically to bring the lunar year back into phase with the solar year. The annual cycle of festivals begins with the month of Nisan (March or April), Pesah being the first festival of the year. Jewish years are numbered from the creation of the world. Like all Jewish calendar days, the holy days run from sunset to sunset, so the new year begins at sundown.