December 31st is New Year's eve in the Gregorian calendar. Traditionally one looks backwards at the achievements of the year in December, and forward to plans for the next year in January.
In December clubs tell their members what has been done and share photos. Newspapers share stories of celebrations. Plus obituaries of famous people who have died.
Life Expectancy
Looking forwards, I have run off one of those grids showing how many days, weeks, and years you have let if you live to 80 or 100. Since I am already 79, turning 80 in March, I hope to live beyond 80. So I printed off the grid for 100 years, in months.
In December 2025 I have just reached the Obsidian level on Duolingo in Spanish. I hope to reach Diamond league, the top league, in the first week of January.
I shall continue learning until the middle of next year, 2026. I am currently almost bilingual in French and English. If I can add Spanish that will make me trilingual. I worked out that if I continue learning a language for two years, until the age of 100, if I live to the age of 100 I should be proficient in six languages. I would like my grand-daughter to be able to say that her grandmother spoke 6 languages.
Personal Days such as Birthdays To Celebrate
In the English culture we celebrate personal birthdays. For the past half dozen years I have listed family birthday in my new diary, and set alarms or reminders a week before to allow time to order gifts online.
I also include family wedding anniversaries.
International Days To Celebrate
|The United Nations member states vote on international days, and record the activities they inspired.
Here are some of the popular international days. Naturally, as a teacher of English and learner of other languages, I am interested in languages. The six languages of the UN and other widespread languages are featured.
January Celebrations
Jan 4th is World Braille day. In Singapore I used to look at the Braille signs in the lift and try to learn the numbers.
Jan 10th is World Hindi day. (100 English words used in Hindi. See You Tube video.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofUg7VBC5D0
Jan 27 Holocaust remembrance day. A holocaust Yiddish vocabulary has inspired books analysing it.
February
Feb 9 International Greek language Day.
Feb 21 International Mother Language Day
March
March 8 International Women's Day
March 17th St Patrick's day - Ireland and worldwide. Green colour, shamrocks, hats.
March 20 French Language Day, Many people learn Frere Jacques at school. And Sous Le Pont d'Avignon (dancing under the bridge, shown in old illustrations, os usually mistakenly sung as sur le pont, on the bridge). Many adults know the national anthem, the Marseillaise.
March 21st World Poetry Day
April - National Poetry Month USA & Canada
April 20 Chinese Language Day (the traditional Japanese written language is the same)
April 23 St George's Day & Shakespeare's Birthday. English words are known worldwide, such as simple songs, Happy Birthday to you, The Wheels on the Bus, and the phrase from Hamlet, To be or not to be.
May
May 5th Portuguese Language Day (June 10, Portugal's national day honours the Portuguese national poet.)
May 30
International Yiddish language and theatre day. Why in Romania? Maybe because of the wonderful comical, theatrical song praising Romania, and its food, performed in Yiddish, which you can see on YouTube.
Jun
Jun 6th Russian Language Day
July
July 1st UN German languages Day
July 26 Esperanto Day
August
August 1st Philippines National Language Day. (Tagalog.)
August 9th Day of the World's Indigenous people's languages
August 9th Singapore National Day. The local dialect of English is Singlish. You can buy dictionaries and read about it on my blog posts.
August 31st Romani Language Day.
September
23rd Sept International sign Language Day. Watch the Singapore Airlines safety instructions and you will see the sign languages in a small box. It is easy to spot a hand rising to show take off of the plane, doing up a seat belt. and a baby in arms being lifted forwards into the bassinet.
26th Sept European Day of Languages.
30 Sept International Translation Day
October
October 16th is National Dictionary Day.
November
November 6th Swedish Finnish heritage day. Bilingual day, to help the Swedish speaking minority.
November 13th Hungarian Language
November 16 Icelandic Language Day
November 26th UK National Linguistics Day
December
Dec 10th UNESCO's Latino Day, medieval Spanish written and preserved in Hebrew by Spanish speaking Jewish Spaniards, called Sephardis which means Spaniards in Hebrew, the s plural being anglicised, as the Hebrew plural would be im, sephardim, im for plurals like cherubim and seraphim.
December 11th World Mountain Day.
December 18 Arabic Language Day
International Days, Anthems and Songs Websites
https://www.un.org/en/observances/list-days-weeks
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_national_anthems.
wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Singaporean_patriotic_songs#:
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