December’s cultural and identity-linked celebrations and awareness days include:
Consider the relevance of these events to your own pharmacy practice. We’ve shared some useful information below where appropriate.
UK Disability History Month (UKDHM) is an annual event focused on the history of disabled people’s fight for equality and human rights. This year the theme is Disability Livelihood and Employment.
UKDHM 2024 runs from Thursday 14 November to Friday 20 December, and coincides with the International Day of People with Disabilities on 3 December.
Now is the perfect time to reflect on how inclusive and person-centred your consultations are with people living with a disability or how accessible your workplace is for people with a disability.
Read about what CPPE is doing to improve the accessibility of our learning programmes, materials and events.
December is an important month in a number of religions where commemorations and celebrations take place. Pharmacy professionals should be aware of these occasions and how they are marked – team members may ask for annual leave, and colleagues and visitors to pharmacies alike will appreciate personal greetings.
Christmas
December , of course, means Christmas for millions of people across the UK. It is the biggest Christian festival of the year, celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. Church services are held, nativity plays are staged with children playing the roles in retelling the story of the birth, and Christmas trees are decorated with stars and lights to symbolise the Star of Bethlehem.
In the last century or so, however, it has become more secular, with Christians and non-Christians alike celebrating.
Many of the traditions that are associated with it come from pagan, Roman and Anglo-Saxon times – even the Vikings exerted some influence! One of those customs – the giving of gifts – has grown into the year’s biggest shopping rush, securing the festival’s sizable place in countless financial calculations.
This History channel article provides a fun walk-through of the festival’s interconnected origins, and also how the likes of pine trees and mistletoe became timeless symbols of the season.
Hanukkah
The week bookended by Christmas and New Year is also when Hannukah, the eight-day Jewish festival of lights, takes place.
Hanukkah, which begins on the evening of 25 December, means ‘Dedication’ in Hebrew and celebrates the victory of the Jewish freedom fighters the Maccabees over the Syrian-Greeks who had ruled over the Holy Land. The Maccabees restored their Temple that had been left damaged, and it is said that when they used a small bottle of pure oil to rededicate it to God – enough to fuel the Temple menorah for only one day – the oil burned for eight days straight. Traditionally, Jewish people light a candle on each day of Hanukkah to honour that event.
The festival is also celebrated with the exchange of gifts and money, the playing of traditional games, and enjoying food – much of which is fried, to mark the oil burning for eight days
Bodhi Day
Also known as Buddha’s Enlightenment Day, Bodhi Day commemorates when Siddhartha Gautama achieved awakening to become the Buddha, 2,600 years ago, following many years of meditation and seeking the answer to the problem of suffering. Bodhi Day is observed in different ways by Buddhists across the world – usually with prayers and scripture readings, but also sometimes by decorations on trees, family meals and acts of kindness.
Housekeeping
We draw our listed events from The University of Manchester’s 2024 Diversity Calendar. Concerning religions, this calendar covers the six major faiths in the UK. We acknowledge that the calendar does not include every possible significant event, celebration and observance day.
If you would like to contribute a few words on an event in the calendar or suggest an event that it does not cover, please contact sneha.varia@cppe.ac.uk.
