Date | English Name | French Name | Notes |
---|---|---|---|
January 1 | New Year's Day | Nouvel An | |
February 11 | Youth Day | Journée de la jeunesse | Commemorates the unification in 1961 and honors young people. [1] |
May 1 | Labour Day | Fête du Travail | |
May 20 | National Day | Fête Nationale | Cameroon replaced its federal structure on May 20, 1972. |
August 15 | Assumption Day | Assomption | |
December 25 | Christmas Day | Noël | |
The following holidays are public holidays but the date on which each occurs varies, according to its corresponding calendar, and thus has no set date.
English Name | Date | Description |
---|---|---|
Good Friday | Friday before Easter | Crucifixion of Jesus |
Ascension Day | 39 days after Easter | Ascension of Jesus into Heaven |
Eid al-Fitr | 1 Shawwal | Celebrates end of Ramadan |
Eid al-Adha | 10 Dhu al-Hijjah | Feast of Sacrifice |
Mawlid | 12 Rabi' al-awwal | The Prophet's Birthday |
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon, is a country in Central Africa. It shares boundaries with Nigeria to the west and north, Chad to the northeast, the Central African Republic to the east, and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Its coastline lies on the Bight of Biafra, part of the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to its strategic position at the crossroads between West Africa and Central Africa, it has been categorized as being in both camps. Its nearly 27 million people speak 250 native languages, in addition to the national tongues of English and French, or both.
Easter, also called Pascha or Resurrection Sunday, is a Christian festival and cultural holiday commemorating the resurrection of Jesus from the dead, described in the New Testament as having occurred on the third day of his burial following his crucifixion by the Romans at Calvary c. 30 AD. It is the culmination of the Passion of Jesus Christ, preceded by Lent, a 40-day period of fasting, prayer, and penance.
Labour Day is an annual holiday to celebrate the achievements of workers. Labour Day has its origins in the labour union movement, specifically the eight-hour day movement, which advocated eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest.
Summer is the hottest and brightest of the four temperate seasons, occurring after spring and before autumn. At or centred on the summer solstice, daylight hours are longest and darkness hours are shortest, with day length decreasing as the season progresses after the solstice. The earliest sunrises and latest sunsets also occur near the date of the solstice. The date of the beginning of summer varies according to climate, tradition, and culture. When it is summer in the Northern Hemisphere, it is winter in the Southern Hemisphere, and vice versa.
Juneteenth is a federal holiday in the United States commemorating the ending of slavery in the United States. Its name is a portmanteau of the words "June" and "nineteenth", as it is celebrated on the anniversary of June 19, 1865, when as the American Civil War was ending, Major General Gordon Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas. Originating in Galveston, Juneteenth has since been observed annually in various parts of the United States, often broadly celebrating African-American culture.
International Women's Day (IWD) is a holiday celebrated annually on March 8 as a focal point in the women's rights movement. IWD gives focus to issues such as gender equality, reproductive rights, and violence and abuse against women. Spurred by the universal female suffrage movement, IWD originated from labor movements in North America and Europe during the early 20th century.
Youth Day or National Youth Day is a commemorative holiday in honour of young people, celebrated in different parts of the world on various dates throughout the year.
A national day is a day on which celebrations mark the statehood or nationhood of a state or its people. It may be the date of independence, of becoming a republic, of becoming a federation, or a significant date for a patron saint or a ruler. The national day is often a public holiday. Many countries have more than one national day. Denmark and the United Kingdom are the only countries without a national day. Britain abandoned Empire Day, while Denmark has what is not a public holiday but an unofficial celebration called Constitution Day. National days emerged with the age of nationalism, with most appearing during the 19th and 20th centuries.
Children's Day is a commemorative date celebrated annually in honor of children, whose date of observance varies by country. In 1925, International Children's Day was first proclaimed in Geneva during the World Conference on Child Welfare. Since 1950, it is celebrated on June 1 in many countries. World Children's Day is celebrated on 20 November to commemorate the Declaration of the Rights of the Child by the UN General Assembly on 20 November 1959. In some countries, it is Children's Week and not Children's Day. The Sikhs celebrate Children Day on 20 December to 27 December. In the U.S., Children's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of June.
Public holidays in the Philippines are of two types: regular holidays and special non-working days.
The King's Official Birthday is the selected day in most Commonwealth realms on which the birthday of the monarch is officially celebrated in those countries. It does not necessarily correspond to the date of the monarch's actual birth.
Buddha's Birthday or "'Buddha Day"' is a primarily Buddhist festival that is celebrated in most of South, Southeast and East Asia, commemorating the birth of the prince Siddhartha Gautama, who became the Gautama Buddha and founded Buddhism. According to Buddhist tradition and archaeologists, Gautama Buddha, c. 563-483 BCE, was born at Lumbini in Nepal. Buddha's mother was Queen Maya Devi, who delivered the Buddha while undertaking a journey to her native home, and his father was King Śuddhodana. The Mayadevi Temple, its gardens, and an Ashoka Pillar dating from 249 BCE mark the Buddha's birth place at Lumbini.
Mankon is a geo-historic community constituting a large part of Bamenda in Cameroon, formed as an amalgamation of about five different ethnic groups. The Mankon fondom (kingdom) represents one of the oldest monarchies of the grassfield people of the Northwest Province. The fondom is ruled by a fon (king) with rights to kinghood acquired by birth. The crowned fon is usually a designated son of the deceased king, a child who was born only during his reign.
Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil, Germany and the Philippines. It is also observed in the Dutch town of Leiden and the Australian territory of Norfolk Island. It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessings of the harvest and of the preceding year. Various similarly named harvest festival holidays occur throughout the world during autumn. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday as well.
The National Day of Cameroon, also known as Unitary State Day, is celebrated annually on 20 May. In a national referendum on 20 May 1972, Cameroonians voted for a unitary state as opposed to the existing federal state. The United Nations Trust Territory known as French Cameroun achieved independence from France on 1 January 1960, and British Southern Cameroons changed status from a Trusteeship under British administration to a federated state within Cameroon on 1 October 1961. The government chose 20 May as Cameroon's National Day to commemorate President Ahmadou Ahidjo's abolishment of the federal system of government in favor of a unitary country in 1972.
The 2021 Africa Cup of Nations, known as the TotalEnergies2021 Africa Cup of Nations for sponsorship reasons, was the 33rd edition of the Africa Cup of Nations, the biennial international men's football championship of Africa organised by the Confederation of African Football (CAF). The tournament was hosted by Cameroon, and took place from 9 January to 6 February 2022.
The following lists events that happened during 2021 in Middle Africa, also called Central Africa.
Time in Cameroon is given by a single time zone, officially denoted as West Africa Time. Cameroon adopted WAT on 1 January 1912 as Cameroun, and has never observed daylight saving time.