h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here in Ireland, yesterday was Pancake Tuesday. But I notice that in England, it's called Pancake Day. Similarly, we have:

Easter Sunday, known in England as Easter Day
Ascension Thursday, (Ascension Day)
and
Pentecost Sunday (just plain Pentecost)

I'm trying to think are there any other well-known holidays that are tied to a particular day of the week. Of course, Easter is not just one day. There's Spy Wednesday, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday leading up to Easter Sunday. I believe that Good Friday is called the same in England - Good Day would sound a bit stupid.

I'm inclined to believe that if Thanksgiving were celebrated in Ireland, it would be Thanksgiving Thursday.

It's all days in German, too.

Shrove Monday (the day before yesterday) = Rosenmontag
Pancake Tuesday (Shrove Tuesday) = Faschingsdienstag
Ash Wednesday (today) = Aschermittwoch

Maundy Thursday = Gründonnerstag
Good Friday = Karfreitag
Easter Sunday = Ostersonntag
Easter Monday = Ostermontag

Ok, Ascension and Pentecost are just Christi Himmelfahrt and Pfingsten.

It would be pancake day, but shrove tuesday to me. I'd call it Ash Wednesday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday. It will soon be Mothering Sunday which is more often now called Mother's day, and a while back it was St Valentine's Day now more usually Valentine's day. I think people just abbreviate the names and then the media start doing it and then the original names are lostbecomes self-perpetuating.

I agree with Kelli's assessment of what the English say. We're both from the South of England, though, and it wouldn't surprise me if you found regional variations.

And we have Bank Holiday Monday.

Yesterday was Mardis Gras or Fat Tuesday. Or as we call it here in the US with our obesity rates, Tuesday.

Shrove Tuesday is Mardi Gras in French.
By the way, we generally have doughnuts, not pancakes; our pancake day is Candlemas, on February 2nd.

When I was a child, everybody went to church on Ash Wednesday and got ashes put on their foreheads as a reminder that David Bowie rules the world.

But did you have the platform soles, too?

Mala, I found out this week that the day before Rosenmontag is called Tulpensonntag (Tulip Sunday) and the day before that is Nelkensamstag (Carnation Saturday)

When I was a kid growing up in the Houston area, I always looked forward to Two-fer Tuesdays when the local radio DJs would play back to back hits by my favorite bands.