OCR Text |
Show on the last day of June. Other large segments of non-Christian non-Christian religious groups are made up of the Confusianists and Taoists of China, comprising 13 per cent of the world's population; popula-tion; primitive, animist, fetish and magic cults, nine percent; Hebrews, He-brews, one per cent; Shintoists ir. Japan, one per cent; Shikhs in Indian, one-fifth of one per cent; and Jains in India, one-twentieth of one per cent. The adherents of all other religious sects, including includ-ing state religions, make up 12.75 per cent of the population of the world. ONLY 31 PERCENT 4 OF WORLD 1 OBSERVED XMAS Christmas was just another day as far as most of the people in the world are concerned. Only an estimated 31 per cent of the world's population profess Christianity, Chris-tianity, leaving a billion and a half non-Christians who did not celebrate the 'birthday of Jesus Christ. About 285,000,000 Mohammedans Mohamme-dans commemorated instead the birth of Mohammed on the twelfth day of the third month on their lunar calendar and the birthday of El-Hoseyn in the fourth month. The chief festivals of Mohammedanism, Mohamme-danism, as listed by the reference work, are 'Eed es-Sagheer, which lasts for three days, and 'Eed el-Kebeer, el-Kebeer, beginning on the tenth of Zu-l-Heggeh, the last month of the Mohammedan year, which goes on for three or four days. The Mohammedans, who make up thirteen per cent of the globe's population; also keep holy the first ten days of Moharram, the first month of the year, particularly particu-larly the tenth day, called Yom Ashoora. The anniversary of the prophet's miraculous ascension into heaven in the seventh month and one or two lesser anniversar-ie anniversar-ie are also marked, the Britan-nica Britan-nica points out. Another substantial proportion of the world's people are Hindus, who comprise 11 per cent, and celebrate Holi in the spring and Durga-puja at the time of the annual equinox, a ten-day festival festi-val in honor of the victory of the goddess Durga over the buffalo-headed buffalo-headed demon Mahishaura. This celebration ends after nine days of worship of Durga when the ! image of the ten-armed goddess, holding a weapon in each hand, is cast into the water on the tenth day,' known as Dasahara. Nearly 165,000,000 Buddhists, eight per cent of the world's population, popu-lation, observe the day when Buddha Budd-ha left his home, the anniversary of his birth and the day when he attained to perfection and entered en-tered Nirvana. Some Buddhists celebrate Trut, the festival of the close of the year, with visiting j and play-going. The new year is , celebrated for three days, and j other holidays occur throughout the year, with presents made of cakes of new rice being exchanged |