Editing Name day (section)

{{Short description|Traditional celebration in Christianity}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
[[File:Feb1712.jpg|thumb|A Swedish calendar page from February 1712 with name days listed. Note that in Sweden, [[30 February|February 1712 had 30 days]].]]
In [[Christianity]], a '''name day''' is a tradition in many countries of Europe and the Americas, as well as Christian communities elsewhere.<ref name="HF"/> It consists of celebrating a day of the year that is associated with one's [[baptismal name]], which is normatively that of a [[List of biblical names|biblical character]] or other saint.<ref name="PinxtenDikomitis2009">{{cite book |last1=Pinxten |first1=Rik |last2=Dikomitis |first2=Lisa |title=When God Comes to Town: Religious Traditions in Urban Contexts |date=2009 |publisher=Berghahn Books |isbn=978-1-84545-554-5 |page=70 |language=English |quote=The factor that contributes decisively to the recognition in Greece of the importance of the name day part from the religious parameters, is the name itself, 'the baptismal name' (''vaptistiko'') and the consequent symbolic power that the name wields in the identification and placing of the individuall in society as a result of bearing the saint's name (Oikonomidis 1962).}}</ref> Where they are popular, individuals celebrate both their name day and their [[birthday]] in a given year.<ref name="HannGoltz2010">{{cite book |last1=Hann |first1=Chris |last2=Goltz |first2=Hermann |title=Eastern Christians in Anthropological Perspective |date=27 May 2010 |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |isbn=978-0-520-26056-6 |page=303 |language=en}}</ref>

The custom originated with the Christian [[calendar of saints]]: believers named after a [[saint]] would celebrate that saint's feast day<!-- DO NOT HYPERLINK 'feast day'; it redirects to 'calendar of saints' which is already hyperlinked -->. Within Christianity, name days have greater resonance in areas where the [[Christian denomination]]s of [[Catholic Church|Catholicism]], [[Lutheranism]] and Orthodoxy predominate.<ref name="HF">{{cite web |title=When Is Your Name Day (Namenstag)? |url=https://www.german-way.com/when-is-your-name-day-namenstag-happy-name-day/ |publisher=Humboldt American Press |access-date=25 February 2022 |language=English |date=8 March 2021 |quote=Sweden, a mostly Protestant Lutheran country, is still into celebrating name days (namnsdagar). And various countries have their own name day calendars. In Latvia, for instance, where your name day is still more important than your birthday, even normal daily calendars indicate the Latvian name days. (Sweden is the same.)}}</ref>

In some countries, however, name-day celebrations do not have a connection to explicitly Christian traditions.<ref name="rus">
{{citation
|title=Many Worlds: A Russian Life 
|author= Sophie Koulomzin|year= 1980
|publisher=St Vladimir's Seminary Press
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=fUXi5H0zsf0C&q=Namesdays&pg=PA29
|isbn=978-0-913836-72-9
}}
</ref><ref name="gr">
{{citation|title=The Minnesota Ethnic Food Book 
|author1=Anne R. Kaplan |author2=Marjorie A. Hoover |author3=Willard Burgess Moore |year= 1986|publisher=Minnesota Historical Society
|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qdyDscbzvV0C&q=Namesdays&pg=PA173
|isbn=978-0-87351-198-8
}}
</ref>