Portal:Holidays/Selected biography

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Frosty the Snowman is a popular Christmas song written by Walter E. "Jack" Rollins and Steve Nelson and recorded by Gene Autry and the Cass County Boys in 1950. Like Jingle Bells and several other songs about winter, Frosty the Snowman is considered to be a Christmas song despite not mentioning Christmas at all. It was written after Gene Autry recorded "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" and the single sold 2 million copies.

Frosty the Snowman is also a thirty-minute animated television special based on the popular song of the same title. The program, which first aired in 1969, was produced for television by Rankin/Bass and featured the voices of comedians Jimmy Durante as narrator and Jackie Vernon as the title character.


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"Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" is a popular Christmas story about Santa Claus' ninth and lead reindeer who possesses an unusually red colored nose that gives off its own light that is powerful enough to illuminate the team's path through inclement weather. The story is owned by St. Nicholas Music Inc. and has been sold in numerous forms including a popular song, a television special, and a feature film. Rudolph was created by Robert L. May in 1939 as part of his employment with Montgomery Ward.

Rudolph is an extension of Santa's reindeer which pull his sleigh and help him deliver Christmas gifts. The names of the original eight reindeer are taken from the 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas, which led to the popularity of reindeer as Christmas symbols.


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Saint Nicholas is the common name for Saint Nicholas, Bishop of Myra, who had a reputation for secret gift-giving, but is now commonly identified with Santa Claus. Among Orthodox Christians, the historical Saint Nicholas is remembered and revered. Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of sailors, merchants, archers, children, and students in Greece, Bulgaria, Georgia (country), Russia, the Republic of Macedonia, Slovakia, Serbia and Montenegro. He is also the patron saint of Barranquilla (Colombia), Bari (Italy) Amsterdam (Netherlands), and of Beit Jala in the West Bank of Palestine.


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Punxsutawney Phil is a groundhog and the most famous resident of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. On February 2 (Groundhog's Day) of each year, the town of Punxsutawney celebrates the beloved groundhog with a festive atmosphere of music and food. During the ceremony, which begins well before the winter sunrise, Phil emerges from his temporary home on Gobbler's Knob, located in a rural area about 2 miles east of town. According to the tradition, if Phil sees his shadow and returns to his hole, the United States will suffer six more weeks of winter. If Phil does not see his shadow, spring will arrive early.


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Martin Luther King, Jr. (January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was a famous leader of the American civil rights movement, a political activist, and a Baptist minister. In 1964, King became the youngest man to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. On April 4, 1968, Dr. King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1977, he was posthumously awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Jimmy Carter. In 1986, Martin Luther King Day was established as a United States holiday, only the fourth Federal holiday to honor an individual. In 2004, King was posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal. King's most influential and well-known public address is the "I Have A Dream" speech, delivered on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C..


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Guy Fawkes (13 April 1570 – 31 January 1606), also known as Guido Fawkes was an English military man and member of a group of Roman Catholics who attempted to carry out the Gunpowder Plot on 5 November 1605. "The Gunpowder Plot" was a plan to assassinate the Protestant King James I and the members of both houses of the Parliament of England, by blowing up Westminster Palace, in which the king addressed a joint assembly of both the House of Lords and the House of Commons. His activities were detected before the plan's completion, and following a severe interrogation involving the use of torture and a trial in Westminster Hall, he and his co-conspirators were executed for treason and attempted murder. Fawkes's failure (or the attempt) is remembered by Guy Fawkes Night (also known as Bonfire Night or Fireworks Night) on 5 November.


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In Irish mythology, a leprechaun is a type of male faerie said to inhabit the island of Ireland. They are a class of "faerie folk" associated in Irish mythology and folklore, as with all faeries, with the Tuatha Dé Danann and other quasi-historical races said to have inhabited Ireland before the arrival of the Celts. Leprechauns and other creatures of Irish mythology are often associated with "faerie forts" or "faerie rings" — often the sites of ancient earthworks or drumlins. They are said to be very rich, having many treasure crocks buried during war-time. According to legend, if anyone keeps an eye fixed upon one, he cannot escape, but the moment the eye is withdrawn he vanishes.


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In Roman mythology, Cupid is the god of erotic love. He is equated with the Greek god Eros, and another one of his Latin names Amor. In popular culture Cupid is frequently shown shooting his bow to inspire romantic love, often as an icon of Valentine's Day. The most common representations of cupid include a chubby baby with wings and a bow and arrow. Sometimes the arrow has a heart for its tip. Cupid is most often seen nude or diapered. Cupid is sometimes blindfolded, symbolising the figure of speech, "love is blind."


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Father Time is a personification of time. He is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man, dressed in a robe, carrying an hourglass or other timekeeping device. This image is culled from several sources, including the Holly King, the Celtic god of the dying year, and Chronos, the Greek god of time. Because of their similarity in name as pertaining to parental figures, he is sometimes paired with Mother Nature as a married couple. Sometimes, due to the relationship between death and aging, Father Time is associated with the Grim Reaper.


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Ebenezer Scrooge is the main character in Charles Dickens' 1843 novel, A Christmas Carol. He is a very cold-hearted, selfish man, who has no love for Christmas, children, or anything that even provokes happiness. The story of his transformation by the three Ghosts of Christmas (Past, Present, and Yet to Come) has become a defining tale of the Christmas holiday in some cultures. Scrooge's phrase, "Bah, humbug!" has been used to express disgust with Christmas traditions in modern times. The inspiration for Charles Dickens' character was a grave marker for an Ebenezer Lennox Scroggie.


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The domesticated turkey is a large poultry bird raised for food. The modern domesticated turkey descends from the wild turkey, one of the two species of turkey; however, in the past the ocellated turkey was also domesticated. Turkeys are traditionally eaten as the main course of large feasts at Christmas in Europe and North America, as well as Thanksgiving in the United States and Canada, in both cases having displaced the traditional goose. While eating turkey was once mainly restricted to special occasions such as these, turkey is now eaten year round and forms a regular part of many diets.


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Christopher Columbus was a navigator and maritime explorer credited as the discoverer of the Americas. He had noted in his lifetime that he was born in Genoa, Italy. His birth name was Cristoforo Colombo. He eventually became an admiral for the Crown of Castile. Columbus' voyages across the Atlantic Ocean began a European effort at exploration and colonization of the Western Hemisphere. The anniversary of the 1492 voyage, Columbus Day, is observed throughout the Americas and in Spain.


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The Grinch is a popular cartoon character created by Dr. Seuss. He first appeared in the 1957 children's book, How the Grinch Stole Christmas!. The Grinch also has become a cultural icon, mainly due to the massive popularity of his TV specials. Most notably, he is considered a Christmas standard, and parodied/featured outside the Dr. Seuss brand frequently around the holiday season. Also, he is referenced by the media often in instances where a holiday display is ruined by vandals, or holiday burglaries are committed. Outside Christmas, the term "Grinch" is cognitive with "grouch".


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Suggestions

Is there a high quality Holiday personality that you feels deserves a close-up? Please post you suggestions below to let your voice be heard.

Procedure

The nomination process here is relaxed, but articles that meet the featured article or good article requirements are more likely to gain support.

Nominating articles

  1. Find an article related to holidays that you think is very good. It need not be a current Featured Article or Good article, but if it is, it could only help the nomination.
    • If the article was previously nominated for featured status, or if it has been on peer review, try to resolve as many of the remaining objections as possible.
  2. In the nominations section below, add a third level section header with the linked page title as the section name (===[[Page title]]===). Below this new header, add your reasons for nomination and sign your nomination with ~~~~.

Supporting and objecting

  • If you approve of a nomination, write "Support" followed by your reasons.
    • A nomination is considered a vote in support, so nominators don't need to add another vote to their nominations.
  • If you oppose a nomination, write "Oppose" followed by the reasons for your objection. Where possible, objections should provide a specific rationale that can be addressed.
    • To withdraw an objection, strike it out (with <s>...</s>) rather than removing it.

Nominations