Dragon Boat Festival
Culture/religion: Chinese heritage
Date: June 14
The Dragon Boat Festival is a public holiday in China that has a several stories of origination. The most common one today is that the Dragon Boat Festival is a holiday commemorating the death of the patriotic poet Qu Yuan. It is said that Qu Yuan drowned himself on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month to protest government injustice and corruption.
People who admired Qu Yuan raced out in their boats to save him; thereby becoming a tradition and the most popular activity during the festival.
Sources:
7 Facts to Learn Chinese Dragon Boat Festival, China Highlights
Dragon Boat Festival, Wikipedia
Juneteenth
Culture/religion: National observance
Date: June 19
Juneteenth is a holiday celebrated by many Black Americans commemorating the day the people of Texas were informed of the end of slavery in the United States, thereby freeing an estimated 250,000 enslaved people in the state. The Emancipation Proclamation became official on June 19, 1865, but, according to sources, the slow travel of news, the deliberate withholding of information until after the harvest season or possibly the murder of a messenger before his arrival in Texas, caused a two and a half year delay in the news reaching the state.
Also known as Freedom Day or Jubilee Day, Juneteenth is often celebrated with parades and community gatherings and has been considered a time to focus on education and self-improvement with guest speakers and the elders recounting stories and events of the past.
Though not recognized as a federal holiday, Juneteenth is recognized as a state holiday in 46 states today.
Sources:
What is Juneteenth?, PBS.