National Coming Out Day

Culture/religion: National observance
Date: October 11

National Coming Out Day is an annual LGBT awareness day to support lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

National Coming Out Day was first celebrated in 1988. The initial idea was rooted in the feminist and gay liberation movements and emphasized the most basic form of activism – coming out to family, friends and colleagues and living as an open lesbian or gay person.

October 11 was chosen as the day to celebrate because it is the anniversary of the 1987 National March on Washington for Lesbian and Gay Rights.

Sources:

The History of Coming Out, Human Rights Campaign

National Coming Out Day, Wikipedia

 

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Dussehra

Culture/religion: Hindu
Date: October 15

Dussehra, also known as Vijayadashami (“victory on the tenth day”) is one of the major Hindu festivals celebrated at the end of Navaratri every year. The festival signifies good over evil, commemorating the victory of Lord Rama over the demon Ravana.

Though observed for different reasons and celebrated in a variety of ways across India, celebrations are known to include processions of the statues of Durga, Lakshmi, Saraswati, Ganesha and Kartikeya to a river or ocean and immersing them in the water for dissolution and farewell. In other locations, large effigies of Ravan, symbolizing evil, are burned with fireworks marking evil’s destruction.

The Dussehra festival starts the preparations for Diwali which is celebrated twenty days later.

Sources:

Dussehra Festival, TourMyIndia.com

Vijayadashami, Wikipedia