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 … [Read more...] about Cultural and religious observances – June 13-19, 2022
Loving Day Culture/religion: National observance Date: June 12 Loving Day is a national recognition of the June 12, 1967 Supreme Court decision Loving v. Virginia finding anti-miscegenation laws unconstitutional, thereby removing 16 state bans on interracial marriage. Loving v. Virginia centered around Mildred Jeter and Richard Loving who married in 1958 in … [Read more...] about Cultural and religious observances – June 6-12, 2022
Memorial Day Culture/religion: National observance Date: May 30 Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should … [Read more...] about Cultural and religious observances – May 30-June 5, 2022
Yom HaShoah Culture/religion: Judaism Date: April 28 Yom Hashoah, known by the full name of Yom Hashoah Ve-Hagevurah (“Day of (Remembrance of) Holocaust and the Heroism”), is a day of commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust. The day is observed on the 27th day in the month of Nisan – a week after the seventh day of Passover. The date of Yom Hashoah was … [Read more...] about Cultural and religious observances – April 25-May 1, 2022
Ridvan Festival Culture/religion: Bahá’í Date: April 21-May 2 Ridvan is a 12-day festival, celebrated as the most holy festival in the Bahai’ faith. The festival marks the anniversary of the days Bahá’u’lláh spent along the River Tigris in Baghdad. During those twelve days, in a garden he called “Ridvan,” meaning “paradise,” Bahá’u’lláh announced that he was God’s … [Read more...] about Cultural and religious observances – April 18-24, 2022