Dates to celebrate

Dates to celebrate

The stories behind the days when you can skip school or work

Merchants like holidays because they provide a good shopping opportunity. Greeting-card makers want to invent special occasions when they don’t exist. The religious faithful take their Holy Days seriously. And those who need a break cheer at the prospect of a day free of the normal routines.

Federal Holidays – Holidays n which federal government offices nationwide, and schools, banks, and offices in Washington, D.C., are closed. In practice, most states also declare a legal holiday on these days.

Here is the holiday calendar:

Major American holidays:

New Year’s Day, January 1: Roman mythology says two-faced Janus, the god of beginning for whom our first month is named, looked back on the old year and ahead to the new. In the United States, we ring out the old year at midnight with champagne, kisses, and a few bars of that cryptic Scottish melody, Auld Lang Syne (The Good Old Days).

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Birthday, January 15, third Monday in January : The civil rights activist, minister, and advocate of nonviolent protest was born on January 15, 1929. A bill to make his birthday a federal holiday was first introduced in 1968, the year King was assassinated. Some states added it to their calender while waiting for Congress to approve it. Ronald Reagan signed the bill in 1983.

Groundhog Day, February 2: Rumor has it that if a groundhog comes out of his hole on this day and sees his shadow, winter will last for six more weeks. But if the sky is overcast and the groundhog is shadowless, mild weather is on its way. Pennsylvania’s Punxsutawney Phil is the country’s most famous rodent meteorologist. Since 1887, the Punxsutawney Groundhog Club has trekked up to Gobbler’s Know to watch successive generations of Phils offer their predictions.

Valentine’s Day, February 14: The origin of this romantic holiday is uncertain, though it may have been inspired by the martyrom of St. Valentine in A.D. 270. The first commercial Valentine’s Day cards in the United States hit the shops in the 1840s; in the early 1900s, when risqué cards were the rage, the Chicago postal service refused to deliver 25,000 valentines it deemed unfit to be mailed.

President’s Day, February 19, third Monday in February: Honors two of our most famous presidents, George Washington (born February 22, 1732) and Abraham Lincoln (born February 12, 1809), whose birthdays used to be celebrated separately. These celebrated figures stood out in the crowd even by today’s standards. Washington was 6 feet tall, and lanky Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches.

St. Patrick’s Day, March 17: The patron saint of Ireland was born in England around A.D. 389, and immigrants who came to America from the Emerald Isle brought his holiday with them. So many of George Washington’s troops were Irish that the secret password during one Revolutionary War battle was “Saint Patrick”.

Vernal Equinox, March 20: Day and night are equally long on this first day of spring.

Sakura in flowers. Photo by Elena

April Fools’ Day, April 1: No one is sure when or why the first of April turned into a day for making friends look like fools, but the tradition dates back at least to the English, Scottish, and French practical jokers of the early 18th century. April fools are labeled “gowks” (cuckoos) in Scotland, and “gobs” or “noddies” in England; the French call April 1 pranks “poison d’avril”, or April fish.

Earth Day, April 22: “Reduce, reuse, recycle” has become a household mantra since 1970, when the Environmental Protection Agency first asked us to “Give Earth a chance.” Congress has passed laws that protect our natural resources, and curbside recycling programs are now common. But the EPA reports that the United States still produces more solid waste per person every day than any other nation – 4.4 pounds.

Mother’s Day, May 12, second Sunday in May: Julia Ward Howe, author of the Battle Hymn of the Republic, first floated the idea of a national holiday to honor mothers in 1872. But Philadelphian Anna Jarvis, whose own mother had wanted such a day to comfort families after the Civil War, launched the campaign that made it a reality. Woodrow Wilson officially established the holiday in 1914.

Memorial Day, May 27, last Monday in May: The government bowed in 1868 to the campaign of a Union veterans group that wanted to honor soldiers who died in the Civil War. The holiday has evolved since then into a tribute to all fallen soldiers and deceased loved ones.

Flag Day, June 14: The Second Continental Congress adopted the official flag design on June 14, 1777. Protocol dictates that the American flag may not touch the ground, nor may it be dipped to anyone or anything while being carried in a parade. The star spangled banner Francis Scott Key saw by the dawn’s early light was hit by 11 bullets as it flew above Baltimore’s Fort McHenry; it is preserved at the Smithsonian Institution.

Father’s Day, June 16, Third Sunday in June: The daughter of a Civil War veteran whose wife died giving birth to their sixth child persuaded her church in Spokane, Washington, to conduct a special service in honor of fathers. That was in 1910, and though the idea soon became popular around the nation, it wasn’t made an official holiday until 1966.

Summer Solstice, June 20: The first day of summer; the year’s longest.

Independence Day, July 4: With many fireworks and much fanfare, Fourth of July festivities commemorate the 1776 signing of the Declaration of Independence. Two of the signers were loyal to it even in death: On July 4, 1826, John Adams, the second president, died at age 90, at Thomas Jefferson, president number three, died at age 83.

Women’s equality Day, August 26: The 19th Amendment to the Constitution was passed on this day in 1920, giving women the right to vote. In Tennessee’s House of Representatives, the last vote needed to ratify the amendment was cast by 24-year-old Harry Burns, who, though his district opposed the measure, promised his mother he would vote for it to break a tie.

Labor Day, September 2, first Monday in September: During the Industrial Revolution, a bad time for laborers, union leader Peter McGuire drummed up support for a day that paid homage to America’s workers. He chose early September for its pleasant weather, and because no other legal holiday broke up the stretch between Independence Day and Thanksgiving. It’s always been thought of as the end of summer vacation, although many schools now resume in late August.

Autumnal Equinox, September 22: the first day of fall.

Columbus Day, October 14: Christopher Columbus, and his entourage first touched American soil on October 12, 1492, probably on Samana Cay in the Bahamas. At sea, Columbus kept an accurate private log of the miles traveled each day, but subtracted miles for the ship’s official log. He did so to avoid mutinies caused by sailors who didn’t want to be so far from home, and to make sure his directions to Asia, which turned out to be wildly inaccurate, wouldn’t fall into the wrong hands.

United Nations Day, October 24: When the United Nations was founded in 1945, it had 51 member countries. Now it has more than 200. Its six official languages are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish.

Halloween, October 31: The attendant ghouls and goblins stem from the myths of the ancient Celts, who thought witches, ghosts, and the souls of the dead wandered about on the last night of their harvest season. The name comes from the Catholic Church, which in the ninth century declared the first of November All Saints’ Day and called the previous evening All Hallow Even. Candy-loving children benefit from the combination of influences, as does UNICEF, which has earned more than $100 million since 1950 from its Halloween fundraising campaign.

Veterans Day, November 11: Formerly called Armistice Day, it commemorated the end World War and honored those who had died fighting it. The holiday was renamed in 1954 and its scope widened to include all who have served in the U.S. Armed forces. For a short time in the 1970s, the date was changed to the fourth Monday in November to add another three-day weekend to the calendar. But many Americans thought making the observance moveable was disrespectful, and the date was changed back in 1978.

Thanksgiving Day, November 28, third Thursday in November: The first Thanksgiving feast was cooked up around 1621 when pilgrims and Native Americans sat down together to enjoy the fruits of harvest. Formerly scheduled for the last Thursday in November (which usually turns out to be the fourth), Thanksgiving was moved up in 1939 – Franklin D. Roosevelt wanted to help the economy by extending the Christmas shopping season.

Winter Solstice, December 21: First day of winter; shortest day of the year.

Kwanzaa, December 26 to January 1: The name means “first fruits” in Swahili, and the holiday is based on African harvest festivals. Brought to America in the mid-’60s by Maulana Karenga, a civil rights leader about their ancestors’ cultures, Kwanzaa celebrates the history and culture of African Americans