May Day

The month of May announces the onset of summer in the northern hemisphere. Since it marks the beginning of the farming season in this region it is celebrated with unparallel grandeur. May Day celebration on 1^st May is an ancient spring time event observed to welcome spring time.

It is a popular celebration in many cultures and normally a public holiday in the countries where it is celebrated.

Origination of the May Day Celebration

May Day has its origin in the early Celtic festivals and the Germanic festival of Walpurgis Night. It also has its roots attached to the pagan and neopagan festivals of Europe like Samhain. In paganism it is also celebrated as cross-quarter day as the day falls exactly half a year from 1^st November.

Arrival of May means the end of the harsh winter and beginning of the welcoming summer. The ancient Romans used to celebrate the day with the festival of Flora, who was the Roman Goddess of flower. In the Pagan culture, February 1 was usually celebrated as the beginning of spring and May was the beginning of summer and hence, was the time for the traditional summer holiday. May Day was a time of festivity and people used to celebrate by dancing and singing around the maypole and crowing the Queen of the May.

When Christianity became the primary religion of Europe many of these pagan festivals were abandoned or were replaced by Christian holidays like Christmas, Easter, All Saint’s Day, Lent, Ash Wednesday etc. It wasn’t since twentieth century that many neopagan groups started the movement to recreate and reconstruct their old traditions. They took the initiatives to revive and popularize the May Day celebration.

In the Roman Catholic religion the month is dedicated to Mary and is celebrated as Mary’s month. Often during this celebration the head of the Blessed Virgin Mary is decorated with headgears made with flowers called the May crown.

May Day is a popular event in the countries like:

• England
• Ireland
• France
• Germany
• Finland
• Sweden
• USA

May Day: International Workers' Day

In many parts of the world 1^st May is celebrated as the International Workers' Day to recognize the success of international labor movements and left-wing movements.

In the history of trade union movements 1^st May holds great importance as it is on this day the eight hour workday rights of the labors was established. As a result, it is recognized worldwide as a day that freed the labor class from the oppression of the privileged section of the society. May Day remains a public holiday in more than eighty countries and workers and trade unions celebrate the day demonstrating and organizing parades for labor rights. 

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Arbor Day

Planting more trees and turning the earth green is the message celebrated on the Arbor Day. Arbor in Latin means tree and hence, is the name. Every year the day is celebrated across the world to show love and caring for the mother earth. In 2012, the Arbor Day will be celebrated in the US on 27^th April.

History of Arbor Day

The concept of Arbor Day originated during 1872, when J. Sterling Morton, a journalist and a nature lover, started observing the day on 10^th April in Nebraska City, Nebraska, United States. The day was later officially proclaimed on March 12, 1874 by the Governor of Nebraska and the birthday of Morton, April 22^nd was selected as the date of observance. It was declared as a legal holiday in Nebraska. During the 1870s the other states also adopted the idea of celebrating the Arbor Day and the tradition of celebrating it in schools began in 1882.

Birdsey Northrop of Connecticut made Arbor Day a worldwide celebrated event when he traveled to Japan in 1883 to spread the message of Arbor Day and Village Improvement. He is also responsible for introducing the Arbor Day celebration in Australia, Canada and Europe. When he was appointed as the Chairman of the campaign in the same year by the American Forestry Association he took it on him to popularize Arbor Day celebration across the US. Today in many states of USA the Arbor Day is celebrated on the last Friday of April - it being the most suitable time of the year to plant trees.

In many countries across the globe similar observances occur at different dates depending upon the climate of that country.

Arbor Day Celebrations

Arbor Day celebrations take place in schools where programs and special classes are organized to educate students about the objective and benefits of the celebration. Group activities and beautification projects are organized involving school children. Poster drawing, poetry writing, tree trivia contests are held along with Arbor Day processions and parades.

In many neighborhoods volunteers gather to celebrate the day by planting new trees. Classes are organized on gardening and farming to educate people on how to care for trees.

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Earth Day

The environment of this earth is gradually deteriorating and its natural resources depleting every day. To create awareness to protect the mother earth April 22^nd has been assigned as the Earth Day.

The idea was first proposed by John McConnell in the 1969 conference of UNESCO in San Francisco. The first Earth day, however, was observed in San Francisco and few other cities on March 21, 1970. The day was selected because it was the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. During the same time a separate day was celebrated by United States Senator Gaylord Nelson on April 22^nd as environmental teach-in. The idea of creating awareness against environmental pollution occurred to him after witnessing the massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. He took advantage of the increasing awareness in general Americans against air and water pollution in celebrating Earth’s Day. Around 20 million people took part in Earth Day rallies that year.

Till 1990 Earth Day was celebrated only in the US but Denis Hayes gave it international recognition by coordinating it across 141 nations in the same year.

In 2009, the United Nations sanctioned April 22^nd as International Mother Earth Day. They have plans to celebrate the day every year till 2015. The Earth Day Network is responsible for conducting the event worldwide. Earth Day is now celebrated by more than 175 countries.

In many countries earth week and even months are observed starting from April 22^nd. Conferences, seminars, workshops, rallies, discussions are organized over the impending issues of global warming, overall deterioration of environmental condition and creating awareness among people to protect the planet.

Earth Day Network

Earth Day Network is the responsible body for coordinating Earth Day celebration across 175 nations. The founding members of this organization were Denis Hayes and Pam Lippe, one of the first Earth Day organizers. The network is responsible for coordinating and organizing year-round activities for protecting the earth and raising different environmental issues. The Earth Day Network is a conglomeration of both government and non government organizations. The different members of the network are:

• Local government offices

• Quasi government organization

• Non-profit organizations

• Environmental activists

The network focuses on:

• Conducting environmental educational programs

• Focusing and discussing on local, national, and global policies

• Conducting public environmental campaigns

• Organizing Earth Day events both at national and international levels

• Promote activism

• Creating awareness about different environmental issues

Currently it has over 19,000 members representing 192 countries. At the domestic level they have got over 10,000 groups and 100 thousand educators conducting over a million environmental development programs.

Earth Day Canada

The first Earth Day was observed by a graduate student of Physics and Solar Engineering at Queen's University, Paul D. Tinari, in the year 1980. He observed the day on 11^th September. Later, Flora MacDonald, the then MP for Kingston and the Islands and Canadian Secretary of State for External Affairs officially declared Earth Day Canada Week on September 6^th 1980. The day was formally observed by planting sapling for a greener world.

The first Earth Day Canada was spent by volunteers planting new trees, replacing trees that died of Dutch Elm disease, cleaning public parks, and picking litters from highways.

Earth Day Canada (EDC), a charity organization founded in the year 1990, is responsible for offering Canadians the practical knowledge and tools that will help them curb the impact of environmental pollution. They conduct year long educational programs and workshops to aware people of the environmental issues. Their programs have earned them the recognition of the leading environmental educational organization in North America in 2004. EDC runs the following environmental educational programs:

• Ecokids

• EcoMentors,

• EcoAction Teams,

• Community Environment Fund

• Hometown Heroes

• The Toyota Earth Day Scholarship Program

The Ecology Flag

The ecology flag created by cartoonist Ron Cobb was first displayed on 7^th November 1969 in Los Angeles Free Press. The logo of the flag was created by combining E and O which represent ‘Environment’ and ‘Organism’ respectively. The green and white stripes of the flag are inspired by the US national flag. Its canton contains a yellow theta on the green background. This associated the theta to the Earth Day.

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Easter

Christians all over the world eagerly wait for the day of Easter. They celebrate the resurrection of Jesus and thus of faith on this day. Easter marks the end of the forty-day long fasting of Lent.

The week that precedes Easter is called the Holy Week, during which the Christians observe Maundy Thursday commemorating the Last Supper of Jesus. The day after Maundy Thursday is Good Friday or the day of death of Jesus by crucifixion. The fifty day period that follows Easter is called Eastertide or Easter Season and it ends on Pentecost Sunday.

Easter is known as moveable feast since it doesn’t fall on a set date every year. The first Council of Nicaea determined the day of Easter on the first Sunday after the full moon cycle (Paschal Full Moon) that followed the Vernal Equinox. Based on that calculation the date of Easter varied between March 22^nd and April 25^th.

Easter is also celebrated on different dates in eastern and western hemisphere depending on the calendar they use.

In the Eastern hemisphere the calculation is based on the Julian calendar, which varies by three days from the Gregorian calendar in every four centuries. According to that, Easter is celebrated a week or two after the celebration in the western hemisphere, which follows the Gregorian calendar. So, the date of Easter varies between 4^th of April and 8^th of May. Dates of various Christian festivities are also determined based on the date for Easter.

Origin of Easter

During the early time of Christianity only the Easter Sunday was celebrated as an auspicious day. It was believed that on this day Jesus rose from the dead and ascended to the heaven. Some Christian scholars are of the opinion that the word Good Friday was actually derived from “God’s Friday” and it commemorates the sacrifices made by Jesus to show us the way of salvation. It was during the 4^th century when the church started celebrating even the week before Easter, including the days of Good Friday and Maundy Thursday.

Various theories are available regarding the origination of the word Easter. A 7^th century historian and Anglo-Saxon cleric, Venerable Bede, opined that the word Easter came from Eastre or Eostre, who was a Teutonic goddess of spring and fertility. Ancient Romans used to offer their first produce of the season to the Goddess of spring.

Another version relates Easter to the Latin phrase hebdomada alba, which means ‘white week’. The term refers to the Holy Week preceding Easter. According to ancient references, during this period people who were baptized used to don white clothes and from that the name originated. Later the word appeared as ‘esostarum’ in Old High German and hence, later as Easter in English.

Some versions also relate Easter to the Jewish festival of Passover. In fact, in Spain and France Esater is known as Pascua and Paques respectively, which is derived from the Latin word for Passover, Pascha.

For the Christian churches Easter is the name of an entire season as opposed to the single day celebration. The season begins with Lent during which Christians maintain fast and spend time in prayer, self reflection and penance. This period represent the time that Jesus spent alone in the wilderness before he started preaching his ideas.

Celebration of Easter

Today Easter is celebrated across the globe. It is one of the major festivals of Christians after Christmas. It is the time for them for merriment and feasting. Easter also happens to announce the advent of spring in northern hemisphere and hence, it calls for a joyous celebration. Although the nature of the festivity varies between countries some features of it like gifting, Easter eggs, Easter bunny and Easter egg hunt remain same throughout.

Masses are organized at churches, which are attended by large number of followers. Easter feasts are organized in many places and families also gather together to enjoy an Easter meal. Gifting is a common feature of the celebration and Easter baskets are exchanged among friends and relatives. Children especially enjoy Easter since it is a time for them to receive Easter gift baskets full of candy, chocolates and other knickknacks. They enthusiastically take part in Easter egg hunts.

Easter Egg Hunt

It is one of the most common features of Easter celebration. During Easter egg hunts, hard boiled eggs or artificial eggs made of chocolate or candy are hidden at different places.

In Christianity, egg represents rebirth and therefore symbolizes with the resurrection of the Lord. The egg hunt is also relateed to the Pagan origin of the celebration. At ancient time it was believed the earth comes to life during the spring and hence, the egg was used to denote the rebirth or renewal.

Children at large numbers take part in Easter egg hunt events. Depending on the age of the participants the degree of concealment varies. As per south German traditions extra degree of difficulties are introduced to make it harder for the participants to collect eggs. Apart from the egg hunt other games are also played involving the Easter egg, such as Egg rolling, Pace Egg play, Egg tapping, Egg dance and Egg and spoon race.

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