This article originally appeared in the January-February 2003 issue of the Children's Advocate, published by Action Alliance for Children.

2003 Multicultural Calendar

U.N. International Decade for a Culture of Peace

January

1 New Year's Day: first day of the Gregorian calendar year • Emancipation Proclamation takes effect 1863.

2 Ancestor's Day (Haiti).

6 Epiphany, Dia de los Reyes, Twelfth Day: Christians celebrate the visits of the Magi • Birthday of Kahlil Gibrán: Lebanese/American poet.

7 Armenian and Orthodox Christmas: observed in Ethiopia, Greece, Russia, and other countries following the old Julian calendar.

8 Midwife's or Women's Day (Greece): Men do all the housework and women spend time in cafes.

9 Birthday of Rigoberta Menchú (1959-): Quiche Maya activist for the rights of Indigenous peoples in Guatemala.

13 Makar Sankrant, Pongal (India): Hindu holiday to mark the sun's changing position. Sweet things and foods with sesame seeds are eaten.

15 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day (1929-68): celebrates birthday of African American civil rights leader • Humanitarian Day: celebrates those who changed racial segregation laws in America.

16 Día de San Antonio (Mexico): blessing of animals.

17 Tu B'Shevat: Jewish holiday to show respect and appreciation for trees and plants begins at sundown • Birthday of Alan Alexander Milne (1882-1956): author and creator of Winnie the Pooh.

19 World Religion Day: dedicated to increasing interfaith understanding and cooperation.

20 Ati-Atihan (Philippines): celebrates an ancient peace pact between the Ati of Panay and the Malays, early migrants to the islands.

23 Babin Den (Bulgaria): Grandmother and Midwives Day.

25 Sojourner Truth (1797-1883) addressed the first African American women's rights convention in Akron, Ohio, in 1851.

27 Day of Remembrance for Victims of Nazism.

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February

African American History Month

1 Yuan Tan (Chinese New Year), Year of the Sheep (4701) • Tet begins: week-long Vietnamese celebration. Children pay respect to their elders and receive gifts of money • African American students staged a nonviolent protest of segregation in 1960 at a lunch counter in North Carolina, launching widespread civil rights activities • National Freedom Day: commemorates the 1865 abolition of slavery in the U.S. • Birthday of Langston Hughes (1902-67): African American writer.

2 Groundhog Day • Día de la Candalaria (Mexico): celebration with dances and processions.

3 Setsubun (Japan): Bean-throwing Festival celebrates the end of winter.

4 Birthday of Rosa Parks (1913-): civil rights activist.

6 Birthday of Bob Marley (1945-81): influential reggae musician in the Rastafarian movement.

9 Birthday of Alice Walker (1944-): African American author and activist.

12 National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) established in 1909.

14 Valentine's Day.

15 Teng Chieh (Lantern Festival) marks the end of the Chinese New Year holiday period • Birthday of Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906): early women's rights advocate • Birthday of John Trudell (1946-): Lakota activist, poet, spoken-word artist.

17 International Friendship Week.

18 Birthday of Toni Morrison (1931-): African American author • Presidents' Day.

19 Japanese Internment National Day of Remembrance: commemorates the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II • Birthday of Amy Tan (1952-): Chinese American author.

23 Birthday of W.E.B. Du Bois (1868-1963): sociologist who helped found the NAACP.

24 Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890-1964) led 20,000 women in the 1912 "Bread & Roses" textile strike in Massachusetts • Día de la Bandera (Mexico): Mexican flag day.

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March

Women's History Month

2 Birthday of Dr. Seuss (Theodore Geisel, 1904-91): children's book author.

3 Hina Matsuri (Doll Festival, Japan): a special festival for girls • First law regulating hours of employment for children passed in 1824.

4 Awwal Muharram/Al Hijra begins the Islamic New Year (1424) • Carnival, Fat Tuesday, Mardi Gras (Brazil, Caribbean, Italy): celebration of the cycles of life with music, costume balls, and parades, the last day before Christian Lent • Peace Corps founded 1961.

6 Birthday of Gabriel García Márquez (1928-): Colombian author.

8 International Women's Day: widely observed holiday started by U.S. women garment workers demonstrating for the right to vote.

9 Barbie debuts 1959.

10 Death of Harriet Tubman (1821-1913): leader of the Underground Railroad and self-liberated slave.

11 Girl Scouts USA founded in 1912, Savannah, Georgia.

17 St. Patrick's Day (Irish) • South African referendum to end Apartheid, 1992 • Purim (Jewish): celebrates the ancient rescue of the Jews from religious persecution with plays and pastries.

21 Vernal equinox (Northern Hemisphere): first day of spring • Ibo Afo Festival (Nigeria): celebrated with shouts driving out the old year and applause greeting the new year • Noruz (Persian New Year): rebirth of nature celebrated with 3,000-year-old rituals, which include germinating seeds.

22 International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (U.N.) • Birthday of Benito Juarez (1806-72): Zapotec leader of resistance to foreign invasion in Mexico • Day of the Indian Child (Mexico).

24 Birthday of Harry Houdini (1874-1926): magician and escape artist.

29 Youth Day (Taiwan).

31 Cesar Chavez Day (1927-93): celebrates the birthday of Mexican American labor leader who organized migrant farmworkers in the U.S.

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April

Child Abuse Prevention Month
Month of the Young Child

1 April Fool's Day (U.S.)

2 Indonesian New Year on the Saka calendar (1925) • Varsha-Pratipada begins the Hindu New Year (2058).

4 Birthday of Maya Angelou (1928-): African American author.

5 Birthday of Booker T. Washington (1856-1915): African American leader and educator • Ch'ing Ming (China), Han Sik'il (Korea): celebrates the coming of spring and honors ancestors • Gayanashagowa (Great Binding of Nations): Iroquois confederacy was established uniting six Native American nations, became the model for the U.S. constitution.

6 Week of the Young Child begins.

8 Day of Vesak: birthday of the Buddha (India) (563-483 B.C.)

9 Birthday of Paul Robeson (1898-1976): African American actor, singer, activist.

10 Birthday of Dolores Huerta (1930-): Chicana labor rights leader and social activist.

13 Thingyan (Burma), Songkram (Thailand): water is splashed on others and on Buddha images to bring in new year.

16 Passover begins at sundown: Jewish celebration of liberation from slavery • Birthday of Selena (1971-95): legendary Chicana singer.

17 Holi (India): Colorful spring festival. Children celebrate by squirting each other with brightly colored water.

20 Easter Sunday.

21 Birthday of Friedrich Froebel (1782-1852): the father of kindergarten and originator of the progressive education movement • Birthday of John Muir (1838-1914): naturalist and conservationist.

22 Earth Day: first celebrated in 1970 to honor the earth and promote environment-friendly living.

24 Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day.

25 Arbor Day.

27 National Child Care Professionals Day • Deaf Moms and Dads Day (CODA).

30 Spank Out Day, promoting alternative methods of discipline • Día de los Niños (Mexico, U.S.)

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May

Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

1 Worthy Wage Day, established to increase awareness of the need for adequate wages for child care workers to ensure quality care for children • International Workers' Day, May Day: celebrated around the world to honor workers • Lei Day (Hawai'i): leis are made and worn to celebrate May Day • Mother Goose Day: reappreciate old nursery rhymes.

3 World Asthma Day.

5 Cinco De Mayo (Mexico) • Occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, by the American Indian Movement ended in 1973 • Children's Day (Japan and Korea).

6 National Teachers' Day.

11 Mothers' Day (U.S.)

14 Mawlid al Nabi celebrates the birthday of Muhammad (570-632), the Islamic prophet.

17 Desegregation in public schools mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1954 (Brown v. Board of Education).

19 Birthday of Malcolm X (1925-65): African American nationalist and civil rights activist.

22 Birthday of Harvey Milk (1930-78): gay rights leader.

25 African Freedom Day commemorates the independence of Chad, Zambia, and other African countries with sports contests, political rallies, and tribal dances.

27 Memorial Day (U.S.)

31 World No Tobacco Day (U.N.)

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June

Gay and Lesbian Pride Month

1 Children's Day (China) • Stand for Children Day.

4 Dragon Boat Festival (China): boat races honoring third-century poet and statesman Ch'u Yuan, who protested injustice and corruption.

6 Birthday of the Dalai Lama (1935-): Tibet's spiritual leader.

7 Multicultural American Children's Awareness Day: share the talents of all children.

12 Philippines Independence Day.

14 Flag Day (U.S.) • World Juggling Day.

15 Fathers' Day (U.S.)

16 Cherokees were forced to begin the 1,200 mile Trail of Tears to Oklahoma in 1838.

19 Juneteenth: African American celebration of the day in 1865 when Union General Granger proclaimed the slaves of Texas free • Birthday of Aung San Suu Kyi (1945-): Burmese leader for democracy and nonviolence.

21 Summer solstice (Northern Hemisphere).

24 Inti Raymi (Incan): festival of the sun god celebrated with bonfires, dances, processions.

26 Release of Smoke Signals, the first major U.S. movie to be entirely written, directed, and produced by Native Americans, in 1998.

28 Stonewall Riot in New York City (1969), considered the beginning of the gay liberation movement.

29 Birthday of Julia Lathrop (1856-1932): pioneer in the struggle to establish child labor laws.

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July

1 Canada Day.

2 Birthday of Thurgood Marshall (1908-93): first African American Supreme Court justice.

3 Child laborers struck for an 11-hour work day and a six-day work week in Patterson, New Jersey, in 1835.

4 Independence Day (U.S.)

7 Star Festival (Japan): children tie poems to bamboo sticks and offer them to the stars.

12 Birthday of Pablo Neruda (1904-73): Chilean poet and diplomat.

15 Bon Festival (Japan): lanterns and bonfires lit to honor the dead.

18 Birthday of Nelson Mandela (1918-), South African black leader against apartheid. Imprisoned for 27 years, he was elected president of South Africa in 1994 • Children's Defense Fund (then the Washington Research Project), founded by Marian Wright Edelman in 1967.

19 Seneca Falls convention (1848): where women drafted the "Declaration of Sentiments" asserting women's right to equality.

20 First Special Olympics held in Chicago in 1968.

24 Birthday of Amelia Earhart (1898-1937?): record-setting aviator.

26 Americans with Disabilities Act signed 1990.

29 Parents' Day (U.S.)

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August

1 International Clown Week begins.

6 Hiroshima Day commemorates the 1945 atomic bombing and promotes peace • Youth Day (Zambia).

8 Raksha Bandhan (Brother and Sister Day, India): brothers and sisters promise to be good to each other.

9 Birthday of Jean Piaget (1896-1980), Swiss philosopher and psychologist who studied children's mental development • International Day of the World's Indigenous People (U.N.)

12 Trung Nguyen: Buddhist Day of Wandering Souls (Vietnamese) • American Indian Religious Freedom Act, giving Native Americans the right to practice their traditional religions, passed in 1978.

15 Birthday of Oscar Romero (1917-80): archbishop who worked for justice and peace in El Salvador.

18 Nineteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution ratified in 1920, giving women the right to vote.

27 Birthday of Mother Teresa (1910-97): devoted her life to caring for the destitute of Calcutta, India.

28 March on Washington in 1963, where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gave the "I Have a Dream" speech.

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September

Hispanic Heritage Month (Sept. 15-Oct. 15)

1 Childhood Injury Prevention Week begins • Car Free Day.

3 Labor Day (U.S., Canada) • Frederick Douglass (1817-95) escaped from slavery in 1838 and became a leader in the struggle.

7 National Grandparents' Day (U.S.)

10 Chusok (Korea): harvest thanksgiving festival.

11 Trung Thu: Vietnamese autumn celebration. Children parade through the streets with lanterns and moon cakes are baked • Ethiopian New Year (1995) • Coptic New Year (1718).

15 Mexican Independence Day.

17 U.S. Constitution signed in 1787.

21 United Nations International Peace Day.

22 Banned Books Week begins • Birthday of the ice cream cone in 1913, originated by Italo Marchiony, who sold lemon ice from a pushcart in New York.

23 Autumnal equinox (Northern Hemisphere): first day of autumn.

26 Rosh Hashanah (Jewish New Year) begins at sundown (Year 5764).

28 Teachers' Day and Confucius's birthday (551-479 B.C.E.), Taiwan, China.

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October

Child Health Month

1 Universal Children's Day (U.N.)

2 Walk to School Day • Birthday of Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948): leader of the nonviolent struggle for Indian independence • Birthday of Charlie Brown and Snoopy (1950).

5 Death of Tecumseh (1768?-1813): Shawnee leader who spoke out against unfairness of treaties with white settlers • Yom Kippur: Jewish Day of Atonement begins at sundown.

7 Birthday of Desmond Tutu (1931-): South African archbishop and leader in the struggle against apartheid.

10 Birthday of Ken Saro Wiwa (1941-95): Ogoni environmental and human rights activist in Nigeria • Succot: Jewish harvest festival begins at sundown.

12 Día de la Raza (Mexico) • Indigenous People's Day (U.S.) • Lights On Afterschool! celebrates after-school programs and publicizes the need for additional programs • White Sunday (Samoa): A feast is prepared by parents and served to children.

21 Boys Day (India): Families recognize boys.

22 Girls Day (South India): Families recognize girls.

23 Birthday of Pele (1940- ): Brazilian soccer star.

24 Establishment of the United Nations in 1945 to work for world peace.

25 Divali (Festival of Lights, India): lights and fireworks celebrate wealth in many forms (family, wisdom, values).

31 Halloween.

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November

Native American Indian Heritage Month

1 Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead, Mexico): Cemeteries are visited and shrines decorated to honor departed loved ones.

4 Election Day (U.S.) • Child Protection Act banning hazardous toys and articles passed in 1966 • Wuwuchim (Hopi New Year): celebrated with songs, prayers, and dances.

6 Ramadhan (Middle East, North Africa, Indonesia) begins: Muslim holy month of fasting and prayer.

9 Berlin Wall opened in 1989, symbolizing the end of the Cold War.

10 Veterans Day (U.S.) • Sesame Street, the children's educational television program, premiered in 1969.

13 Parent Involvement Day: encourages parent participation in children's development and education (U.S.)

15 Shichi Go Sun (Japan): festival to honor children ages three, five, and seven • Children's Day (India): commemorates the birthday of Jawaharlal Nehru (1889-1964), India's first prime minister.

17 National Children's Book Week begins.

18 Birthday of Wilma Mankiller (1945-): Chief of the Cherokee nation from 1985-1995 • Children's Advocate newspaper began publication in 1973.

25 Eid al Fitr: Muslim feast at the end of Ramadan.

27 Thanksgiving (U.S.)

28 Buy Nothing Day: activists urge no shopping on this day to draw attention to over-consumption (U.S.)

29 Education for All Handicapped Children Act passed in 1975.

30 Andres Bonifacio Day (1863-97): Birthday of Filipino leader who led the nation's revolt against Spain.

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December

1 World AIDS Day • Arrest of civil rights leader Rosa Parks for refusing to give up her seat in a bus in Montgomery, Alabama, in 1955. This set off a bus boycott which ended segregation on buses throughout the southern U.S.

3 International Day of Disabled Persons (U.N.) • Birthday of Anna Freud (1895-1982): authority on mental disorders in children. She warned against the effects of neglect and harsh discipline.

10 U.N. Human Rights Day • Birthday of Thomas H. Gallaudet (1787-1851), pioneer in the education of deaf people.

11 United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) established in 1946.

12 Feast of the Virgen de Guadalupe: patroness of Mexico.

16 Las Posadas (U.S., Mexico), Simbang Gabi (Philippines): candlelight parades commemorate Joseph and Mary's search for shelter in Bethlehem, lasts until January 6.

19 Chanukkah (Jewish Festival of Lights) begins at sundown.

20 Birthday of Sandra Cisneros (1954-): Mexican American author.

22 Winter solstice (Northern Hemisphere).

24 Birthday of Ricky Martin (1971-): Puerto Rican singer and actor.

25 Christmas.

26 Kwanzaa begins: seven-day African American family festival in recognition of traditional African harvest festivals.

30 Rizal Day: Date of execution of Dr. Jose Rizal (1861-96), Filipino reformer and writer.

31 New Year's Eve • World Peace Meditation.

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This calendar contains a sampling of multicultural celebrations and significant dates. For more information, consult:

• Chase's 2003 Calendar of Events. Chicago: Contemporary Books, 2002. Includes over 12,000 day-by-day holidays, historic anniversaries, birthdays of significant persons.
  
  
• The Folklore of World Holidays, edited by Margaret MacDonald. Detroit: Gale Research, Inc., 1992. Describes customs and history of over 340 holidays and festivals from 150 countries.
  
  
• Shap Calendar of Religious Festivals, www.support4learning.org.uk

Calendar originally compiled by Daphne Muse. Revised and updated this year by Jean Tepperman.

Drawings by students in the "Draw Your Heart Out" class taught by Jacqueline Ruben at the Sharon Art Studio, San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department.

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