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Holidays & Observances
Celebrating the rich and diverse culture and contributions of the diverse population of Arab Americans, National Arab American Heritage Month has been observed during the month of April since 2017. In 2022, President Biden became the first U.S. president to declare April as Arab American Heritage Month, in recognition of the contributions of Arab Americans to the nation's history. Americans of Arab heritage have advanced the nation’s achievements in diplomacy, science, technology, as well as in art and culture.
An estimated 3.7 million Americans have Arab roots, according to the Arab American Institute, with ancestries traced to 22 countries in the Middle East and North Africa, including Lebanon, Syria, Egypt, Palestine, Morocco, Iraq, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Sudan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and others.
5 Facts About Arab American Heritage Month
1. Nearly 4 million Americans can trace their heritage to an Arab country.
2. Arab immigration to the U.S. began in the 1880s, primarily from the Ottoman Empire (Migration Policy Institute).
3. The first official push for national recognition of Arab American Heritage Month began in 2017 by members of AAF.
4. Michigan, Illinois, California, and New York have the largest Arab American populations in the country.
5. The majority of Arab Americans are native-born, and nearly 82% of Arabs in the U.S. are citizens, according to the AAI.
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Passover, also called Pesach, is a major Jewish holiday that celebrates the exodus of the Israelites from slavery in Egypt, which occurs on the 15th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the first month of Aviv, or spring.
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This is a several days holiday in which Jews retell the story of Exodus--liberation from bondage and journey to freedom. It is also a time for making connections to others who have suffered and continue to suffer as slaves. A part of this observance is a dietary change to no leavened bread or bread products, instead eating matzah. There are ritual meals, Seders, which are the focal point of the telling of Exodus and passing down lessons from one generation to the next.
Jews were slaves in Egypt. The main idea of this holiday is teaching about freedom. It's also a holiday that has a lot of symbols, a family oriented holiday that is commemorated with a meal, reading of the Passover story, singing songs, eating unleavened bread, and welcoming Spring.
Some families are more strictly observant and have some days they cannot do work and who may undergo a major cleaning out of their entire house to remove any crumbs of leavened bread during the days just prior to the holidays start. Most families will host a large feast called seders, that can last several hours. Dates of these feasts are not fixed. Many other families will have more relaxed practices.
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Vaisakhi or Baisakhi (Basoa for Dogras) is the harvest festival of happiness and prosperity, is celebrated every year on April 13 or 14 and is a significant festival for the Sikh community. Baisakhi marks the beginning of the Sikh New Year and commemorates the formation of the Khalsa. For the Punjabi community, it is an occasion to celebrate the harvest season and offer prayers for a bountiful crop in the upcoming year.
The celebrations start with people bathing in a holy river and going to a Gurudwara (place of worship). After the prayers, people dance, sing and enjoy the festivities. The popular phrase 'JattaAayi Baisakhi' is proclaimed loudly in neighbourhoods as gleeful farmers celebrate a bountiful harvest. Feasts are an integral part of the festival and the traditional Karah Prasad (a semolina concoction prepared with wheat flour, clarified butter and sugar) is a special delicacy. People congregate for lunch at the guru-ka-langar or community kitchen at the Gurudwaras and after a shared meal, take out grand processions of Nagar Kirtan, in which devotional songs are sung & played.
In other parts of India, Baisakhi is known by diverse names - Pohela Boishakh in West Bengal, Bohag Bihu in Assam, Puthandu in Tamil Nadu, Bihu in Uttarakhand, Ugadi in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, Pooram Vishu in Kerala, Maha-Vishuva Sankranti in Odisha and is celebrated as the Indian Solar New Year.
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Good Friday is a religious holiday usually observed by Christians. It is also called Holy Friday, Black Friday, or Great Friday. It is observed to remember the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ. It is a solemn day of remembrance and reflection, and Christians worldwide observe it by attending church services, fasting, praying, and reflecting on the meaning of Christ's sacrifice. The crucifixion was the culmination of a number of events in Holy Week, including: the triumphal return of Jesus to Jerusalem on Palm Sunday; the washing of the disciples' feet by Jesus; and the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday.
The crucifix, or cross, which represents the way Jesus died, is an important symbol seen on Good Friday. Some crosses bear a figure of Christ. Other symbols of Good Friday include black cloth used to cover the cross, paintings and statues in churches and some homes to signify mourning. On this day of mourning, we should not be greeting each other Happy Good Friday.
Good Friday Information
Good Friday is celebrated by approximately 2.5 billion Christians.
Christians are monotheistic and many believe that God walked the earth in the person of Jesus Christ; Good Friday is a day of mourning and sorrow over the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ.
For most who observe, Good Friday is a day of quiet reflection and prayer. It is also a day of gratitude for the supreme sacrifice made by Jesus Christ.
Observations include evening services Friday and the preceding Thursday evening.
Suggestions for Supporting Students
Avoid scheduling school-sponsored or athletic events after school.
Reduce large projects and tests in the early days of the following week would assist students in participating in the numerous communal events (services plus family gatherings) that take place surrounding Thursday through Sunday of this weekend.
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Orthodox Good Friday is celebrated Friday before Easter according to the Julian calendar and falls on May 3 this year. While many Western churches follow the Gregorian calendar while celebrating events, Orthodox Churches retained the Julian calendar. Thus, they observe Good Friday and celebrate Easter at a much later date than the Western churches. This day is also known as Great Friday, Holy Friday, and Holy and Great Friday.
Orthodox Good Friday is not a public holiday, however, it has been observed by the Orthodox Christian Church for a while. In the early days, Good Friday was called “Pascha of the Cross” as it was the beginning of that Passover. The very first Good Friday was observed on Friday, April 3, 33 A.D.
Orthodox Good Friday goes by many other names and it is a strict day of fasting for Greek Orthodox Christians in the United States. The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America celebrates the Passion of Christ, or the last moments of his life according to the New Testament in the Bible, on Good Friday. Some Orthodox Churches begin observing it on Thursday night when the 12 sections of the Gospels are read and some churches have a Good Friday liturgy in the evening. The readings are typically stories of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion. Many priests remove icons of Jesus Christ from the crosses and wrap them in linen to reenact the burial rites. Moreover, some Bulgarian churches allow people to pass under a table in the middle of the church to light a candle after the ringing of the Church bell. They say this symbolizes the washing away of one’s sins.
Great and Holy Friday begins with reading of the Royal Hours leading up to Vespers of Friday afternoon, at which time the removal of the Body of Christ from the Cross is commemorated. The priest removes the Body of Christ, the Epitaphios, from the Cross, wraps it in a white cloth and carries it into the altar. In an evening service, called the Lamentations at the Tomb, the priest carries the Epitaphios, the painted or embroidered cloth representation of Christ, from the altar around the church before placing it in the Sepulcher, a bier symbolizing the Tomb of Christ. This procession, with the faithful carrying lighted candles, represents Christ's descent into Hades.
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Easter is one of the central holidays, or Holy Days, of Christianity. It honors the Resurrection of Jesus three days after His death by crucifixion. For many Christian churches, Easter is the joyful conclusion to the Lenten season of devoted prayer, fasting and penitence
On Easter, people traditionally visit churches, bake hot cross buns, and decorate Easter eggs, which are symbolic of Christ's death on the cross and resurrection from the tomb. Children decorate eggs and take part in Easter egg hunts, where the Easter Bunny hides eggs. Around this time of year, some children receive Easter baskets full of candy, snacks, and presents.
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Pascha (Greek: Πάσχα), also called Easter, is the feast of the Resurrection of the Lord. Pascha is a transliteration of the Greek word, which is itself a transliteration of the Aramaic pascha, from the Hebrew pesach meaning Passover. A minority of English-speaking Orthodox prefer the English word "Pasch."
Both Orthodox Easter and Easter Sunday are Christian observances where believers celebrate the resurrection of Jesus; it's the most important event in the Christian Calendar. Orthodox churches in some countries including Greece, Cyprus and Romania base their Easter date on the Julian calendar.
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There is a mourning period for the church before the Easter celebration.
Many congregants in Greek Orthodox services live the services. As an example, on holy service some Greek Orthodox church members will bring Jesus on the cross down to the floor and the congregation will either kiss his feet or brow, and during Good Friday afternoon service, they may take Jesus off the cross and members of the church will wrap him in a white sheet. Good Friday night they may have a funeral service and walk Jesus’ tomb outside around the neighborhood. On holy Saturday night they may receive the holy light from Jerusalem, go outside, and chant, “Christ has risen, truly he has risen.” Many families attend dinner at 2am after the service ends and then they have a large family gathering during the day.
Orthodox Good Friday, also known as “Great and Holy Friday” or simply “Great Friday,” is the Friday before Orthodox Easter. Many community members who observe this day do not work or attend school on this day in order to prepare for services that take place that evening. Many children will attend a retreat during the day as well.
For many who observe, Orthodox Easter is considered a bigger holiday than Christmas.
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Holy Week (Greek Orthodox Acrhdiosces of America)
Patriots' Day is an annual event, formalized as a legal holiday or a special observance day in six U.S. states, commemorating the battles of Lexington, Concord, and Menotomy, some of the first battles of the American Revolutionary War. The holiday occurs on the third Monday of April each year, with celebrations including battle reenactments and the Boston Marathon.
The holiday was originally celebrated on April 19, the actual anniversary of the battles (fought in 1775). Since 1969, it has been observed on the third Monday in April in Massachusetts and in Maine. The Monday holiday creates a three-day long weekend. It is also the first day of a vacation week for public schools in both states and a school holiday for many local colleges and universities, both public and private. Connecticut began this observance in 2018 and North Dakota in 2019 and it is also observed in Wisconsin and Florida on April 19.
Observances and re-enactments of the battles occur annually at Lexington Green in Lexington, Massachusetts (around 6:00 am) and the Old North Bridge in Concord, Massachusetts and in Arlington, Massachusetts on the Sunday before Patriot's Day. Tours are available of the Jason Russell House in Arlington, Massachusetts on Sunday and Monday. On Monday morning, mounted re-enactors with state police escorts retrace the Midnight Rides of Paul Revere and William Dawes, calling out warnings the whole way.
The most significant celebration of Patriots' Day is the Boston Marathon, which has been run every Patriots' Day since April 19, 1897 (except in 2020 and 2021) to mark the then-recently established holiday, with the race linking the Athenian and American struggles for liberty.
This holiday shouldn't be confused with Patriot Day that is celebrated on Sep 11 to remember those who died in the terrorist attacks that day in 2001.
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Baha’i communities worldwide celebrate their most sacred festival, Ridvan, which takes from the end of April to the beginning of May each year. This event commemorates the 12 days that Baha’u’llah spent on the banks of the Tigris River in Baghdad in 1863, during which He declared His mission as God’s Messenger for a new age and revealed the spiritual principles that are the foundation of His teachings.
Ridván means paradise, and is named for the Garden of Ridván outside Baghdad, where Bahá'u'lláh stayed for twelve days after the Ottoman Empire exiled him from the city and before commencing his journey to Constantinople.It is the holiest Bahá'í festival, and is also referred to as the "Most Great Festival" and the "King of Festivals".
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12 Things about Ridván
Yom HaZikaron laShoah ve-laG'vurah ('Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day'), known colloquially in Israel and abroad as Yom HaShoah and in English as Holocaust Remembrance Day, or Holocaust Day, is observed as Israel's day of commemoration for the approximately six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust by Nazi Germany and its collaborators, and for the Jewish resistance in that period. In Israel, it is a national memorial day. It is marked in Israel on the 27th day in the month of Nisan — a week after the seventh day of Passover, and a week before Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day for Israel’s fallen soldiers). When the 27th of Nisan falls on a Friday or Sunday, Yom Hashoah is shifted a day to avoid conflicting with Shabbat . (The Hebrew calendar is fixed so that the 27th never falls on Shabbat itself.)
The date was selected by the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) on April 12, 1951. The full name became formal in a law that was enacted by the Knesset on August 19, 1953. Although the date was established by the Israeli government, it has become a day commemorated by Jewish communities and individuals worldwide.
In the early 1950s, education about the Holocaust emphasized the suffering inflicted on millions of European Jews by the Nazis. Surveys conducted in the late 1950s indicated that young Israelis did not sympathize with the victims of the Holocaust, since they believed that European Jews were “led like sheep for slaughter.” The Israeli educational curriculum began to shift the emphasis to documenting how Jews resisted their Nazi tormentors through “passive resistance”—retaining their human dignity in the most unbearable conditions—and by “active resistance,” fighting the Nazis in the ghettos and joining underground partisans who battled the Third Reich in its occupied countries.
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Armenian Genocide Remembrance Day (Mets Yegherrni zoheri hishataki or) or Armenian Genocide Memorial Day is a public holiday in Armenia and is observed on 24 April. It is held annually to commemorate the victims of the Armenian genocide of 1915. In Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, hundreds of thousands of people walk to the Tsitsernakaberd Genocide Memorial to lay flowers at the eternal flame. This day is also called "Armenian Martyrs Day".
Sometimes called the first genocide of the twentieth century, the Armenian genocide refers to the physical annihilation of Armenian Christian people living in the Ottoman Empire from spring 1915 through autumn 1916. There were approximately 1.5 million Armenians living in the multiethnic Ottoman Empire in 1915. At least 664,000 and possibly as many as 1.2 million died during the genocide, either in massacres and individual killings, or from systematic ill treatment, exposure, and starvation.
Ways to Celebrate
Armenian Flag Raising, Westford Town Common, April 19, 2024 @ 10am
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