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Holidays & Observances
November is Native American Heritage Month — also known as American Indian and Alaska Native Heritage Month. This is a time to recognize the history, culture, and contributions of Indigenous people in North American. National Native American Heritage Month was recognized federally for the first time in the United States in 1990.
This commemorative month aims to provide a platform for Native people in the United States of America to share their culture, traditions, music, crafts, dance, and ways and concepts of life. This gives Native people the opportunity to express to their community, both city, county and state officials their concerns and solutions for building bridges of understanding and friendship in their local area. Federal Agencies are encouraged to provide educational programs for their employees regarding Native American history, rights, culture and contemporary issues, to better assist them in their jobs and for overall awareness.
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All Saints' Day is a celebration of all Christian saints, particularly those who have no special feast days of their own, in many Roman Catholic, Anglican and Protestant churches. In many western churches it is annually held November 1 and in many eastern churches it is celebrated on the first Sunday after Pentecost. It is also known as All Hallows Tide, All-Hallomas, or All Hallows' Day.
All Saints' Day is observed by Christians in many countries around the world. In countries such as Spain, Portugal and Mexico, offerings are made on this day. In countries such as Belgium, Hungary and Italy people bring flowers to the graves of dead relatives. In other parts of Europe, such as Austria, Croatia, Poland, and Romania, it is customary to light candles on top of visiting graves of deceased relatives. It is also observed in parts of Asia, such as the Philippines, where people visit graves of deceased relatives and clean or repair them. They also lay flowers on the graves and light candles.
Symbols commonly associated with All Saints’ Day are: a sheaf of wheat, Rayed Manus Dei (hand of God), the crown, and symbols (including images) of individual saints.
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All Souls’ Day in the United States is dedicated to prayers for the dead. The Day of the Dead is also celebrated on this day. Many western churches annually observe All Souls’ Day on November 2 and many eastern churches celebrate it prior to Lent and the day before Pentecost.
This day of remembrance is celebrated slightly differently across the world. In the United States is a day of prayer for deceased souls. Many Christians visit cemeteries where their loved ones are buried. Some cemeteries offer candles to be placed on these graves. The candles are blessed and marked with the names of the deceased to be placed at the designated grave sites. The Catholic Church remembers deceased members of the congregation on this day.
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This day is celebrated to commemorate the birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, who was the first Guru and the founder of Sikhism. Guru Nanak Jayanti is also celebrated as Gurpurab and Guru Nanak Prakash Utsav. Devotees celebrate this day to honour the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev Ji.
The festivities in the Sikh religion revolve around the anniversaries of the 10 Sikh Gurus. These Gurus were responsible for shaping the beliefs of the Sikhs. Their birthdays, known as Gurpurab, are occasions for celebration and prayer among the Sikhs.
This is one of the most sacred and prominent festivals of Sikhs which is celebrated across the world with great pomp and show. On the day of Guru Nanak Jayanti, devotees offer prayers to the first Guru and honor his teachings by reciting the Sikh holy text, the Guru Granth Sahib.
Two days before the festival, Prabhat Pheris (early morning processions) are organised with devotees singing hymns and travel to the localities.
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On November 9–10, 1938, Nazi leaders unleashed a series of pogroms against the Jewish population in Germany and recently incorporated territories. This event came to be called Kristallnacht (The Night of Broken Glass) because of the shattered glass that littered the streets after the vandalism and destruction of Jewish-owned businesses, synagogues, and homes.
Although violence against Jews had not been explicitly condoned by the authorities, there were cases of Jews being beaten or assaulted. Following the violence, police departments recorded a large number of suicides and rapes. The rioters destroyed 267 synagogues throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. Over 1,400 synagogues and prayer rooms, many Jewish cemeteries, more than 7,000 Jewish shops, and 29 department stores were damaged, and in many cases destroyed. More than 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and imprisoned in Nazi concentration camps; primarily Dachau, Buchenwald, and Sachsenhausen.
Kristallnacht changed the nature of Nazi Germany's persecution of the Jews from economic, political, and social exclusion to physical violence, including beatings, incarceration, and murder; the event is often referred to as the beginning of the Holocaust. In this view, it is not only described as a pogrom, it is also described as a critical stage within a process in which each step becomes the seed of the next step. An account cited that Hitler's green light for Kristallnacht was made with the belief that it would help him realize his ambition of getting rid of the Jews in Germany.
How to Commemorate
Kristallnacht commemorations in synagogues often include candle lightings, guest speakers, poems and prayers, and documentaries.
Each and every year, Congregation Rodeph Sholom in New York City includes a special memorial candle lighting on the Shabbat closest to Kristallnacht, lighting a seven-branched menorah that was specially designed by our congregant Irwin Feld, in memory of his father, Hazzan Steven Feld, a survivor. The six branches represent the six million with the seventh candle being one of hope for future generations.
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Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) is a federal holiday in the United States observed annually on November 11, for honoring military veterans of the United States Armed Forces. It began, and now coincides with other holidays, including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, which are commemorated in other countries, marking the anniversary of the end of World War I.
Veterans Day is distinct from Memorial Day, a U.S. public holiday in May: Veterans Day commemorates the service of all U.S. veterans, while Memorial Day honors those who have died while in military service. While the legal holiday remains on November 11, if that date happens to be on a Saturday or Sunday, then federal government employees and a number of organizations will instead take the day off on the adjacent Friday or Monday, respectively.
How to Observe
Westford Veterans Services honor the day with a remembrance at the Town Common. Typically from 11am-12pm.
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Transgender Day of Remembrance (TDOR) is an annual observance on November 20 that honors the memory of the transgender people whose lives were lost in acts of anti-transgender violence.
TDOR is held to honor Rita Hester, whose murder on November 28, 1998, launched the “Remembering Our Dead” web project and a San Francisco vigil the following year. The event provides a forum for transgender communities and allies to raise awareness of the threat of violence faced by gender-variant people and the persistence of prejudice felt by the transgender community. Communities organize events and activities including town hall style "teach-ins," photography and poetry exhibits, and candlelit vigils. These activities make anti-transgender violence visible to stakeholders like police, the media, and elected officials.
The week before TDOR, people and organizations around the country participate in Transgender Awareness Week to help raise visibility for transgender people and address issues the community faces.
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Thanksgiving is a national holiday celebrated on various dates in October and November in the United States, Canada, Saint Lucia, Liberia, and unofficially in countries like Brazil, Germany and the Philippines. It is also observed in the Dutch town of Leiden and the Australian territory of Norfolk Island. It began as a day of giving thanks for the blessings of the harvest and of the preceding year. Various similarly named harvest festival holidays occur throughout the world during autumn. Although Thanksgiving has historical roots in religious and cultural traditions, it has long been celebrated as a secular holiday as well.
In the United States, Thanksgiving precedent accompanied by feasting is traced to the Pilgrims and Puritans who emigrated from England in the 1620s and 1630s. The 1621 Plymouth, Massachusetts thanksgiving was prompted by a good harvest. The Pilgrims celebrated this with the Wampanoags, a tribe of Native Americans who, along with the last surviving Patuxet, had helped them get through the previous winter by giving them food in that time of scarcity, in exchange for an alliance and protection against the rival Narragansett tribe.
In modern times, Thanksgiving Day is a day for people in the U.S. to give thanks for what they have. Families and friends get together for a meal, which traditionally includes a roast turkey, stuffing, potatoes, vegetables, cranberry sauce, gravy, and pumpkin pie. In some cities and towns, there are parades during the Thanksgiving weekend. In most areas, these festivities also mark the opening of the Christmas shopping season.
Thanksgiving Day has been an annual holiday in the United States since 1863. However, not everyone sees Thanksgiving Day as a cause for celebration. Some in the US Native American community feel the mythology of the holiday ignores the destruction of indigenous cultures that followed European settlement.
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The National Day of Mourning is an annual demonstration, held on the fourth Thursday in November, that aims to educate the public about Native Americans in the United States, notably the Wampanoag and other tribes of the Eastern United States; dispel myths surrounding the Thanksgiving story in the United States; and raise awareness toward historical and ongoing struggles facing Native American tribes.
The day is a blend of commemoration and protest. Participants meet at noon on the fourth Thursday of November at Cole’s Hill, which is above the Plymouth Harbor area where Plymouth Rock lies. Also located there is a statue of Ousamequin, or Massasoit, who was a leader of the Wampanoags at the time of the Pilgrims’ arrival. Those gathered on the hill start with an unrecorded spiritual ceremony. Afterward, participants attend a rally where speakers talk about a variety of issues. There’s at least one person who recounts the history of National Day of Mourning. Following the rally, participants march to Plymouth Rock for a second demonstration.
The first National Day of Mourning demonstration was held in 1970 after Frank "Wamsutta" James's speaking invitation was rescinded from a Massachusetts Thanksgiving Day celebration commemorating the 350th anniversary of the landing of the Mayflower. James instead delivered his speech on Cole's Hill in Plymouth, Massachusetts next to a statue of Ousamequin, where he described Native American perspectives on the Thanksgiving celebrations. The gathering became an annual event organized by the United American Indians of New England (UAINE) and coincides with both Thanksgiving Day in the United States and with Unthanksgiving Day, an annual ceremony held on Alcatraz Island in California.
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