In the US there are some annual events on the civic calendar to recognize certain groups’ history or heritage: for example February is African American History Month, March is Women’s History Month, June is LGBT pride, Cinco de Mayo is a celebration of all things Mexican, and St Patrick’s Day is for all things Irish, to name some of the most prominent. (Those last two are mostly excuses to party at this point, but the monthlong observances tend to get lessons in schools and other more serious recognition.)
Are there similar things in your country? I know many European countries have memorial events related to the World Wars and religiously-based celebrations (like Fasching or Carnival), but I’m wondering more about secular celebration of groups or heritage.
4 comments
We don’t really have anything like that; June is _kinda_ Pride month, with most Pride parades being in or around June, but other than that, we don’t have stuff like a “Greenlandic History month” or a “Turkish history month.”
We have a “Flagday for Danes Deployed” on September 5th—a funny happenstance in my family, which is deeply anti-militarist, and the staunchest of us, my dad, his birthday is September 5th—and May 5th is celebrated as liberation day, usually with wreath-laying, but not celebrations like in the Netherlands; it is usually marked by lighting candles in windowsills the night before, May 4th.
There are the national holidays, all of them are decided by the Evangelical Church, i.e. the national church of Denmark, so they are all of a particular Christian nature. But that means January 1st is a holiday, which means time to get over the New Year’s Hangover.
There is May 1st: the International Day of Worker’s Struggle/Labour Day, which is marked by the labour movement and socialist parties, and is a not insignificant event, but it isn’t a holiday or anything like that (which would also be against the spirit of the day.) And March 8, the International Day of Women’s Struggle, which is usually _also_ marked by the labour movement and socialist parties, not to mention by the various feminist organisations, but it is a somewhat less significant day for many. And Constitution Day, June 5th, which is also _not_ a holiday, but was a holiday this year, because Pentecost—which _is_ a holiday—fell on the same date. It is usually marked by all the political parties and democratic organisations, and by the High-School Movement.
But no, we don’t have anything like what you’re looking for. The closest we’re getting is June as a Pride month, and the International Day of Women’s Struggle.
I am not aware of any such celebrations or observances in the Netherlands. We do have Keti Koti on July 1st which is when we commemorate and celebrate the end of slavery in the colonies in 1863. It’s not that well known though.
November 6th is Swedish Day, it is for the Swedish-speaking minority. February 6th is Sámi National Day. April 8th is Romani people’s day. These three are marked in calendars. Then there is Pride… since Americans have Pride month in June, that does kind of show here as well at least when it comes to people speaking in English on the internet. It might also spread into their speech in Finnish, saying things like it is Pride month etc… However, usually, we have Pride week instead, and this week is the week on which Helsinki Pride is held. Different towns have their Pride events whenever they want outside of this week tho.
These are the only ones I can remember now.
Edit: I should probably add that the three days I mentioned are not really celebrated by the general population but maybe the people from those groups do celebrate them. But for everyone else it’s basically a day on which there might be articles related to those people and their history/culture on different newspapers’ websites for example (or the papers themselves).
None, really. I feel like this is a very American concept to be honest. I mean, we’ve got 1st of August which is the equivalent of 4th of July and 1st of May is Labor Day everywhere in Europe but that’s it.
What we do celebrate occasionally are large-scale anniversaries which come up only every few years, decades or centures. Some examples would be:
– In 1991, we celebrated the 700-year anniversary of Switzerland
– In 2015, we celebrated the 700-year anniversary of the [Battle of Morgarten](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Morgarten) as well as the 500-year anniversary of the [Battle of Marignano](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Marignano). They’re considered to be two of the three most important battles in medieval Swiss history.
– In 2017, we celebrated the 500-year anniversary of the Reformation in Europe (“Luther-Year”)
– In 2018, we celebrated the 100-year anniversary of the end of WWI
– In 2021, we celebrated the 50-year anniversary of women’s suffrage in Switzerland
– This year, in 2022, we’re celebrating the 500-year anniversary of Zwingli’s Reformation in Zurich, which impacted all of Switzerland as well as southern Germany
– In 2045 we’ll be celebrating the 100-year anniversary of the end of WWII and in 2048, we’ll be celebrating the 200-year anniversary of the modern Swiss Confederacy (nationstate), both of which will no doubt be very important events.