Diversity Calendar - January, 2009

January 2009

January 1, Thursday

Emancipation Proclamation (1863) : United States. On this date Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing all slaves in territories of the Confederacy. (See entry for Lincoln's Birthday.)

That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free; and the Executive Government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts they may make for their actual freedom.

—President Abraham Lincoln, Emancipation Proclamation, January 1, 1863

Independence Day : Haiti. This day commemorates Haiti’s gaining independence from France in 1804 as a result of the only successful slave revolt in history.

New Year's Day : International. New Year's Day is the only secular holiday that the entire world observes regardless of race or religious beliefs. It is based on the solar calendar established by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582 and adopted by most countries. However, many Orthodox Eastern churches continue to use the earlier Julian calendar with the New Year falling on January 14. Some cultural groups, including Jews, Chinese, Hindus, and Muslims, use a lunar calendar or some combination of a lunar and solar calendar. The date of the Chinese New Year may fall on any date between January 21 and February 19. For 2009, the Chinese New Year occurs on January 26 and the first day of the Jewish New Year begins on the first day of the month of Tishri, or sundown on September 18. Different cultures also count years from different starting points. For example, January 1 is year 2009 according to the Gregorian calendar, but falls in year 5769 according to the Jewish calendar and in year 1430 according to the Islamic calendar.

January 2, Friday

Berchtold's Day : Switzerland. This day honors Duke Berchtold V, who founded Bern, the capital of Switzerland, in the twelfth century. According to legend, the Duke left on a hunting trip declaring that he would name the city for the first animal he killed, which was a bear, or Bär in German. The city was named Bärn, which later became Bern.

January 4, Sunday

Louis Braille (1809–1852) : French, People with Disabilities. Educator. Blinded in an accident at the age of three, Braille attended the Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles (National Institute for Blind Youth) in Paris on a scholarship and began teaching there in 1826. While still a student he became interested in a form of writing that used raised dots to encode a message. He developed this idea into a complete writing system that bears his name, a series of arrangements of six dots. Braille's writing system, published in 1829, has become the most widely used form of writing for the blind.

Elizabeth Ann B. Seton Feast Day : Roman Catholic. This feast honors the first American-born saint and founder of the American Sisters of Charity, the first American order of Roman Catholic nuns.

January 5, Monday

George Washington Carver (1864–1943) : African American. Scientist. This day marks the anniversary of Carver's death. As director of the department of agricultural research at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama from 1896, Carver developed hundreds of new uses for common agricultural products, including the peanut, sweet potato, and soybean. His research provided the foundation for the change in the economy of the South from dependence on a single crop (cotton) to a more diversified base.

Guru Gobind Singh Ji's Birthday : Sikh.

This celebrates the birth of Guru Gobind Singh Ji (1666–1708), the Sikhs’ tenth great master and teacher, who sought to abolish the caste system in India by creating a single community. Guru Gobind Singh Ji’s birthday is celebrated on this date according to the Nanakshahi calendar. (See discussion under “Days of Religious Observance” and entry for Vaisakhi : Sikh.)

January 6, Tuesday

Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) : African American. Author and folklorist. Hurston spent years collecting folklore among the Black people of the rural South and celebrated their culture in her stories and novels. Her best known work is the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. Born in the all-Black town of Eatonville, Florida, she left Eatonville in 1917 to attend Morgan Academy in Baltimore, where she completed high school. She then attended Howard Prep School and Howard University and earned an associate's degree. She completed her undergraduate education at Barnard College and studied under the well-known anthropologist Franz Boas. While in New York, Hurston became a part of the Harlem Renaissance literary circle that included Langston Hughes, Wallace Thurman, and Jessie Fauset. She became well known not only for her writing, but also for her outspokenness, her distinctive way of dress, and her refusal to be ashamed of her culture. Hurston was a pioneer in the study of African American folklore. For her folklore writings, she traveled "down South," to the Caribbean and Latin America. Her most active years were the 1930s and early 1940s. During that time she was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship, joined the Federal Writers Project in Florida, published four novels and an autobiography, and worked as a story consultant for Paramount Pictures. Since 1989, there has been an annual festival in her honor in Eatonville. For more information, contact The Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community, Inc., 227 East Kennedy Blvd., Eatonville, FL 32751.

Danny Thomas (born Amos Alphonsus Muzyad Yaqoob) (1912–1991) : Lebanese American. Actor, comedian, and television producer. Born in Deerfield, Michigan, Danny Thomas was a comedian and actor, and one of the best known Lebanese Americans. He starred in the television show Make Room for Daddy, and in the 1953 remake of the movie, The Jazz Singer, later becoming a successful television producer. In the 1950s, Thomas protected two black-listed writers who continued to write for his television series under assumed names. Known as a philanthropist, Thomas founded the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee in 1962, for which he was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal.

Christmas : Armenian Apostolic Church. The Armenian Apostolic Church, also known as the Armenian Orthodox Church, has one of the oldest traditions in the Christian world. In the early fourth century, Armenia became the first country to accept Christianity as a state religion. In A.D. 506, the Armenian Apostolic Church broke from the Eastern Orthodox Churches, becoming one of the original Oriental Orthodox Churches. In 1923 the Armenian Orthodox Church adopted the Gregorian calendar with one significant difference: the Church celebrates the birth of Jesus on Epiphany rather than on December 25. In the original Christian tradition, the feast of Epiphany celebrated three events that revealed God to mankind: the nativity, the visit of the three Magi, and the baptism of Christ. However, in the fourth century, the Roman Church adopted December 25 as the new date to celebrate the nativity. The Armenian Apostolic Church is the only Christian church that still celebrates the nativity on Epiphany, its original date of celebration. In Jerusalem, the Church continues to follow the Orthodox Old Calendar and celebrates Christmas on the Julian date for Epiphany, or January 19.

Epiphany : Christian. Twelve days after Christmas the three kings arrived in Bethlehem with gifts for the baby Jesus. Called Twelfth Night in English, it was once celebrated throughout Europe with feasts and frolics. In England today old traditions are reviving in Twelfth Night parties marking the end to the Christmas season. In Spain, Mexico, and other Hispanic countries of the Americas the holiday, called Día de los Tres Magos, or simply Tres Reyes, was never abandoned. Like Jesus, children receive gifts on this day rather than Christmas Day, and families celebrate with big meals, often with specialties such as roast sucking pig. Many countries follow the ancient tradition of baking a cake or bread that conceals a trinket. The person who is served the piece with the trinket is treated as King or Queen for the day.

Cakes differ regionally. In Spain the cake is roscon des reyes, literally, "big doughnut of the kings" because the large cake, flavored with orange-flower water and decorated with sugar and fruits, is shaped like a doughnut. In Portugal, a similar cake is called bolo do rey, King Cake. Southern France has a crown-shaped cake decorated with jewel-colored crystallized fruit. In Paris, however, they make Galette des Rois, a puff pastry tart filled with almond frangipan. It is brought to the table decorated with a paper crown. As each piece is cut, a child hidden under the table calls the name of the guest to whom it should be served, so there can be no favoritism about who gets the trinket. The person who receives it also gets the crown, and as King or Queen, the right to be indulged for the rest of the day. In the United States these traditions thrive in the King Cake of Louisiana, a cinnamon-flavored oval braid that appears around January 6th and plays a starring role at parties during the pre-Mardi Gras season. Indeed, most office workers bring in a King Cake every Friday. The person who gets the trinket, traditionally a bean or pecan, now a plastic baby, has to provide the King Cake for the next party. Traditionally King Cake was simply decorated with sugar in the Mardi Gras colors of purple, signifying justice, green for faith and gold for power. Now, bakeries offer toppings such as blueberry, lemon and German chocolate so the colored sugar is often less dominant.

Three Kings Day (Día de los Tres Magos) : Puerto Rico.

This traditional holiday corresponds to the Christian Feast of Epiphany. It commemorates the arrival in Bethlehem of the three kings, or Magi. Traditionally, children leave straw or grass under their beds and find a gift in its place in the morning.

January 7, Wednesday

Ashura : Islamic.

Ashura, which in Arabic means “the tenth day,” has several important meanings for Muslims. When the Prophet Muhammad settled in Medina, he encountered Jewish tribes who fasted on the tenth (ashr) of the month to commemorate the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. Muhammad, feeling a kinship to Moses, instituted a similar fast among Muslims. When Muslims were later commanded to fast during Ramadan, the fast of Ashura became voluntary. Ashura also commemorates the death of Hussein ibn Ali, grandson of Islam’s prophet Muhammad and the third Imam of the Shi’a Muslims, at the Battle of Karbala on the tenth day of Muharram in the year A.D. 680 (A.H. 61). Hussein’s martyrdom at Karbala deepened the schism between the Shi’a Muslims and the Sunni Muslims, which had arisen from a dispute over who was the rightful successor to Muhammad. The schism began in A.D. 661 with the assassination of Hussein’s father, Ali ibn Abi Talib, Muhammad’s son-in-law and cousin, whom Shi’as believe was designated by Muhammad to be his successor. The Sunni Muslims, on the other hand, selected as Muhammad’s legitimate successor Ali’s uncle Abu Bakr, Muhammad’s father-in-law, who became first Caliph of the Ummayad regime. Although Ali ultimately became the fourth Caliph, his caliphate was overthrown by Mu’awiya, the Ummayad governor of Syria. Ali was assassinated in A.D. 661 at the hands of the Kharijites, a third Muslim group that supported the Shi’a position, but believed that Ali betrayed his legacy when he did not declare war on Abu Bakr at the time he became the first Caliph.

The Muslim community then split into two irreconcilable factions, with the Shi’a Ali, or “partisans of Ali,” recognizing only the successors of Ali, giving them the title Imam, and the Sunni Muslims recognizing only the successors of Abu Bakr and the Ummayad regime. Upon Ali’s death, the Shi’a adopted Ali’s eldest son, Hasan ibn Ali, as the second Imam, and upon the death of Hasan in A.D. 669, his younger brother Hussein ibn Ali became the third Imam. When Mu’awiya died in A.D. 680, he was succeeded to the Ummayad caliphate by his son, Yazid. It was Yazid’s army that attacked and killed Hussein ibn Ali in the Battle of Karbala on Ashura in A.D. 680.

For Shi’a Muslims, Ashura is perhaps the defining holiday of their faith and the holiest day of the year. It is a day of commemoration and pilgrimage to the tomb of Imam Hussein in the Mashad al-Hussein shrine in Karbala, Iraq, considered by Shi’a Muslims to be one of the holiest places in the world. Pilgrims commemorating Ashura flagellate themselves in the streets, in mourning and remorse over the martyrdom of Imam Hussein. Shi’a Muslims, also known as Shi’ites, make up about 10–15% of all Muslims, while approximately 85% of Muslims are Sunni. Iraq and Iran are two countries having a majority Shi’a population. Although Shi’as comprise a two-thirds majority of the Muslims in Iraq, Iraqi Shi’as were oppressed by the Sunni minority under Saddam Hussein, who saw Shi’a religious observances as a threat to his authority. The commemoration of Ashura was banned for many years under his regime. In the 2004 observance of Ashura, the first pilgrimage since Saddam Hussein was removed from power, over a million Shi’a pilgrims came to Karbala. The commemoration of Ashura also became a major symbol for Iran, a country that is almost entirely Shi’a, during the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Ashura occurs twice in 2009 according to the Islamic lunar calendar. (See discussion under Days of Religious Observance and entries for Arbaeen and Ashura on December 27.) (m)

Christmas : Coptic Orthodox Christian, Eastern Orthodox Christian, Rastafarian. Christmas is celebrated on this date, set according to the Julian calendar, by the Coptic Orthodox Church of Egypt and several Eastern Orthodox Christian communities (e.g., Russian, Serb, and Ukrainian Orthodox Christians). Christmas is also observed on this day by Rastafarians, who follow the Ethiopian calendar, which has its roots in the Coptic Orthodox tradition. In Gregorian leap years, Coptic Orthodox Christians celebrate Christmas on January 8. (See discussion under Days of Religious Observance.)

January 9, Friday

Martyrs' Day : Panama. This marks the January 9, 1964 riots over sovereignty of the Panama Canal Zone. After three days of fighting, about 22 Panamanians and four U.S. citizens were killed. The incident is considered to be a significant factor in the U.S. decision to transfer control of the Canal Zone to Panama through the 1977 Torrijos-Carter Treaties.

January 11, Sunday

Independence Manifesto Day : Morocco. This day celebrates the declaration of independence from France in 1944.

National Unity Day : Nepal. This celebration pays homage to King Prithvinarayan Shah (1723–1775), founder of the present house of rulers of Nepal and creator of today's unified Nepal.

January 12, Monday

Helen Haje (1929?–1998) : Lebanese American. Public relations activist. Sometimes referred to as the "mother of Arab American organizations in the United States," this daughter of Lebanese immigrants grew up in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The mother of three children, Haje left Altoona in the early 1940s after her husband died and moved to Washington, D.C., to work for Catholic Charities. Becoming increasingly concerned about the negative image of Arabs among the American public, in 1972 she joined the National Association of Arab Americans, the first political Arab American organization, as its first executive secretary. She continued her work to champion Arab American interests in the United States until her death.

Mordecai Johnson (1890–1976) : African American. University president. In 1926 this 36-year-old Baptist minister became the first African American president of Howard University in Washington, D.C. The 30 years of his presidency saw the transformation of the institution to a distinguished university with a faculty tripled in size, a law school distinguished for its leadership in the field of civil rights, and a multimillion dollar campus. Johnson also served on numerous government commissions and advisory boards.

José Limón (1908–1972) : Mexican American. Dancer and choreographer. Soon after his debut as a performer with Doris Humphrey's modern dance troupe, Limón began creating his own dances, many of them drawing on the traditional dances he had seen as a boy in Mexico. His greatest works, including The Moor's Pavane, based on Shakespeare's tragedy Othello, are distinguished for their combination of emotional expressiveness and formal elegance. Limón's dance troupe was the first to be sent abroad on a tour sponsored by the U.S. Department of State's cultural exchange program.

Coming of Age Day (Seijin No Hi) : Japan.

This public holiday celebrates the coming of age of everyone who turned 20 in the past year. Those who reached age 20 in the past year gather at public halls for commemorative ceremonies. (m)

Eugenio María de Hostos' Birthday : Puerto Rico. This public holiday commemorates the birth of Eugenio María de Hostos (1839–1903), patriot, distinguished scholar, and writer of works ranging from treatises on law to children’s stories. Eugenio María de Hostos spent most of his life in exile, working as a university teacher and leading educational reform efforts in the Dominican Republic and Chile. He traveled widely to promote cooperation among Latin American countries and advocate freedom for Puerto Rico and Cuba. (m)

January 13, Tuesday

Ernestine Potowski-Rose (1810–1892) : Polish American. Orator and political activist. After immigrating to the United States in 1836, Potowski-Rose gave her energies to the economic emancipation of women, the abolition of slavery, and the improvement of conditions for working people. Her first political success was her leadership of the 12-year campaign to secure property rights for married women in New York State. Her efforts led to the state legislature's passage in 1848 of the Married Women's Property Act, the first law in the United States to give married women the right to control their own property and share legal guardianship of their children.

Charlotte Ray (1850–1911) : African American. Lawyer. While working as a teacher in the teacher-training program at Howard University, Charlotte Ray began studying in that university's law department. Soon after her graduation in 1872 she was admitted to the District of Columbia bar, becoming the first African American woman lawyer in the United States and the first woman to practice in the District of Columbia. Although she was admired by colleagues, she had to give up active practice when the prevailing prejudices of the day made it impossible for her to obtain sufficient legal business.

Makar Sankranti : Hindu. (m)

January 14, Wednesday

John Dos Passos (1898–1976) : Portuguese American. Writer. An important novelist of the period between the two world wars, Dos Passos is best known for his trilogy U.S.A. (1930–1936), a set of three novels in which he depicted the United States as "two nations," one of the privileged and one of the powerless.

Carlos P. Romulo (1899–1985) : Filipino. Diplomat, author, and educator. After an early career in journalism, Romulo received a commission in the U.S. Army when the United States entered World War II. He spent the war working on the staff of General Douglas MacArthur and in the Philippine government in exile in Washington, and participated in the liberation of Manila in early 1945. For the remainder of his career he served in diplomatic positions: as representative to the United Nations, ambassador to the United States, secretary of foreign affairs, minister of education, and president of the University of the Philippines. He also wrote a number of books on history and public affairs.

New Year : Eastern Orthodox Christian. This date marks the observance of New Year's Day according to the Julian calendar by several Eastern Orthodox Christian Churches (e.g., Russian, Serb, and Ukrainian Orthodox Churches).

Pongal : Hindu. (m)

January 15, Thursday

Martin Luther King Jr. (1929–1968) : African American. Civil rights leader. The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. gained national prominence during the Montgomery, Alabama, bus boycott of 1955–1956 and soon became the acknowledged national leader of the growing movement to obtain civil rights for African Americans. (See entry for Rosa Parks Day on December 1.) His commitment to nonviolence, his courage, and the moral power of his vision, eloquently expressed in masterful oratory and writings, won him the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. Toward the end of his life King became convinced of the interrelatedness of all forms of social, economic, and military oppression, and broadened the sphere of his activism. He spoke out against U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam and was preparing to lead a massive Poor People's March on Washington when he was assassinated in Memphis on April 4, 1968, while helping to organize the city’s sanitation workers. His birthday is celebrated on January 19 as a federal holiday.

January 16, Friday

Ruhiyyih Rabbani (1910–2000) : Baha'i. Religious leader. Ruhiyyih Rabbani became a prominent leader of the Baha’i faith after the death of her husband, Shoghi Effendi Rabbani, the last official leader of the faith. Since his death, the Baha’is have been governed by a legislature. Rabbani was a member of the “nine hands” who oversaw the affairs of the Baha’i community and interpreted matters of faith. This is the day of her death.

Hiram Revels (1822–1901) : African American. Legislator and university president. In 1870 Revels became the first African American elected to the United States Senate when he was chosen to fill the Mississippi seat vacated by Jefferson Davis. After serving his term in the Senate, he became president of Alcorn University in Mississippi. He died on this date.

January 18, Sunday

Sending Off the Kitchen God Day (1/18–19) : China. This two-day festival is associated with the New Year. In traditional Chinese homes, a paper image represents a home deity that is thought to keep track of the deeds of the household for the year. On this day, the family burns the image, whose spirit is believed to go to heaven and report to the chief deity on the family's behavior during the past year. The chief deity then determines the fate of the family for the next year. To positively affect the report of the Kitchen God, the family may put honey or sticky candy over its mouth—some say, to make sure that it reports only sweet things; others say, so that it will not be able to speak at all. (m)

Revolution Day : Tunisia. Also known as Remembrance Day, this commemorates the nationalist movements that led to Tunisia’s gaining independence from France in 1956 and the abolishment of the monarchy in 1957.

January 19, Monday

Epiphany : Coptic Orthodox Christian, Eastern Orthodox Christian. This day commemorates the visit of the three kings, Magi, to the infant Jesus. Coptic Orthodox Christians and several Eastern Orthodox Churches celebrate this holiday on this day based on the Julian calendar. In Gregorian leap years, Coptic Orthodox Christians celebrate Epiphany on January 20. (See discussion under Days of Religious Observance.)

Martin Luther King Jr. Day : United States. National observance of Dr. King's birthday. (m)

Timket (Feast of Epiphany) : Ethiopia.

January 21, Wednesday

Our Lady of Altagracia : Dominican Republic. Public holiday.

January 22, Thursday

Pilar Barbosa (189?–1997) : Puerto Rican. Historian and political activist. Pilar Barbosa de Rosario, historian and mentor to generations of Puerto Rican politicians, scholars, and intellectuals, was widely regarded as the conscience of the New Progressive Party. She started her career as the first woman to teach at the University of Puerto Rico and later created the departments of history and social studies. She became an authority on Puerto Rican political history and was named the Commonwealth's official historian in 1993. Professor Barbosa led the movement to make the Progressive Party both the party of statehood and of social justice. She died on this day at the age of 99.

January 23, Friday

Thomas A. Dorsey (1899–1993) : African American. Gospel songwriter, blues singer, and pianist. The son of a Georgia revivalist preacher, Dorsey began his career as a pianist, composer, and arranger of blues pieces. When he turned to composing church music, he introduced elements of the blues into his work, thereby creating the sound of contemporary gospel music. In 1932, Dorsey became musical director of Chicago's Pilgrim Baptist Church, a position he held for more than 40 years. In the same year he cofounded the National Convention of Gospel Choirs and Choruses. The most famous of Dorsey's more than 1,000 gospel songs is "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," written in 1932 after the death of his first wife and infant son.

January 24, Saturday

Arthur Alfonso Schomburg (1874–1938) : Puerto Rican. Scholar and collector. Son of a Black laundress and a German-born merchant, Schomburg left Puerto Rico at age 17 to continue his education in New York City. His growing involvement in efforts to improve conditions for Black and Latino people led him to become fascinated with African American culture, and he began collecting books, pamphlets, manuscripts, and prints documenting the history of Black people in America. His personal collection, which he amassed as a hobby, became the finest of its kind in the nation and was purchased in 1926 by the New York Public Library. The Arthur A. Schomburg Collection of Negro Literature and Art opened to the public in 1934 with Schomburg as its curator, a position he held until his death.

January 25, Sunday

Robert Burns (1759–1796) : Scot. Poet. Robert Burns, the national poet of Scotland, is known throughout the world for poems, including Comin Thro' the Rye and A Red, Red Rose. The celebration of Burns' birthday focuses around a Burns' Night Supper that features the procession into the dining area of the haggis, accompanied by playing of the bagpipes. The haggis is a sheep stomach filled with a mixture of chopped lamb and oatmeal cooked just below boiling point. It is eaten with bashed neeps, which are turnips. The preferred drink is well-aged scotch. This feast often features the reading of Burns' poem "To a Haggis." His birthday is celebrated throughout the world where there are Scottish communities, including Japan, other parts of Asia, and Russia. Although Robert Burns wrote in the Lowland Scots dialect of English, which differs markedly from standard English, readers throughout the world admire his work. Auld Lang Syne is sung at New Year on every continent, while My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose is a favorite love song.

January 26, Monday

Australia Day : Australia. In order to relieve the pressures of crowding in British prisons, the British government established a penal colony in Australia. The first prisoners arrived on this date in 1788. This has been celebrated as Foundation Day or Anniversary Day, and now as Australia Day, since 1817. The trend in Australia is to celebrate this day on the actual day of its occurrence rather than on the nearest Monday to that day. The exact day of celebration, however, is determined by each state or division within Australia rather than by the federal government and, therefore, may vary from one part of Australia to another.

Juan Pablo Duarte's Birthday : Dominican Republic. This holiday marks the birthday of one of the founders of the republic.

New Year (Gao Nian) : China.

This is the beginning of a three-day celebration of the Chinese New Year, although traditionally the New Year celebration extends for fifteen days until the Lantern Festival. The festivities mark the beginning of year 4707 (The Year of the Ox) since the mythical founding of the Chinese people. On New Year's Eve, the Kitchen God returns from heaven to the shrine prepared by each family, where he is welcomed back with firecrackers and offerings. New Year's Day is a day when all business accounts are settled and grudges forgotten. Traditional Chinese celebrate New Year's Day as a birthday and count themselves one year older. The Chinese celebrate by eating noodles to signify a long life and pork dumplings called jiao zi, which means "midnight" or "the end and the beginning of time." A Chinese coin is hidden in one of the dumplings, and the person who finds it will have good luck over the coming year. Children receive decorated red envelopes with good luck money inside. Celebrations include fireworks, a dragon dance and the beating of drums and cymbals, visits to temples, and prayers for blessings in the new year. This celebration is called "Spring Festival" in the People's Republic of China because the official New Year's Day is January 1, based on the Gregorian calendar. (See entry for Sending Off the Kitchen God Day.)

Recognizing the Festival/Holiday: An appropriate greeting is "Happy New Year." In Chinese, the greeting is Gung Hay Fat Choy (Cantonese pronunciation), Gungshi Shin Nien (Mandarin pronunciation). (m)

New Year (Sol) : South Korea. This begins the traditional Korean New Year 4342 of the era of Tan'gun, the mythical progenitor of the Korean people. The New Year's celebration is, along with Chusok, one of the two most important holidays in Korea. Officially a three-day holiday, it is traditionally celebrated for fifteen days until Taeborum. This is a time when families renew their ties and prepare for the year ahead. The day before New Year's is spent cleaning house and preparing special foods for the next day, such as fried meats, fish, dumplings, and ttokkuk, a rice-cake soup. Bamboo sticks are burned to cast off house demons. Early on New Year's morning, family members bathe and don hanbok, the traditional formal dress. They gather at the home of the eldest male family member for the chare, or offering to ancestors, in which the foods prepared the day before are arranged on a table altar and a ceremony to honor their ancestors is held. Then the younger generation offers New Year's greetings to their elders in a custom called sebae. The elders in turn give the children cakes, fruit, or money. Everyone then sits down to a family breakfast with the foods from the offering table. It is believed that eating the New Year's rice-cake soup, ttokkuk, makes a person one year older. All Koreans count themselves one year older on New Year's Day. Popular drinks include shikhye, rice punch, and sujunggwa, a concoction of persimmon and cinnamon. Favorite New Year's pastimes are kite-flying and top-spinning for boys, and see-sawing for girls, but the most popular entertainment is a New Year's game called yut nore, which involves throwing four sticks and advancing one's player on the board according to how the sticks land. Yut nore is played from New Year's Day until Taeborum.

Recognizing the Festival/Holiday: The New Year's greeting is Say-hay boke mahn-he pah-du-say-oh, which means "Many New Year's blessings to you." (m)

New Year (Tet Nguyen Dan) : Vietnam. This is the most important holiday in Vietnam and begins the Vietnamese lunar year 4707 (The Year of the Ox). Officially a three-day holiday, it is often celebrated for seven or more days. The days before the new year are spent cleaning and painting homes, paying off debts, resolving differences between family and friends, and preparing three days' worth of special foods for the celebration. On the afternoon of New Year's Eve, the head of the family performs a ceremony to welcome back ancestors for the New Year's celebrations. Midnight on New Year's Eve, known as Giao Thua, is the most sacred time since it is the passage from the old year to the new. A special ceremony called Le Tru Tich is held, with drums, gongs, and firecrackers ushering out the spirits of the old year and welcoming the new. This ceremony also welcomes back the Kitchen God, who went to heaven to report on the household's behavior during the past year. On New Year's Day, people dress in their best clothes and visit a temple or pagoda to pray for good fortune and good health. The first visitor to a family's home on New Year's Day is very important, since he will influence the well-being of the family for the coming year. Apricot and peach blossoms in the home ensure longevity and ward off demons— it is especially auspicious if they bloom on the first morning of the new year. All Vietnamese become one year older on New Year's Day. Adults congratulate children on becoming a year older by giving them red envelopes containing money for good luck. A special New Year's treat is banh chung, or "earth cake," a square cake made of a mixture of glutinous rice, pork, and bean paste wrapped in banana leaves and boiled, all of the ingredients of which are believed to keep the positive and the negative in harmony.

Recognizing the Festival/Holiday: An appropriate greeting is Chuc Mung Nam Moi, or "Happy New Year." (m)

Republic Day : India. This commemorates two events: the declaration in 1929 by the Indian National Congress to work toward independence from Great Britain and the day in 1950 when India became an independent republic.

January 27, Tuesday

New Year (Losar) : Tibet. This begins the Tibetan lunar year 2136, the Year of the Earth-Ox, based on the Han solar-lunar calendar. The date of the new year sometimes corresponds to that of the Chinese new year, but at other times can be as much as a month or more later. The exact date of the new year is uncertain given the difficulty of calculation and the dependence on the time zone. This is a day of celebration that links all people in the Tibetan diaspora, resulting from the decision of many Tibetans, led by the Dalai Lama in 1959, to flee the Communist Chinese. The last two days of the old year, called Gutor, are spent in preparation for the new year. On the first day, every household hangs colorful new prayer flags, while houses are whitewashed and thoroughly cleaned, especially the kitchen. A special dumpling soup called guthuk, or "ninth soup," is made from nine different ingredients—sweet potato, rice, radishes, cheese, meat, wheat, peas, green peppers, and noodles. On the second day of Gutor, Tibetans go to monasteries to make offerings. They decorate family altars with candies, fruits, and khabsa, homemade deep-fried dough twists. On New Year's Eve, the family eats the "ninth soup"—everyone must eat nine bowls. The soup is served with dumplings containing various surprises hidden inside, such as salt, chilies, wool, and coal, each of which has a special meaning and gives one's fortune for the new year. For example, salt signifies a virtuous year ahead, while chilies indicate that an angry, argumentative year is in store.

Then the ceremony of Lu Yugpa is held to banish evil spirits from the old year. At dawn on New Year's Day, Tibetans make offerings at the family shrine. Family members each receive a pinch of freshly made butter placed on their forehead, a plate of khabsa twists, and a cup of Tibetan butter tea thick enough to float a coin. They visit monasteries to pay homage to the Buddha and to make offerings of food and gifts to the monks and nuns, who burn fragrant juniper and cedar branches as incense offerings to the heavens. Then people celebrate with friends and family by feasting on rich holiday foods, drinking chang, homemade barley beer, and singing and dancing around huge bonfires at night. New Year's is the major celebration of the Tibetan calendar and revelries may continue for up to two weeks. Some devotees journey to the Johkang Temple in Lhasa to donate yak butter to keep the temple lamps burning. At Barkor Plaza, sculptures of Buddhist deities made by the monks out of yak butter and roasted barley flour are on display, prior to their unveiling at the Butter Sculpture Festival, held on the day of the first full moon of the lunar year.

Recognizing the Festival/Holiday: The traditional New Year's greetings are "Happy Losar" and Tashi Delek. (m)

January 28, Wednesday

José Julian Martí (1853–1895) : Cuban. Poet, essayist, and patriot. A distinguished writer as well as a political leader, Martí was the chief organizer of the Cuban movement for independence from Spain. Although he lived much of his adult life in exile, in April 1895 he helped to lead a revolutionary invasion of Cuba. He was killed in battle on May 19.

Recognizing the Festival/Holiday: In many large Cuban American communities, Martí’s birthday is often celebrated with speeches, community events, and parades.

January 30, Friday

Osceola (1800–1838) : American Indian (Seminole). Military leader. Osceola organized the Seminoles to resist the U.S. government's takeover of their ancestral lands and led the guerrilla resistance to federal forces from 1835 until his imprisonment in 1837. He died in captivity on this date.

King Abdullah’s Birthday : Jordan. This day celebrates the birthday of His Majesty King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein (born 1962), the current King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

January 31, Saturday

William Apess (1798–1840?) : American Indian (Pequot). Writer, Methodist minister, and political activist. A traveling Methodist preacher, Apess published in 1829 his autobiography, A Son of the Forest—the first book written and published by a Native American. In this and subsequent writings, and in his public life as a spokesman for the Pequots, Apess challenged the racial assumptions of European Americans and asserted the rights of all people of color to be considered the equals of Whites.

Ella Cara Deloria (1889–1971) : American Indian (Dakota Sioux). Researcher and writer. Deloria worked as a teacher and health educator and did extensive work as a research specialist in American Indian languages and cultures. Her novel Waterlily is a fictional portrait of traditional Sioux life.

Jack Roosevelt "Jackie" Robinson (1919–1972) : African American. Athlete. An outstanding hitter and fielder known for his daring base runs, Robinson broke the color barrier in major league baseball when he signed with the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947.

Vasant Panchami : Hindu. (m)