Environmental Holidays

January

• 1 - One Day of Peace and Sharing
  • www.onedayholiday.org
  • http://www.oneday.net/
• 10 - Robinson Jeffers Day (1887-1962) - California poet and Pantheist. Jeffer's Tor House is now a privately-operated historic site in Carmel, California.
• 11 - Aldo Leopold Day - (1886-1948) - Honoring the author of A Sand County Almanac and creator of the "land ethic."
• 14 - Albert Schweitzer Day (1875-1965) - Humanitarian who extolled a "reverence for life"
• 29 Edward Abbey Day (1927-1989) - chronicler and novelist for western Wilderness.

February

• 2 - Ground Hog Day - Based on a German superstition, this holiday is a chance to celebrate winter and winter's passing.
  • More Groundhog Day Websites from Yahoo!
• 12 - Charles Darwin Day (1809-1882) - Celebrated theorist of evolution
• 20 - Ansel Adams Day - (1902-1984) - recognizing the great photographer and conservationist
• 23 - Woody Guthrie writes "This Land is Your Land" in 1940
• 25 - Howard Clinton Zahniser (1906-1964) - father of the Wilderness Act of 1964
• Variable - Tu B'Shevat the Jewish New Year of Trees - celebrated on the fifteenth day of the Hebrew month of Shevat (usually January or February) - This Jewish Tree Planting Holiday is gaining more interest from year to year as a day to focus on the importance of nature and the environment. See also, Torah, Jews & Earth by Arthur Wakow.

March

• 1 - First National Park established - Yellowstone, 1872
• 10 - Hazel Wolf Day - (1898-2000) - 101 years of activism for Audubon. Click for Press Release
• 14 - International Day of Action Against Dams and for Rivers, Water and Life - from International Rivers Network.
• 21 or 22 - Vernal Equinox - The time of year when the sun crosses the equator to begin autumn in the southern hemisphere and spring in the northern hemisphere.
• Variable - Arbor Day - This major tree planting holiday is celebrated on dates determined by the best tree planting times in each state or nation - e.g. March 7 in California, April 22 in Nebraska.

April

• 3 - John Burroughs Day - (1837-1921) - Outstanding natural history writer
• Marjory Stoneman Douglas (1890-1998) - Mother of the Everglades
• 7 - William Wordsworth Day (1770-1850) - Pre-eminent Romantic poet
• 21 - John Muir Day - (1838 - 1914) - Father of Our National Parks, wilderness explorer, naturalist, conservationist, and co-founder of the Sierra Club
• 22 - Earth Day - first celebrated 1970
• 26 - National Bird Day - A celebration of the birthday of the artist famous for his paintings of birds, John James Audubon born in 1785.
• National Wildlife Week, usually in mid-April - celebrating wildlife conservation.

May

• 3 - Pete Seeger Day - (1919 - ) - Actvist, song-writer, folk singer, and environmentalist who is a leading inspiration for many younger activists, song-writers, folk-singers, and environmentalists. Seeger was largely responsible for the revival of American folk music in the 1950s and 1960s. His songs, many of which have themes embracing planetary patriotism, include “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” and “If I Had a Hammer.”
• 25 - Ralph Waldo Emerson Day (1803-1882) - Preeminent Transcendentalist essayist
• 27 - Rachel Carson Day - (1907-1964) celebrating the life of the woman who first brought our attention to the toxic threats caused by mis-use of chemicals. See also the biography of Rachel Carson at the Rachel Carson Homestead.
• Variable - Space Day - celebrated each May on the Thursday prior to the anniversary of U.S. President John F. Kennedy's 1961 challenge to "land a man on the moon and return him to the Earth," a tribute to those endlessly engaging phenomena which constitute our universe -- and to the people who, through their space-related work, have contributed so much to science, medicine and everyday life.

June

• 5 - World Environment Day - established 1972
• 11 - Jacques-Yves Cousteau Day (1910-1997) - To recognize the achievements of oceanographer, science popularizer, and global environmentalist Jacques Cousteau.
• 21 - World Whale Day
• 21 (on or around) Summer Solstice - First day of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the longest day of the year

July

• 1 - David Brower Day - (1912 - 2000)
• 12 - Henry David Thoreau Day - (1817-1862)
• 14 - Woody Guthrie Day (1912-1967)
• 20 - Lunar Landing Day - celebrating the day in 1969 when humans first set foot on the Earth's moon.

August

• 28 - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe Day (1749-1832) - German poet, dramatist, and scientist with a profound and poetic sensibility to Nature

September

• 1 - Species Requiem Day - Last Passenger Pigeon died in a Cincinatti, Ohio Zoo,1914. - A day to mourn the loss of a once-numerous species, which can symbolize all the species lost to extinction by human hands.
• 7 - Australian National Threatened Species Day - highlights the plight of Australia's threatened species and ecological communities. September 7 is the date that the last tasmanian tiger died in captivity in 1936.
• 21 (on or around) Autumn Equinox - First day of Autumn.
• 26 - Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman) Day - (1774-1845) To celebrate the life of Johnny Appleseed, who planted thousands of apple trees around the Northwest Territories. See also our Johnny Appleseed Stamps and Covers.
  • See also Johnny Appleseed Home Page
• September 29 - J. Horace McFarland Day - founder of the nationwide "City Beautiful" movement and advocate for the establishment of the National Park Service in 1916, who worked hand-in-hand with Theodore Roosevelt, John Muir, founder of the Sierra Club, and naturalist John Burroughs on the preservation of Yosemite and Yellowstone parks, Niagara Falls, the Everglades and many other natural and scenic areas across the United States.
• Variable - National Public Lands Day - Last Saturday in September - a day to improve and enhance resources in national parks and forests, reservoirs and other public lands where Americans go to enjoy the outdoors.

October

• 3 - National Estuaries Day. The theme of this celebration is "Estuaries -- Gateways to the Ocean."
• 16 - William O. Douglas Day - (1898-1980) - Supreme Court Justice and defender of Wilderness

November

• 9 - Carl Sagan Day (1934-1996) - Recognizing the noted astronomer, science popularizer, and environmentalist, and co-founder of The Planetary Society. See Also Scientific American Carl Sagan Biography.
• 18 - Asa Gray Day - (1810 - 1888) - Recognizing the "Father of American Botany"
• 25 - Joseph Wood Krutch Day - (1893-1970) - Recognizing the noted natural history writer and conservationist.
• Variable - Fourth Thursday in November - Thanksgiving Day - giving thanks for Nature's bounty

December

• 21 (on or around) Winter Solstice - First Day of Winter triggering many ancient and modern seasonal traditions from bonfires to gift-giving and solar rites celebrating the return of the sun and longer days

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This page is maintained by Harold Wood, Visalia, California.
E-mail: harold (at) planetpatriot.net