World Water Day

On December 22, 1992 the United Nations passed a resolution making March 22 the World Water Day.  This day is to bring attention to the lack of clean potable water throughout the world.  According to Water Partners International 200 million hours are walked each day for people to find usable water.  Of course this does not affect the people who are reading this as they are most likely able to just walk to the kitchen and get a glass. 

Along with today being World Water Day the UN has also declared 2005 to 2015 as International Decade for Action, "Water for Life".

Links:

Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Water_Day



General:

http://www.worldwaterday.org/

http://water.org/waterpartners.aspx?pgID=1081 http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/water/index.html

http://www.unwater.org/worldwaterday/flashindex.html

Harmony Day

On March 21st, Australia recognizes Harmony Day.  This coincides with International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination sponsored by the United Nations.  Started in 1999, the people of Australia realize that they live in a culture of vast diversity and wish to promote the understanding between all it's citizens.  With a special day set aside to promote understanding between all the people of Australia, this gives them the opportunity to come together and fight racism.

According to the government website there are over 300 different languages that are spoken in the country as well as more then six and a half million migrants to the country since 1945.  To show support for this cause an orange ribbon is worn, with directions on how to make one on the site as well.

I have heard a couple of stories in the past year about subjects pertaining to the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd formally apologizing to the Aboriginal (1) people about wrongs from the past.  This has not shown up in my research about the day and the people of Australia may not see the two connected but I do feel that with this and the addition of Harmony Day in 1999 shows an incredible step forward.  These actions, though may have drawn criticism (I do not know this but just assume it has from someone), are examples of things many other countries could do to try and correct things from their pasts.

A side note, I want to compliment the ones who named this holiday, it does a much better job then the U.N. in naming something.  Don't get me wrong I fully support the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, it is just too long and I believe that Harmony Day conveys the same message and is more engaging to those who hear it.

Links:

Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Day



General

http://www.slwa.wa.gov.au/harmony.html

http://www.nt.gov.au/dcm/multicultural/pdf/200603HarmonyDayEvents.pdf

http://www.harmony.gov.au/harmony.htm

Nowruz

This would be my longest write up so far but I do not think I can do it justice so will suggest that people take a few minutes to read the links that have very extensive detail on this holiday.

Nowruz is the new year day for the lands of the former Persian Empire.  From what I have found this could be the oldest holiday celebrated though none of my sources said this.  They do point to this having been around for at least 3000 years and is still a very important day in many counties most notably Iran, home to the origins of the Persian Empire.

Like many days recognizing the new year many of the traditions sound the rebirth and in fact the day is set by the spring equinox so there is the combination of both new year and beginning of spring.  People will clean out their houses and buy new clothes for the year to be worn on the day.  Also it is traditional to visit others in their houses with preference given to the oldest member of the family then making the way down to friends.  Similar to the idea in the west of what you do on New Years Day will be what you do the rest of the year, a happy day means a good year while fights indicate a year ending badly.

I wish I could take more time but just can not at the moment so please take a look at some of these links.

Link

Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norouz



General

http://www.persia.org/Culture/nowruz.html

http://www.angelfire.com/rnb/bashiri/Nowruz/NowRuz.html

Falles

In Valencia, on March 19th, the culmination of the Falles Festival occurs.  In this celebration effigies of very large proportion are created to be burned.  These creations are created by local neighborhood associations that come together and spend all year in both the design and the raising of money for the building of the Falle, their name.  Today they take the shape of something that the group building the structures wish to bring attention to, it may be someone who they feel has done wrong and needs to be chided or it may be commentary on the times, but it is always in someway critical and satirical. 

The reason for this event's beginning is in question, one theory is that wood that was no longer needed due to the coming of spring would be burned in celebration, a spring celebration.  This would have been a pagan rite and as such frowned upon by the church but as this time coincided with Saint Joseph's Feast Day, the Patron Saint of Carpenters, the two were combined.  This was of course due to the necessity of carpenters to do the work in the beginning as a Falle would need to be created of wood.  Today of course other materials are used such as cardboard and wax but the connection still stands.

This festival is a time of great revelry and from one account at least, many fireworks are used to punctuate the event.

Links:

Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falles

General

http://www.fallas.com/historia/ingles.htm

http://www.fallasfromvalencia.com/

http://www.fallas.com/

Expropiación petrolera

This will be another short entry as I am not sure this is actually celebrated or observed as such or just the day an historic event happened.

March 18th is the day the the President of Mexico nationalized the oil industries in 1937 (I may be off by a year on this), it was known as Expropiación petrolera.  Up until this time all the oil companies in Mexico were from other countries there by taking the revenue back with them.  For a number of years after this many restrictions were put on Mexico because of this action in hopes to reverse the decision.  This action was not reversed and it allowed for Mexico's oil company, Petróleos Mexicanos, to become one of the largest petroleum companies in the world.

Links:

Wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expropiaci%C3%B3n_Petrolera

General

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=es&u=http://redescolar.ilce.edu.mx/redescolar/act_permanentes/historia/html/expropiacion/index.htm&sa=X&oi=translate&resnum=3&ct=result&prev=/search%3Fq%3DExpropiaci%25C3%25B3n%2Bpetrolera%26hl%3Den%26rls%3Dcom.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address%26rlz%3D1I7GGLR%26sa%3DG