AUGUST 2023 MORE INFORMATION
Lammas is a festival to mark the annual wheat harvest within some English-speaking countries in the Northern Hemisphere. Transfiguration of the Lord, or Feast of the Transfiguration, is celebrated by various Christian denominations. The feast day is dedicated to the transfiguration of Jesus. Obon, or Ullambana, is a Buddhist festival and Japanese custom that honors the spirits of ancestors. Assumption of Blessed Virgin Mary commemorates the bodily taking up of the Virgin Mary into heaven at the end of her earthly life according to the beliefs of the Catholic Church, Eastern, and Oriental Orthodoxy, as well as parts of Anglicanism. The Feast of the Dormition, which is also sometimes called the Assumption, commemorates the death, resurrection and glorification of Christ's mother. It proclaims that Mary has been "assumed" by God into the heavenly kingdom of Christ in the fullness of her spiritual and bodily existence. Marcus Garvey Day celebrates the birthday of the Jamaican politician and activist who is revered by Rastafarians. Garvey is credited with starting the Back to Africa movement, which encouraged those of African descent to return to the land of their ancestors during and after slavery in North America. Both International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition and the anniversary of the uprising in Santo Domingo (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) that initiated the abolition of slavery in the Caribbean are recognized on this day.
Women’s Equality Day commemorates the August 26th, 1920 certification of the Nineteenth Amendment to the US Constitution that gave women the right to vote. Congresswoman Bella Abzug first introduced a proclamation for Women’s Equality Day in 1971. Since that time, every US president has published a proclamation recognizing the 26th as Women’s Equality Day. Raksha Bandhan is a Hindu holiday commemorating the loving kinship between a brother and sister. “Raksha” means “protection” in Hindi and symbolizes the longing a sister has to be protected by her brother. During the celebration, a sister ties a string around her brother’s (or brother-figure’s) wrist and asks him to protect her. The brother usually gives the sister a gift and agrees to protect her for life.
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