2. We share the same holidays
• New Year’s Eve & Day
• Valentine’s Day
• Easter
• Christmas
• Memorial Day/Veterans Day
3. We borrow other cultures’ holidays
• Chinese New Year
• Mardi Gras
• St. Patrick’s Day
• Cinco de Mayo
4. Some NYC Parades and Festivals
• Chinese New Year • North African
• St. Patrick’s Day • Bastille Day
• Phagway/Holi (Hindu) • Burmese
• Greek • Dominican
• Tartan Day (Scottish) • Peruvian
• Persian • Pakistan
• Sikh • Colombia
• Romania • Hong Kong
• Cinco de Mayo • India
• Asian/Pacific Heritage • West Indian
• Ukranian • Brazilian
• Ecuadorian • Honduran
• Norwegian-American • San Gennaro (Italian)
• Japan • German-American
• Turkish • Mexican
• Haitian-American • African-American
• Philippine • Korean
• Puerto Rican • Pulaski Day
• Russian Heritage • Greek
• Swedish • Nigerian
• Arab-American
5. States celebrate their own holidays
• King Kamehameha Day – Hawaii
• Patriots Day – Maine and Massachusetts
• San Jacinto Day – Texas
• Pulaski Day –Illinois
• Pioneer Day – Utah
6. We celebrate American holidays
• Martin Luther King Jr. Day
• Groundhog Day
• Presidents Day
• Flag Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Columbus Day
• Halloween
• Thanksgiving
• Kwanzaa
8. What happens if the groundhog sees his shadow?
(Six more weeks of winter.)
• Pennsylvania German custom from 18-19th c.
• Feb. 2 is 40 days after Christmas. Traditionally this was known as Candlemas, a
religious holiday to celebrate the presentation of Jesus at the temple.
“If Candlemas Day is clear and bright, winter will have another bite.
If Candlemas Day brings cloud and rain, winter is gone and will not come again."
9. Thanksgiving
4th Thursday of November
• 1621 – Plymouth, Massachusetts
• Colonists and Wampanoag
Indians celebrated the harvest
• In 1863 President Abraham
Lincoln issued a proclamation
making Thanksgiving an official
holiday:
"The First Thanksgiving at Plymouth,“ Jennie A. Brownscombe
“I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also
those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart
and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and
Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.”
10. Thanksgiving food
Turkey with stuffing
Cranberry sauce
Mashed potatoes
Sweet potatoes (yams)
Vegetables
Pumpkin pie
11. Veterans Day – November 11
"To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn
pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with
gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us
and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with
peace and justice in the councils of the nations.”
– President Woodrow Wilson, November 11, 1919
