The Importance of Heritage

Different months within our year are meant to celebrate different groups of people. Recently, we celebrated Black History Month in February, and Women’s History Month in March. Now, for April, we have many different heritages to learn about in homeschool preschool early childhood education, and celebrate!

What is heritage, you might ask? Heritage, simply put, are beliefs, actions, and thoughts all stemming from someone’s ethnic background. Heritage can bring all sorts of beautiful traditions into our world, and it is exciting that we get to celebrate so many during the month of April! Let’s look into just a few important holidays coming up, and what heritages they are associated with so we can share them with the homeschool preschool student in our lives.

Month long: Arab American Heritage Month, and Scottish-American Heritage Month

April contains two month long celebrations of heritage that you can use to teach your little one in their early childhood education! Arab American Heritage Month became a nationally recognized event in 2017. About 3.7 million Americans have Arab roots. Some famous Arab Americans include actors Salma Hayek, Rami Malek, and Tony Shalhoub.

Scottish-American Heritage Month, also known as Tartan Month, has its roots in the celebration of a declaration signed on April 6th back in 1320 for Scottish Independence. While this is a month long event, April 6th is still known as Tartan Day in the United States and around the world. About 6 million people in America have Scottish heritage, including 34 U.S. Presidents! The biggest celebration of Tartan Day is held in New York (where your little one might be attending an in-person preschool for early childhood education class, like Playgarden Prep!)

April 1st: First Day of Ramadan

Ramadan is a Muslim holiday that begins April 1st, and goes all the way until May 1st. This holiday symbolizes when the book of Islam, called the Quran, was written. A big part of Ramadan is fasting, which means no eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset. Of course, this excludes older family members, anyone who needs to eat because it’s medically necessary, and very young ones! Ramadan is a time to practice self reflection, and a wonderful reason for you and your little one perform selfless acts like helping your friends, family, and early childhood education community!

April 15th – 23rd: Passover

Passover is a Jewish holiday that is celebrated from April 15th – 23rd. This holiday symbolizes when Jewish people were freed from slavery in Egypt. During the first two days of passover, families get together to have a special meal called a Seder. This meal begins with the story of Passover, using a prayer called Haggadah. During the dinner, there are all sorts of foods eaten for the main meal. One of the most well known foods within this meal is matzo. Matzo is unleavened bread, and symbolizes the fact that when Moses lead the Jewish people out of Egypt, they had no time to let their bread rise.

April 17th: Easter

Easter is a Christian holiday. The day it is celebrated changes every year, though it is always between March 22 – April 25th. The week leading up to Easter contains a few special days such as Palm Sunday, Holy Thursday, and Good Friday. The Sunday after this week is always Easter, and it is a time to celebrate new lives. Friends and family might go to special church services, gather with friends and family for a special dinner, and do activities such as dye and hide eggs for egg hunts, which you can easily turn into preschool activities for homeschool preschool!

April 21st: First day of the Festival of Ridván

The Festival of Ridván is celebrated by people of the Bahá’í faith. The festival lasts 12 days, and commemorates the story of the founder of the religion spending 12 days in a garden called Ridván, where the religion of Bahá’í was founded. This week serves as a time for friends and family to take time off for work and school to celebrate and use music, art, drama, and prayer to celebrate the garden.

While these are just a few special days and events celebrated in April, there are many more to be discovered! Read here to discover more exciting April holidays. Though April is just one month, heritage is important every day of the year, and makes us all unique!

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