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 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.

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

April contains two month long celebrations of heritage! 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 Selma Hayak, Rami Malek, and Tony Shaloub.

Scottish-American Heritage Month, also known as Tartan Month, was established back in 1320. While this is a month long event, the United States established April 6th as Tartan Day back in 1998. 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.

April 1st: First Day of Ramdan

Ramdan 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 Ramdan is fasting, which means no eating or drinking from sunrise to sunset. Of course, this excludes older family members, and very young ones! Ramadan is a time to practice self reflection, and a wonderful reason to perform selfless acts like helping their friends, family and community!

April 15 – 23rd: Passover

Passover is a Jewish holiday that is celebrated from April 15-23rd. 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 Haggdah. 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 17: 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 lifes. 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.

April 21st: First day of the Festival of Ridvan

The Festival of Ridvan 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 Ridvan, 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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